2013/07/05 by Wenlan Chen, Kristin M. Beck, Robert Bücker +5 · 353 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computer science #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Photonics #Physics #Pulse (music) #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Resonator #Single-photon source #Telecommunications #Transistor #Transmission (telecommunications) #physics.atom-ph #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1238169
published in Science 341(6147), 768-770 (American Association for the Advancement of Science) · 20 pages, 5 figures. Published in Science. Includes supplemental information
openalex publication_date 2013/07/05 · arxiv created 2014/01/14 · arxiv updated 2014/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
The realization of an all-optical transistor, in which one "gate" photon controls a "source" light beam, is a long-standing goal in optics. By stopping a light pulse in an atomic ensemble contained inside an optical resonator, we realized a device in which one stored gate photon controls the resonator transmission of subsequently applied source photons. A weak gate pulse induces bimodal transmission distribution, corresponding to zero and one gate photons. One stored gate photon produces fivefold source attenuation and can be retrieved from the atomic ensemble after switching more than one source photon. Without retrieval, one stored gate photon can switch several hundred source photons. With improved storage and retrieval efficiency, our work may enable various new applications, including photonic quantum gates and deterministic multiphoton entanglement.