TY - JOUR T1 - Photon storage in Lambda-type optically dense atomic media. I. Cavity model JF - Physical Review A Y1 - 2007 A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Axel Andre A1 - Mikhail D. Lukin A1 - Anders S. Sorensen AB - In a recent paper [Gorshkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 123601 (2007)], we used a universal physical picture to optimize and demonstrate equivalence between a wide range of techniques for storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in Lambda-type atomic media in free space, including the adiabatic reduction of the photon group velocity, pulse-propagation control via off-resonant Raman techniques, and photon-echo-based techniques. In the present paper, we perform the same analysis for the cavity model. In particular, we show that the retrieval efficiency is equal to C/(1+C) independent of the retrieval technique, where C is the cooperativity parameter. We also derive the optimal strategy for storage and, in particular, demonstrate that at any detuning one can store, with the optimal efficiency of C/(1+C), any smooth input mode satisfying T C gamma >> 1 and a certain class of resonant input modes satisfying T C gamma ~ 1, where T is the duration of the input mode and 2 gamma is the transition linewidth. In the two subsequent papers of the series, we present the full analysis of the free-space model and discuss the effects of inhomogeneous broadening on photon storage. VL - 76 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0612082v2 CP - 3 J1 - Phys. Rev. A U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033804 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Photon storage in Lambda-type optically dense atomic media. II. Free-space model JF - Physical Review A Y1 - 2007 A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Axel Andre A1 - Mikhail D. Lukin A1 - Anders S. Sorensen AB - In a recent paper [Gorshkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 123601 (2007)], we presented a universal physical picture for describing a wide range of techniques for storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in Lambda-type atomic media in free space, including the adiabatic reduction of the photon group velocity, pulse-propagation control via off-resonant Raman techniques, and photon-echo based techniques. This universal picture produced an optimal control strategy for photon storage and retrieval applicable to all approaches and yielded identical maximum efficiencies for all of them. In the present paper, we present the full details of this analysis as well some of its extensions, including the discussion of the effects of non-degeneracy of the two lower levels of the Lambda system. The analysis in the present paper is based on the intuition obtained from the study of photon storage in the cavity model in the preceding paper [Gorshkov et al., Phys. Rev. A 76, 033804 (2007)]. VL - 76 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0612083v2 CP - 3 J1 - Phys. Rev. A U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033805 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Photon storage in Lambda-type optically dense atomic media. III. Effects of inhomogeneous broadening JF - Physical Review A Y1 - 2007 A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Axel Andre A1 - Mikhail D. Lukin A1 - Anders S. Sorensen AB - In a recent paper [Gorshkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 123601 (2007)] and in the two preceding papers [Gorshkov et al., Phys. Rev. A 76, 033804 (2007); 76, 033805 (2007)], we used a universal physical picture to optimize and demonstrate equivalence between a wide range of techniques for storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in homogeneously broadened Lambda-type atomic media, including the adiabatic reduction of the photon group velocity, pulse-propagation control via off-resonant Raman techniques, and photon-echo-based techniques. In the present paper, we generalize this treatment to include inhomogeneous broadening. In particular, we consider the case of Doppler-broadened atoms and assume that there is a negligible difference between the Doppler shifts of the two optical transitions. In this situation, we show that, at high enough optical depth, all atoms contribute coherently to the storage process as if the medium were homogeneously broadened. We also discuss the effects of inhomogeneous broadening in solid state samples. In this context, we discuss the advantages and limitations of reversing the inhomogeneous broadening during the storage time, as well as suggest a way for achieving high efficiencies with a nonreversible inhomogeneous profile. VL - 76 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0612084v2 CP - 3 J1 - Phys. Rev. A U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033806 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Universal Approach to Optimal Photon Storage in Atomic Media JF - Physical Review Letters Y1 - 2007 A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Axel Andre A1 - Michael Fleischhauer A1 - Anders S. Sorensen A1 - Mikhail D. Lukin AB - We present a universal physical picture for describing storage and retrieval of photon wave packets in a Lambda-type atomic medium. This physical picture encompasses a variety of different approaches to pulse storage ranging from adiabatic reduction of the photon group velocity and pulse-propagation control via off-resonant Raman fields to photon-echo based techniques. Furthermore, we derive an optimal control strategy for storage and retrieval of a photon wave packet of any given shape. All these approaches, when optimized, yield identical maximum efficiencies, which only depend on the optical depth of the medium. VL - 98 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0604037v3 CP - 12 J1 - Phys. Rev. Lett. U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.123601 ER -