Nuclear quantum memory for hard x-ray photon wave packets.

Optical quantum memories are key elements in modern quantum technologies to reliably store and retrieve quantum information. At present, they are conceptually limited to the optical wavelength regime. Recent advancements in x-ray quantum optics render an extension of optical quantum memory protocols to ultrashort wavelengths possible, thereby establishing quantum photonics at x-ray energies. Here, we introduce an x-ray quantum memory protocol that utilizes mechanically driven nuclear resonant 57Fe absorbers to form a comb structure in the nuclear absorption spectrum by using the Doppler effect. This room-temperature nuclear frequency comb enables us to control the waveform of x-ray photon wave packets to a high level of accuracy and fidelity using solely mechanical motions. This tunable, robust, and highly flexible system offers a versatile platform for a compact solid-state quantum memory at room temperature for hard x-rays.

An evidence of local structural disorder across spin-reorientation transition in DyFeO3: an extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) study.

The present work is aimed at exploring the local atomic structure modifications related to the spin reorientation transition (SRT) in DyFeO3 orthoferrite exploiting x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. For this purpose we studied by XAFS the evolution of the local atomic structure around Fe and Dy as function of temperature (10-300 K) in a DyFeO3 sample having the SRT around 50-100 K. For sake of comparison we studied a YFeO3 sample having no SRT. The analysis of the extended region has revealed an anomalous trend of Fe-O nearest neighbour distribution in DFO revealing (i) a weak but significant compression with increasing temperature above the SRT and (ii) a peculiar behavior of mean square relative displacement (MSRD) [[Formula: see text]] of Fe-O bonds showing an additional static contribution in the low temperature region, below the SRT. These effects are absent in the YFO sample supporting these anomalies related to the SRT. Interestingly the analysis of Dy L 3-edge data also reveal anomalies in the Dy-O neighbour distribution associated to the SRT, pointing out a role of magnetic Re ions across [Formula: see text]. These results point out micro-structural modification at both Fe and Dy sites associated to the magnetic transitions in DFO, it can be stated in general terms that such local distortions across [Formula: see text] and magnetic Re3+ may be present in other orthoferrites exhibiting multiferroic nature.