Coherent storage and phase modulation of single hard x-ray photons using nuclear excitons

Abstract

Coherent storage and phase modulation of x-ray single-photon wave packets in resonant scattering of light off nuclei is investigated theoretically. We show that by switching off and on again the magnetic field in the nuclear sample, phase-sensitive storage of photons in the keV regime can be achieved. Corresponding $\pi$ phase modulation of the stored photon can be accomplished if the retrieving magnetic field is rotated by $180^{\circ }$. The development of such x-ray single-photon control techniques is a first step towards forwarding quantum optics and quantum information to shorter wavelengths and more compact photonic devices.

12 pages, 6 figures; v2 modified to match the published version, condensed to 4 figures, results unchanged

References in corpus (6)

• Silica-on-Silicon Waveguide Quantum Circuits
• Shaping the Phase of a Single Photon
• Electromagnetically induced transparency for x rays
• Single-Photon Entanglement in the keV Regime via Coherent Control of Nuclear Forward Scattering
• Electric dipole-forbidden nuclear transitions driven by super-intense laser fields
• Coherent control of nuclear forward scattering

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Coherence-enhanced optical determination of the ${}^{229}$Th isomeric transition