A Digital Twin of Atomic Ensemble Quantum Memory Experiments Based on an Effective Quantum Channel Description

ABSTRACT Accurate performance estimation of experimentally demonstrated quantum memories is key to understand the nuances in their deployment in photonic quantum networks. While several software packages allow for accessible quantum simulation, they often do not account for the loss and noise in physical devices. We present a framework for modeling ensemble‐based atomic quantum memories using the quantum channel formalism. We provide a Kraus matrix representation of several experimentally implemented state‐of‐the art quantum memories and give an overview of their most important performance metrics. To showcase the applicability of this approach, we implement a memory‐assisted quantum token protocol within our simulation framework. Our digital twin model is readily extensible to other memory implementations and easily compatible with existing frameworks for performance simulation of experimental quantum networks.