Photonic quantum information technologies rely on quantum memory for long-lived storage and coherent manipulation of short pulses of non-classical light. The optical quantum memories explored over the past two decades are based on various coherent light–matter interaction schemes, but despite impressive progress, practical memories featuring efficient, broadband and long-lived operation remain elusive, due to the technical demands and inherent limitations of the established schemes. Here, we introduce a technique for high-speed quantum memory and manipulation that overcomes these obstacles. This scheme relies on dynamically controlled absorption of light via the ‘Autler–Townes effect’, which mediates reversible transfer between photonic coherence and the collective ground-state coherence of the storage medium. We experimentally demonstrate proof-of-concept storage and signal processing capabilities of our protocol in a laser-cooled gas of rubidium atoms, including storage of nanoseconds-long single-photon-level laser pulses for up to a microsecond. This approach opens up new avenues in quantum optics, with immediate applications on atomic and solid-state platforms.

光子量子信息技术依赖于量子存储器的长寿命存储和对非经典光的短脉冲的相干操纵。在过去的二十年中探索的光量子存储器基于各种相干的光-质相互作用方案，但是尽管取得了令人瞩目的进展，但由于技术要求和固有的局限性，具有高效，宽带和长寿命操作的实用存储器仍然难以捉摸。已建立的计划。在这里，我们介绍了一种克服这些障碍的高速量子存储和操纵技术。该方案依赖于通过“ Autler-Townes效应”对光的动态控制吸收，该效应介导了光子相干性与存储介质的集体基态相干性之间的可逆转移。我们通过实验证明了在激光冷却的atoms原子气体中我们协议的概念验证存储和信号处理能力，包括存储纳秒长的单光子级激光脉冲长达一微秒。这种方法为量子光学开辟了新的途径，并立即应用在原子和固态平台上。