Holographic storage of multiple coherence gratings in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We demonstrate superradiant conversion between a two-mode collective atomic state and a single-mode light field in an elongated cloud of Bose-condensed atoms. Two off-resonant write beams induce superradiant Raman scattering, producing two independent coherence gratings with different wave vectors in the cloud. By applying phase-matched read beams after a controllable delay, the gratings can be selectively converted into the light field also in a superradiant way. Because of the large optical density and the small velocity width of the condensate, a high conversion efficiency of >70% and a long storage time of >120 micros were achieved.