Efficient atomic quantum memory for photonic qubits in cavity QED

We investigate a scheme of atomic quantum memory to store photonic qubits of polarization in cavity QED. It is observed that the quantum state swapping between a single-photon pulse and a Λ-type atom can be made via scattering in an optical cavity [T. W. Chen, C. K. Law, P. T. Leung, Phys. Rev. A 69 (2004) 063810]. This swapping operates limitedly in the strong coupling regime for Λ-type atoms with equal dipole couplings. We extend this scheme in cavity QED to present a more feasible and efficient method for quantum memory combined with projective measurement. This method works without requiring such a condition on the dipole couplings. The fidelity is significantly higher than that of the swapping, and even in the moderate coupling regime it reaches almost unity by narrowing sufficiently the photon-pulse spectrum. This high performance is rather unaffected by the atomic loss, cavity leakage or detunings, while a trade-off is paid in the success probability for projective measurement.