Pioneering work by quantum physicist Michael Fleischhauer published in Physical Review A "Milestone Collection"

Prof. Michael Fleischhauer heads the Theoretical Quantum Optics research group at TU Kaiserslautern. (Photo: Thomas Koziel, TUK)

The research on quantum memories for photons by Prof. Michael Fleischhauer, who leads the Theoretical Quantum Optics research group at TU Kaiserslautern (TUK), has received a prestigious accolade from the renowned journal "Physical Review A". First published in 2002 under the title "Quantum memory for photons: Dark-state polaritons", the paper now also earns a spot in the Milestone Collection on the occasion of the magazine's 50th anniversary. This recognizes the work retroactively as a groundbreaking contribution to quantum information processing with photons.

Already in the early 2000s, Fleischhauer, together with his research partner Prof. Mikhail Lukin, now a professor at Harvard University, theoretically predicted a new concept for storing photons. Simplified, they forecasted that under certain conditions, a light beam could be halted, thereby making the quantum state of the contained energy packets (photons) storable. These insights were published by the two scientists, among other works, in the aforementioned article in Physical Review A, inspiring numerous research teams to translate promising theory into practice.

The first work to successfully realize this approach (with Lukin's involvement) caused a stir in expert circles and even made it into The New York Times. The newspaper headlined at the time, "Scientists Stop Light". "Our research on quantum information processing with photons has since become a standard method for storing light and is still used in numerous systems today," explains Fleischhauer. "The reach we have achieved within the scientific community and the public is thanks to the fact that Physical Review A immortalized the related paper in the Milestone Collection. That is a special recognition for me."

Since its first implementation in atomic vapors, the method has been significantly developed. "The goal is to realize the storage mechanism in solid-state materials, miniaturize it, and increase its efficiency to enable practical applications such as a future quantum internet," says the Kaiserslautern researcher.

Further information about the original publication:

M. Fleischhauer, M.D. Lukin
Quantum memory for photons: Dark-state polaritons
Phys. Rev. A, 65, 022314 (2002)