Cascading quantum light-matter interfaces with minimal interconnection losses

The ability to interface multiple optical quantum devices is a key milestone towards the development of future quantum information processors and networks. One of the requirements for any of their constituent elements will be cascadability, i.e., the ability to drive the input of a device using the output of another one. Here, we report the cascading of quantum light-matter interfaces by storing few-photon level pulses of light in warm vapor followed by the subsequent storage of the retrieved field onto a second ensemble. We demonstrate that by using built-in purification mechanisms in the sequential storage, the final signal-to-background ratio can remain greater than one for weak pulses containing eight input photons on average.