Store Single Photons in a Vapor Cell and Pass Them on Later? Yes, U. Basel Scientists Show

…To test the quantum memory with “quantum light” – that is, always precisely one photon – [the team] developed a dedicated single photon source that emits exactly one photon at a time…

…The single photon is then directed into the quantum memory where the photon causes more than a billion rubidium atoms to take on a so-called superposition state of two possible energy levels of the atoms…

…The photon itself vanishes in the process, but the information contained in it is transformed into the superposition state of the atoms… 

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