Seconds-scale Light Storage

We report on achieving ultra-long lifetimes for coherent light storage. An optically thick sample of 87Rb confined in a far-off-resonance optical lattice is used as the storage medium. Ground state differential Stark shift is compensated via ``magic'' magnetic field technique. The observed 1/e lifetime for storage and retrieval protocol employing the clock (0-0) transition is 5 s. After the storage protocol is augmented by a dynamic decoupling with a sequence of microwave pi-pulses, the 1/e lifetime for storage of coherent light is further increased, up to 16 s.