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Johannes Otterbach (1), Alexey V. Gorshkov (2), Thomas Pohl (3), Mikhail D. Lukin (2), Michael Fleischhauer (1)
1) Department of Physics, University of Kaiserslautern and Research Center OPTIMAS 2) Physics Department, Harvard University 3) Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems Due to their strong long-range interaction and high level of controllability Rydberg-atoms are especially well suited for applications in quantum-information. We study the interaction of single- or few-photon pulses in a coherently driven ensemble of Rydberg-atoms exhibiting a ladder-like linkage pattern. Under conditions allowing for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) the photons form quasi-particles, so-called dark-state polaritons. These particles posses an externally controllable group velocity many orders of magnitude smaller than the vacuum speed of light and form the basis of phenomena as stopped and stationary light. We investigate the effect of the strong Rydberg interactions on the polaritons and show how to create efficient photon phase gates and strongly correlated many-photon states. |
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