Coupling light to a nuclear spin gas with a two-photon linewidth of five millihertz

Abstract

Nuclear spins of noble gases feature extremely long coherence times but are inaccessible to optical photons. Here we realize a coherent interface between light and noble-gas spins that is mediated by alkali atoms. We demonstrate the optical excitation of the noble-gas spins and observe the coherent back-action on the light in the form of high-contrast two-photon spectra. We report on a record two-photon linewidth of 5$\pm$0.7 mHz (millihertz) above room-temperature, corresponding to a one-minute coherence time. This experiment provides a demonstration of coherent bi-directional coupling between light and noble-gas spins, rendering their long-lived spin coherence accessible for manipulations in the optical domain.

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• NASDUCK: New Constraints on Axion-like Dark Matter from Floquet Quantum Detector
• Constraints on axion-like dark matter from a SERF comagnetometer
• Strong coupling of alkali spins to noble-gas spins with hour-long coherence time
• Hot atomic vapors for nonlinear and quantum optics
• Quantum interface for noble-gas spins based on spin-exchange collisions
• Optical quantum memory for noble-gas spins based on spin-exchange collisions
• Inter-species spin-noise correlations in hot atomic vapors
• Suppressing the Decoherence of Alkali-Metal Spins at Low Magnetic Fields
• Enhanced coupling of electron and nuclear spins by quantum tunneling resonances
• Magnetic-field-independent spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetometer
• Two-photon Interface of Nuclear Spins Based on the Opto-Nuclear Quadrupolar Effect
• Quantum suppression of cold reactions far from the s-wave energy limit
• Optical protection of alkali-metal atoms from spin relaxation