Multimode Memories in Atomic Ensembles

Abstract

The ability to store multiple optical modes in a quantum memory allows for increased efficiency of quantum communication and computation. Here we compute the multimode capacity of a variety of quantum memory protocols based on light storage in ensembles of atoms. We find that adding a controlled inhomogeneous broadening improves this capacity significantly.

Published version. Many thanks are due to Christoph Simon for his help and suggestions. (This acknowledgement is missing from the final draft: apologies!)