[en] We show that portions of an image written into a gradient echo memory can be individually retrieved or erased on demand, an important step toward processing a spatially multiplexed quantum signal. Targeted retrieval is achieved by locally addressing the transverse plane of the storage medium, a warm ⁸⁵Rb vapor, with a far-detuned control beam. Spatially addressable erasure is similarly implemented by imaging a bright beam tuned near the ⁸⁵Rb D₁ line in order to scatter photons and induce decoherence. Under our experimental conditions atomic diffusion is shown to impose an upper bound on the effective spatial capacity of the memory. The decoherence induced by the optical eraser is characterized and modeled as the response of a two-level atom in the presence of a strong driving field. (paper)

[en] Using four-wave mixing in a hot atomic vapor, we generate a pair of entangled twin beams in the microsecond pulsed regime near the D1 line of ⁸⁵Rb, making it compatible with commonly used quantum memory techniques. The beams are generated in the bright and vacuum-squeezed regimes, requiring two separate methods of analysis, without and with local oscillators, respectively. We report a noise reduction of up to 3.8 ± 0.2 dB below the standard quantum limit in the pulsed regime and a level of entanglement that violates an Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen inequality. (paper)

[en] We use the quantum correlations of twin beams of light to investigate the fundamental addition of noise when one of the beams propagates through a fast-light medium based on phase-insensitive gain. The experiment is based on two successive four-wave mixing processes in rubidium vapor, which allow for the generation of bright two-mode-squeezed twin beams followed by a controlled advancement while maintaining the shared quantum correlations between the beams. The demonstrated effect allows the study of irreversible decoherence in a medium exhibiting anomalous dispersion, and for the first time shows the advancement of a bright nonclassical state of light. The advancement and corresponding degradation of the quantum correlations are found to be operating near the fundamental quantum limit imposed by using a phase-insensitive amplifier. (paper)