WORK BY QUANTUM PHYSICIST MICHAEL FLEISCHHAUER INCLUDED IN PHYSICAL REVIEW A "MILESTONE COLLECTION

The research on quantum storage for photons by Prof. Michael Fleischhauer, who heads the Theoretical Quantum Optics group at the TU Kaiserslautern (TUK), has been acclaimed by the renowned journal "Physical Review A". 2002 under the title "Quantum memory for photons: Dark-state polaritons" published for the first time in 2002, the paper now also receives a place in the Milestone Collection on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the magazine. Thus Physical Review A retrospectively acknowledges the work as groundbreaking for quantum information processing with photons.

Back in the early 2000s, Fleischhauer and his research partner Prof. Mikhail Lukin, now professor at Harvard University, predicted a new concept for storing photons theoretically. In simplified terms, they predicted that a beam of light could be stopped under certain conditions and in this way the quantum state of the energy packets (photons) contained in it could be made storable. These findings were published by the two scientists, among others in the above-mentioned article in the journal Physical Review A and inspired numerous research teams to put the promising theory into practice. 

The first work to successfully implement the approach (with the participation of Lukin) caused a sensation in professional circles and even made it into the New York Times. "Scientists bring light to a standstill" was the title of the daily newspaper at the time. "Our research on quantum information processing with photons subsequently established itself as a standard method for storing light and is still used today in numerous systems," explains Fleischhauer. "Among other things, it is thanks to the reach we have achieved in the scientific community and the public that Physical Review A has immortalised the associated paper in the Milestone Collection. This is a special recognition for me"."

Since the first implementation in atomic vapours, the method has been significantly further developed. "The aim is to realise and miniaturise the storage mechanism also in solid state materials and to increase its efficiency in order to use it for practical applications such as a future quantum internet," says the Kaiserslautern researcher.

Further information on the original publication:

M. Fleischhauer, M.D. Lukin

Quantum memory for photons: Dark-state polaritons

Phys.Rev.A, 65, 022314 (2002) 

Link to the Milestone Collection of Physical Review A:
journals.aps.org/pra/50th

Questions to:
Prof. Dr. Michael Fleischhauer 

Tel.: 0631 205-3206

E-Mail: mfleisch(a)physik.uni-kl.de