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The highlight of this study is the the transition energy to both the high-
dramatic increase in emission intensity that
results when the strain pulses are present.
By measuring the temporal evolution of
the emission intensity at various pumping
powers, the researchers found that the
largest relative increase occurs when the
pumping power, P, is set to match the lasing
threshold value, Pth. This increase is due
to the rise in the number of QDs that can
contribute to lasing, and also to the switch
in dominant photon emission process from
spontaneous to stimulated emission. At
P ≈ Pth, the QDs emit photons at the rate
of spontaneous emission, around 1.6 ns
before the arrival of the shaking pulse.
When the shaking pulse shifts the
photoluminescence peak of the QDs close
to the cavity mode, the optical gain of the
system increases and lasing begins, which
leads to a drastic increase in emission
intensity. On the other hand, when P << Pth
or P > Pth, the number of the QDs that
are coupled to the cavity increases in the
same manner, but the shaking pulse does
not change the photon emission process.
The researchers also observed quenching
of the photon emission due to the tensile
part of the strain pulse. These results
demonstrate that the shaking pulse shifts
Quantum memory
Phonons in diamond crystals
The demonstration that quantum information can be stored in a bulk-diamond crystal in the form of an optically
excited phonon gives researchers a new type of mechanical solid-state quantum memory to explore.
Charles Santori and Raymond G. Beausoleil
O
ver the past century, fundamental
research in physics has enabled
scientists to create a variety of
important devices that exploit quantum
behaviour 1, such as the laser and the
transistor. More recently, scientists
have sought to manipulate quantum
states directly in an attempt to realize
novel forms of communication and
information processing. In the field
of quantum information, one device
that remains elusive is a practical and
convenient quantum memory, in which
light is used to store and retrieve a
quantum state in matter. Although great
progress has been made in constructing
quantum memories in systems such as
cold atoms in magneto-optical traps, warm
atoms in vapour cells and rare-earth-doped
crystals at low temperatures2, researchers
are still striving to realize a solid-state
10
be possible to generate arbitrarily shaped
and low-energy sides, where the shift is
dependent on the size of the compressive
and tensile strains.
Although this demonstration of laser
mode feeding by shaking QDs is impressive
and promising, several outstanding issues
must be overcome in future research.
Effective generation of the shaking pulses
currently requires a high-energy laser pulse
of 10 mJ cm–2. The efficiency of the scheme
must also be improved.
The magnitude of the energy shift,
although relatively large, is still smaller
than the thermal energy (kBT) at
room temperature, which limits this
technique to cryogenic temperatures.
Another issue is the shaking pulse’s long
lifetime of ~100 ps, as this limits the
modulation frequency (the speed at which
the QD laser output can be switched on and
off) to about 10 GHz, which is lower than
the current standard modulation frequency
of 40 GHz.
There is much room to improve the
frequency and efficiency of the emission
intensity modulation. Brüggemann et al.
used unmodulated laser pulses from a
conventional mode-locked laser to excite
the shaking pulses. In future work, it may
quantum memory that can be operated at
room temperature.
Researchers have now uncovered a
new physical mechanism that is capable
of storing a quantum state, albeit for
a very short time, in the quantized
vibrations (phonons) of a bulk crystal.
Reporting in Nature Photonics 3,
K. C. Lee and collaborators at the
University of Oxford, UK, the National
Research Council of Canada and the
National University of Singapore have
demonstrated that non-classical states
of vibration in a bulk crystal of diamond
can be created by light, stored and
then read out. Unlike other schemes,
this phononic memory requires
no optical pumping, cooling or
specialized fabrication procedures and
operates across the entire visible and
near-infrared spectrum.
nature photonics | VOL 6 | JANUARY 2012 | www.nature.com/naturephotonics
shaking pulses by tailoring the temporal
shape of the short pulse. Appropriate
design of the sample structure may also
lead to improvements by exploiting
interference effects between strain pulses
that can occur at the QD location. For
example, constructive interference of strain
could be used to increase the magnitude
of the shift, and destructive interference
can be used to shorten the lifetime of
the shaking pulse. As Brüggemann et al.
point out 4, saser (the acoustic analogue of
the laser) technology may pave the way
for highly efficient light modulation at
terahertz frequencies.  ❒
Masahiro Nomura and Yasuhiko Arakawa are at
the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of
Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
e-mail: nomura@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
References
1. Gérard, J. M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1110–1113 (1998).
2. Reithmaier, J. P. et al. Nature 432, 197–200 (2004).
3. Nomura, M., Kumagai, N., Iwamoto, S., Ota, Y. & Arakawa, Y.
Nature Phys. 6, 279–283 (2010).
4. Brüggemann, C. et al. Nature Photon. 6, 30–34 (2012).
5. Seidl, S. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 203113 (2006).
6. Gell, J. R. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 081115 (2008).
7. Fuhrmann, D. A. et al. Nature Photon. 5, 605–609 (2011).
8. Thomsen, C., Grahn, H. T., Maris, H. J. & Tauc, J. Phys. Rev. B 34,
4129–4138 (1986).
By harnessing ultrafast Raman scattering
to provide a quantum interface between
states of light and matter 2, Lee et al. created
a short-lived (~7 ps) mechanical excitation
of the diamond crystal lattice and
confirmed its non-classical nature through
the statistics of correlations between
input and output photons. If significant
technical obstacles can be overcome, such
as extending the storage time (perhaps by
using isotopically enhanced diamond, or a
different material altogether), the approach
of Lee et al. could lead to a chip-scale
integrated photonic quantum memory or
information processor 4.
Several research groups have made
significant progress toward bringing
solid-state systems into clearly identifiable
quantum states of mechanical motion5. For
example, teams have employed quantum
optics techniques to cool tiny silicon

mechanical oscillators close to the lowest-
energy (‘ground’) state allowed by quantum
mechanics6. On the other hand, quantum
states spanning large distances can be
created by correlating the spins of separate,
free-space ensembles of atoms using
photons produced by Raman scattering
and simple linear optical devices such as
beamsplitters and photodetectors2,7.
Such an atomic ensemble can be
thought of as a quantum memory in which
a ‘write’ light field creates a collective
quantum superposition state in the vapour,
whose existence is heralded by a first
emitted photon, and a subsequent ‘read’
light field extracts that state as a second
emitted photon and then transmits it to
some other location. Photons scattered
from these fields by the atomic ensemble
have been shown to exhibit non-classical
correlations8. A similar collective
phenomenon in a condensed-matter system
capable of interacting with light fields could
become an important building block in
photonic quantum technologies4.
Lee et al.3 adapted the approach of
Jiang et al.8 to work in a solid by replacing
the spin-wave excitation of an atomic
vapour with a vibrational mode in bulk
diamond. In the optical phonon mode
of interest — the mode responsible for
the well-known diamond Raman line at
1,332 cm–1 — the two interpenetrating
face-centred-cubic sublattices of diamond
move in opposite directions. As illustrated
in Fig. 1, a write laser pulse generates (with
a probability of ~0.1) a scattered (Stokes)
photon, which, if detected, indicates that
a phonon has been created. The phonon,
whose well-defined energy and momentum
are determined by conservation rules,
is delocalized over the crystal to a size
defined by the laser focusing optics. Thus,
the phonon can essentially be considered
as a macroscopic mechanical excitation. A
subsequent read pulse converts this lattice
vibration into a second scattered (anti-
Stokes) photon. The broadband Raman
process in diamond, although quite strong
compared with those of other materials,
is nevertheless a weak process. In the
work of Lee et al., when the memory was
charged successfully, the probability of
producing an anti-Stokes photon in the
readout stage was around 0.1%. Cross-
correlation measurements of the emitted
Stokes and anti-Stokes photons showed that
the vibrational excitation of the crystal was
indeed non-classical in nature.
Of course, it is possible that the
quantum coherence of the optically
generated phonons does not span the
region where the light pulses overlap the
diamond sample; perhaps excitations
nature photonics | VOL 6 | JANUARY 2012 | www.nature.com/naturephotonics
Time
Write pulse
Optical phonon
Diamond lattice
Stokes photon
Figure 1 | The process demonstrated by Lee et al. Through Raman scattering, a ‘write’ laser pulse creates
a lower-energy Stokes photon (red) and an optical phonon in the diamond lattice. The optical phonon
is a single excitation of a vibration mode in which nearest-neighbour carbon atoms move in opposite
directions. A ‘read’ laser pulse then converts this phonon into an anti-Stokes photon (blue).
in different regions rapidly lose their
relative phase. Lee et al. used two different
techniques to determine the spatial
extent of the lattice vibrations. First, they
observed strong spectral interference
between Stokes photons scattered from the
write pulse and those scattered from the
read pulse. If the vibrations in different
regions of the crystal lattice became
incoherent between the two pulses,
then the two classes of events could be
distinguished, and thus the visibility of
interference fringes would be significantly
reduced10. Second, the emission direction
of both Stokes and anti-Stokes photons was
strongly peaked in the forwards direction
(that is, aligned with the write and read
pulses), which indicates that the optical
phonons were coherent across the sample11.
From a fundamental physics perspective,
this work demonstrates that correlated
phonon–photon pairs can be produced
and that single phonons in a crystal
can be optically detected. Furthermore,
the fact that this was achieved at room
temperature, made possible by the large
phonon energy of ~6kT, is important
for potential applications. In the case of
a quantum memory, Lee et al. note that
the computed time–bandwidth product
in their experiment — the ratio of the
7 ps phonon coherence lifetime to the
70 fs read/write pulse duration — has a
reasonably large value of around 100. In
principle, the coherence lifetime of this
system could enable the realization of
a memory for a chip-scale quantum
computer if the relevant gate time — the
total time required to detect a photon,
make a decision using classical logic and
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Read pulse
Anti-Stokes photon
then transmit the next write pulse — could
be performed within a few picoseconds.
This would require the distance between
the memory and the integrated electronic/
photonic circuitry to be less than the
corresponding light propagation distance
(a few hundred micrometres). The primary
decay mechanism for the optical phonons
in the work of Lee et al. is thought to
be the Klemens channel, by which the
optical phonon is converted into a pair of
lower-frequency acoustic phonons. The
researchers propose using superlattices of
alternating 12C and 13C to create a phononic
stop-band and thereby inhibit the acoustic
phonon decay products, requiring a
superlattice period of the order of a few
unit cells.
Despite these limitations, the work
of Lee et al. is important because it
demonstrates a new mechanical system
that exhibits quantum properties at room
temperature. A clear next step would
be to improve the readout efficiency by
using diamond optical microcavities9 to
enhance the Raman scattering process.
Further work could investigate whether
there are other mechanical systems capable
of operating at their quantum-mechanical
ground state at room temperature.
The optical phonon modes studied by
Lee et al. have a frequency of 40 THz and
an energy decay lifetime of 3.6 ps, which
corresponds to a resonance quality factor
of around 1,000. It is interesting to compare
this with other mechanical structures
operating at much lower frequencies
(and therefore requiring cooling); for
example, silicon nitride membranes have
been fabricated12 with 100 kHz resonant
11
news & views
frequencies and quality factors of up to
107, and silicon nanobeams have been
demonstrated13 with 3.7 GHz resonant
frequencies and quality factors of up to
105. One question to be addressed in
future work is whether a system exists that
exhibits both an extremely high resonant
frequency and a large quality factor — a
combination that would allow many
manipulation and read-out steps over
the coherence lifetime with no special
cooling mechanism.
Sensing
Giant laser gyroscope detects Earth’s wobble
Improvements to the German ring laser
gyroscope known as ‘G’ have allowed
scientists to measure the tiny periodic
shifts in the Earth’s axis of rotation, without
needing to rely on complex astronomical
observations or GPS satellites (Phys. Rev.
Lett. 107, 173904; 2011).
In the late 1800s, American amateur
astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler
discovered that the Earth’s axis of rotation
precesses over a period of about 14
months, akin to the way a child’s spinning-
top wobbles as it rotates. Although this
‘Chandler wobble’ is small (the geographic
north pole shifts by less than 10 m), it
is important to take into account for the
purposes of precise navigation.
Scientists usually measure the
Chandler wobble using schemes such
as very-long-baseline interferometry.
Although this technique works well,
it is expensive, requires a network
of telescopes and cannot provide
instantaneous readings. Now, scientists
from the Technical University of
Munich and the Geodetic Observatory
Wettzell in Germany and the University
of Canterbury in New Zealand have
measured the Chandler wobble
using a single self-contained optical
instrument — a large ring laser gyroscope
with 4-m-long arms, called G.
Ring laser gyroscopes sense rotation
by exploiting the Sagnac effect, a small
frequency difference between laser beams
travelling in opposite directions around
a ring cavity. Ring laser gyroscopes have
become useful tools for use in inertial
navigation systems, but their compact
size often limits their sensitivity.
G is a large, ultrasensitive HeNe ring
laser gyroscope whose custom-built
underground surroundings are designed
12
Charles Santori and Raymond G. Beausoleil are in
the Large-Scale Integrated Photonics research group,
HP Laboratories, 1501 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto,
California 94304-1123, USA.
e-mail: ray.beausoleil@hp.com
References
1. Controlling the Quantum World Ch. 6 (National Academies
Press, 2007).
2. Hammerer, K., Sørensen, A. & Polzik, E. Rev. Mod. Phys. 82,
1041–1093 (2010).
3. K. C. Lee. et al. Nature Photon. 6, 41–44 (2012).
4. O’Brien, J. L., Furusawa, A. & Vuckovic, J. Nature Photon. 3,
❒ 687–695 (2009).
to minimize external disturbances. The ring
laser took three years to build and began
operation in 2001. In order to optimize
its thermal and mechanical stability, the
system was built on a 10-tonne base made
from a special glass ceramic called Zerodur,
which has a very small thermal expansion
coefficient of less than 1.4 × 10–8 K–1.
The researchers upgraded G with
superior mirrors and encapsulated it
within a pressure-stabilizing vessel. This
improved the system’s sensitivity and
stability enough to allow the measurement
of fractional changes in rotation as small
as 1 part in 108. This performance level
is sufficient for detecting not only the
Chandler wobble but also other small
fluctuations in the Earth’s rotation. The
researchers plan to improve the gyroscope
further by using even better mirrors to
lower the quantum limit of its sensitivity.
“Although we have successfully
measured the Chandler wobble using G,
nature photonics | VOL 6 | JANUARY 2012 | www.nature.com/naturephotonics
5. Aspelmeyer, M., Gröblacher, S., Hammerer, K. & Kiesel, N.
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, A189–A197 (2010).
6. Cho, A. Science 327, 516–518 (2010).
7. Sangouard, N., Simon, C., de Riedmatten, H. & Gisin.
Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 33–80 (2011).
8. Jiang, W., Han, C., Xue, P., Duan, L. & Guo, G. Phys. Rev. A 69,
043819 (2004).
9. Faraon, A., Barclay, P. E., Santori, C., Fu, K.‑M. C. &
Beausoleil, R. G. Nature Photon. 5, 301–305 (2011).
10. Lee, K. C. et al. Diam. Rel. Mater. 19, 1289–1295 (2010).
11. Sørensen, M. & Sørensen, A. Phys. Rev. A 80,
033804 (2009).
12. Sankey, J. C., Yang, C., Zwickl, B. M., Jayich, A. M. &
Harris, J. G. E. Nature Phys. 6, 707–712 (2010).
13. Chan, J. et al. Nature 478, 89–92 (2011).
Geodetic Observatory Wettzell
the results are still around half an order
of magnitude away from what very-long-
baseline interferometry achieves with
respect to sensitivity, and more than
an order of magnitude away in terms
of long-term stability,” commented
Ulrich Schreiber, a scientist involved in
the project.
“The next phenomenon that we could
hope to measure is the Lense–Thirring
frame-dragging effect [a small change in
rotation due to general relativity]. This
is particularly challenging because it will
require the stability of the system to be
improved far beyond its current level.”
Interestingly, G is the not the largest
ring laser gyroscope ever built. That
record belongs to the UG-2 ring laser,
which encloses an area of 834 m2
and is located at Cashmere Cavern in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
OLIVER GRAYDON