Quantum Interference between Photons and Single Quanta of Stored Atomic Coherence

Abstract

Quantum networks largely rely on beamsplitters to linearly mix identical photons from independent sources. The essential indistinguishability of these source photons is revealed by their bunching and the associated coincidence dip in the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. However, indistinguishability is not limited only to the same type of bosons. For the first time, we hereby observe in an atom-light beamsplitter interface, quantum interference between flying photons and a single quantum of stored atomic coherence (magnon), which can be transformed reversibly to a single photon for use in quantum memories. We demonstrate experimentally that the Hermiticity of this interface determines the type of quantum interference between photons and atoms. Not only bunching that characterizes bosons is observed, but, counterintuitively, fermion-like antibunching as well. The hybrid nature of the demonstrated magnon-photon quantum interface can be applied to versatile memory platforms and leads to controllable photon distribution in linear network which is fundamentally different from boson sampling.