Room-temperature storage of electromagnetic pulses on a high-finesse natural spin-frequency comb

We have demonstrated the storage of electromagnetic pulses by exploiting a spin-echo quantum memory protocol. Therein, we have used an electron-nuclear spin ensemble of tetracyanoethylene anion radicals in toluene which has a natural periodic structure of narrow electron-spin resonance (ESR) hyperfine lines. Robust storage up to three temporal modes has been achieved with storage time similar to 1 mu s at room temperature on a conventional pulsed ESR spectrometer. On-demand retrieval of the stored field has been realized by holding the electron spins in a dephased state during the storage time. A longer storage time and the highest overall finesse similar to 20 of the ESR spectrum have been attained by using multipulse dynamical decoupling of the electron spins from the noisy environment. The obtained experimental results suggest that the electron-nuclear spin ensemble of radicals in liquid should be a promising system for the room-temperature quantum memory.