Linear Stark effect in Y3Al5O12 : Tm3+ crystal and its application in the addressable quantum memory protocol

We report an observation of the linear Stark effect in a Tm3+ : Y3Al5O12 crystal with the distribution of the Stark coefficient over the ion ensemble. We associate this effect with local lattice distortions near the positions of Tm3+ ions. Using this effect, the addressable storage of a series of weak light pulses in a cavity-assisted scheme of the revival of silenced echo quantum memory protocol is implemented. In this memory scheme, we also demonstrate storage of a light pulse on the few photon level. The application of an optical resonator makes it possible to increase the memory efficiency in this crystal and to reduce the minimal number of photons in the input signal pulse to 5.6 for the signal-to-noise ratio of 1 in the retrieved echo pulse. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The possible ways of the further improvement of the implemented memory scheme are also discussed.