Few-photon storage on a second timescale by electromagnetically induced transparency in a doped solid

We present the experimental demonstration of light storage towards the single photon level at a long storage time by electromagnetically induced transparency in a rare-earth ion-doped Pr ^3+ :Y _2 SiO _5 crystal. We apply decoherence control by static magnetic fields and appropriately designed radio-frequency composite pulse sequences to prolong the storage time in the memory. A rare-earth ion-doped filter crystal prepared by optical pumping serves to efficiently separate the signal at the single photon level from optical noise. Multipass setups around the memory and the filter crystal improve the storage efficiency and filter selectivity. Already without decoherence control, the setup permits storage of single photons in the microsecond regime at a storage efficiency of 42%. With decoherence control we demonstrate storage of weak coherent pulses containing some 10 photons for up to 10 s at a storage efficiency of several percent. The experimental data clearly demonstrate the applicability of EIT light storage to implement a true quantum memory in Pr ^3+ :Y _2 SiO _5 at long storage times. The scientific findings and technical developments are of relevance also to other protocols and media for quantum information storage.