Single-Photon Source with Near-Millisecond Memory based on Room-Temperature Atomic Vapour

Single-photon sources with built-in memory are prospective building blocks for long distance quantum communication [1] . Room-temperature systems offer advantages thanks to their technical simplicity and absence of cryogenic requirements. Atomic vapour cells are room-temperature candidates, however thermal atomic motion limits their coherence time. Reducing the motional effects with buffer gas typically leads to coherence times of microseconds, severely limiting the range of quantum networks.