Geometric Quantum Information Storage Based on Atomic Ensemble

Abstract

Quantum information storage (QIS) is a physical process to write quantum states into a quantum memory (QM). We observe that in some general cases the quantum state can be retrieved up to a unitary transformation depicted by the non-Abelian Berry's geometric phase factor (holonomy). The QIS of photon with this geometric character can be implemented with the symmetric collective excitations of a $\Lambda$-atom ensemble, which is adiabatically controlled by a classical light with a small detuning $\delta$. The cyclic change of the controlled Rabi frequency $\Omega(t)$ with period $T=\frac{2n\pi}{\delta}$ accumulates additional geometric phases in different components of the final photon state. Then, in a purely geometric way the stored state can be decoded from the final state.