Quantum storage of heralded single photons in a praseodymium-doped crystal

We report on experiments demonstrating the reversible mapping of heralded single photons to long-lived collective optical atomic excitations stored in a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal. A cavity-enhanced spontaneous down-conversion source is employed to produce widely nondegenerate narrow-band (˜2 MHz) photon pairs. The idler photons, whose frequency is compatible with telecommunication optical fibers, are used to herald the creation of the signal photons, compatible with the Pr3þ transition. The signal photons are stored and retrieved using the atomic frequency comb protocol. We demonstrate storage times up to 4.5 µs while preserving nonclassical correlations between the heralding and the retrieved photon. This is more than 20 times longer than in previous realizations in solid state devices, and implemented in a system ideally suited for the extension to spin-wave storage.