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Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor

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Temporally Localized Quantum Operations on Continuous-Wave Thermal Light.

Yunkai Wang¹, Yujie Zhang¹, Virginia O Lorenz¹

¹University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Physics, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA and Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST), Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|September 26, 2025

Summary

Researchers found that weak-source thermal light, under specific conditions, can be decomposed into localized pulses. This is crucial for quantum-enhanced astronomical interferometry using continuous-wave light.

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Area of Science:

Quantum optics
Astronomical interferometry
Classical and quantum physics

Background:

Previous studies indicated thermal light with a blackbody spectrum cannot be decomposed into independent localized pulses.
Quantum-enhanced astronomical interferometry relies on localized pulses, contrasting with continuous-wave stellar light.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the decomposition of weak-source thermal light into localized pulses.
To provide a quantum derivation of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem for finite bandwidth.
To establish criteria for neglecting pulse correlations and offer corrections when necessary.

Main Methods:

Quantum derivation of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem incorporating finite bandwidth.
Analysis of the first nonvacuum term in the state expansion for weak-source, flat-spectrum light.
Development of a criterion for assessing pulse correlations in general spectra.

Main Results:

In the weak-source limit with a flat spectrum, the first nonvacuum term forms a mixture of localized pulses.
A quantum derivation of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem is presented, validating operations on localized pulses with continuous-wave thermal light.
A criterion is established to determine when correlations between pulses can be ignored, with a corrected strategy provided otherwise.

Conclusions:

The study demonstrates that weak-source thermal light can be treated as localized pulses under certain spectral conditions.
This finding supports the use of localized pulses in quantum-enhanced astronomical interferometry.
A robust method is provided for handling spectral profiles and detector-defined pulse shapes in interferometry.