We present a quantum-theoretical treatment of biphoton generation in single-resonant type-II parametric down-conversion. The nonlinear medium is continuously pumped and is placed inside a cavity which is resonant for the signal field, but nonresonant for the idler deflected by an intra-cavity polarizing beam splitter. The intensity of the classical pump is assumed to be sufficiently low in order to yield a biphoton production rate that is small compared to the cavity loss rate. Explicit expressions are derived for the rate of biphoton generation and for the biphoton wave function. The output spectra of the signal and idler field are determined, as well as the second-order signal-idler cross-correlation function which is shown to be asymmetric with respect to the time delay. Due to frequency entanglement in the signal-idler photon pair, the idler spectrum is found to reveal the longitudinal mode structure of the cavity, even though the idler field is not resonant.
We calculate the properties of a biphoton source based on resonant backward-wave spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We show that the biphotons are generated in a single longitudinal mode having a subnatural linewidth and a Glauber correlation time exceeding 65 ns.
We demonstrate that single-photon as well as biphoton revivals are possible in a new class of dynamic optical systems-the so-called Glauber-Fock oscillator lattices. In these arrays, both Bloch-like oscillations and dynamic delocalization can occur which can be described in closed form. The bunching and anti-bunching response of path-entangled photons can be pre-engineered in such coupled optical arrangements and the possibility of emulating Fermionic behavior in this family of lattices is also considered. We elucidate these effects via pertinent examples and we discuss the prospect of experim…
We use a versatile model to evaluate the multipartite entanglement and the nonclassical light generation in optical parametric oscillators, exploring the differences between doubly and triply resonant cavity configurations. We demonstrate the entanglement of the pump mode with converted fields in both situations, and the fundamental differences of oscillators using parametric down conversion and four wave mixing processes as the intracavity amplification technique. The strong correlations involving the sidebands of the pump and converted fields gives the signatures of a rich dynamic of multipa…
We demonstrate a diode-laser-pumped system for generation of quadrature squeezing and polarization squeezing. Due to their excess phase noise, diode lasers are challenging to use in phase-sensitive quantum optics experiments such as quadrature squeezing. The system we present overcomes the phase noise of the diode laser through a combination of active stabilization and appropriate delays in the local oscillator beam. The generated light is resonant to the rubidium D1 transition at 795nm and thus can be readily used for quantum memory experiments.
We study the classical and quantum perturbation theory for two non--resonant oscillators coupled by a nonlinear quartic interaction. In particular we analyze the question of quantum corrections to the torus quantization of the classical perturbation theory (semiclassical mechanics). We obtain up to the second order of perturbation theory an explicit analytical formula for the quantum energy levels, which is the semiclassical one plus quantum corrections. We compare the "exact" quantum levels obtained numerically to the semiclassical levels studying also the effects of quantum corrections.
We present an experimental demonstration of simultaneous above-threshold oscillations of the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields together with the single pumping beam with rubidium atoms inside an optical standing-wave cavity. The triple resonant conditions can be achieved easily by making use of the large dispersions due to two-photon transitions in the three-level atomic system. This work provides a way to achieve high efficient nonlinear frequency conversion and the generated bright Stokes and anti-Stokes cavity output beams are potential resource for applications in quantum information science.
We show that an atom can be coupled to a mechanical oscillator via quantum vacuum fluctuations of a cavity field enabling energy transfer processes between them. In a hybrid quantum system consisting of a cavity resonator with a movable mirror and an atom, these processes are dominated by two pair-creation mechanisms: the counterrotating (atom-cavity system) and dynamical Casimir interaction terms (optomechanical system). Because of these two pair-creation mechanisms, the resonant atom-mirror coupling is the result of high-order virtual processes with different transition paths well described …
We present measurements of the cross-correlation function of photon pairs at 780 nm and 1367 nm, generated in a hot rubidium vapor cell. The temporal character of the biphoton is determined by the dispersive properties of the medium where the pair generation takes place. We show that short correlation times occur for optically thick samples, which can be understood in terms of off-resonant pair generation. By modifying the linear response of the sample, we produce near-resonant photon pairs, which could in principle be used for entanglement distribution.
We propose a scheme to generate macroscopic Schrödinger-cat states in a quantum harmonic oscillator (electromagnetic field or mechanical resonator) coupled to a quantum bit (two-level system) via a conditional displacement mechanism. By driving the qubit monochromatically, the oscillation of the qubit state modifies the effective frequency of the driving force acting on the oscillator, and a resonant or near-resonant driving on the oscillator can be achieved. The displacement of the oscillator is then significantly enhanced due to the small detuning of the driving force and can exceed that of …
Precise information about the temporal mode of optical states is crucial for optimizing their interaction efficiency between themselves and/or with matter in various quantum communication devices. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a method of determining both the real and imaginary components of a single photon's temporal density matrix by measuring the autocorrelation function of the photocurrent from a balanced homodyne detector at multiple local oscillator frequencies. We test our method on single photons heralded from biphotons generated via four-wave mixing in an atomic vapor…
We report experiments in which the vibrations of a micromechanical oscillator are coupled to the motion of Bose-condensed atoms in a trap. The interaction relies on surface forces experienced by the atoms at about one micrometer distance from the mechanical structure. We observe resonant coupling to several well-resolved mechanical modes of the condensate. Coupling via surface forces does not require magnets, electrodes, or mirrors on the oscillator and could thus be employed to couple atoms to molecular-scale oscillators such as carbon nanotubes.
We demonstrate vacuum squeezing at the D1 line of atomic rubidium (795 nm) with a tunable, doubly-resonant, monolithic sub-threshold optical parametric oscillator in periodically-poled Rb-doped potassium titanyl phosphate. The squeezing appears to be undiminished by a strong dispersive optical nonlinearity recently observed in this material.
We analyze the lowest achievable temperature for a mechanical oscillator (representing, for example, the motion of a single trapped ion) which is coupled with a driven quantum refrigerator. The refrigerator is composed of a parametrically driven system (which we also consider to be a single oscillator in the simplest case) which is coupled to a reservoir where the energy is dumped. We show that the cooling of the oscillator (that can be achieved due to the resonant transport of its phonon excitations into the environment) is always stopped by a fundamental heating process that is always domina…
In this work, we calculate the exact asymptotic quantum correlations between two interacting non-resonant harmonic oscillators in a common Ohmic bath. We derive \emph{analytical formulas} for the covariances, fully describing any Gaussian stationary state of the system, and use them to study discord and entanglement in the strong and weak dissipation regimes. We discuss the rich structure of the discord of the stationary separable states arising in the strong dissipation regime. Also under strong dissipation, when the modes are not mechanically coupled, these may entangle only through their in…
We cool the fundamental mode of a miniature cantilever by capacitively coupling it to a driven rf resonant circuit. Cooling results from the rf capacitive force, which is phase shifted relative to the cantilever motion. We demonstrate the technique by cooling a 7 kHz cantilever from room temperature to 45 K, obtaining reasonable agreement with a model for the cooling, damping, and frequency shift. Extending the method to higher frequencies in a cryogenic system could enable ground state cooling and may prove simpler than related optical experiments in a low temperature apparatus.
We analyze both analytically and numerically the resonant four-wave mixing of two co-propagating single-photon wave packets. We present analytic expressions for the two-photon wave function and show that soliton-type quantum solutions exist which display a shape-preserving oscillatory exchange of excitations between the modes. Potential applications including quantum information processing are discussed.
We consider a generalized Rabi model formed by two identical qubits interacting with a common oscillator mode. In the near resonance configuration where the oscillator frequency is close to the transition frequency of the qubit, we determine the ground state of the model approximately by using a variational method and a transformation method. Both methods are shown to provide good agreement with the exact numerical ground state for a range of coupling strength in the ultrastrong regime. In addition, we indicate how the accuracy of the approximation can be further improved by using perturbation…
We study a single two-level system coupled resonantly to an oscillator mode or a large spin. By adiabatically turning on a linear driving term on the oscillator or the spin, the eigenstates of the system change character and its ground state evolves into squeezed states of the oscillator or the spin. The robust generation of such states is of interest in many experimental systems with applications for sensing and quantum information processing.
We numerically study the quantum dynamics of a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric kicked harmonic oscillator. We observe that directed current of momentum and ballistic diffusion of energy coexist under the non-resonant conditions, whereas both the momentum and energy oscillate as damped cosine functions with identical frequencies under the resonant conditions. The research shows that the directed current of momentum and ballistic diffusion of energy arise from nearest-neighbor hopping between momentum eigenstates with the non-Hermitian driving, while the damped oscillations of momentum and energy origi…
We address the dynamics of nonclassicality for a quantum system interacting with a noisy fluctuating environment described by a classical stochastic field. As a paradigmatic example, we consider a harmonic oscillator initially prepared in a maximally nonclassical state, e.g. a Fock number state or a Schroedinger cat-like state, and then coupled to either resonant or non-resonant external field. Stochastic modeling allows us to describe the decoherence dynamics without resorting to approximated quantum master equations, and to introduce non- Markovian effects in a controlled way. A detailed com…
We analyze the above-threshold behavior of a mirrorless parametric oscillator based on resonantly enhanced four wave mixing in a coherently driven dense atomic vapor. It is shown that, in the ideal limit, an arbitrary small flux of pump photons is sufficient to reach the oscillator threshold. We demonstrate that due to the large group-velocity delays associated with coherent media, an extremely narrow oscillator linewidth is possible, making a narrow-band source of non-classical radiation feasible.
We describe a new mechanism of tunneling between period-two vibrational states of a weakly nonlinear parametrically modulated oscillator. The tunneling results from resonant transitions induced by the fast oscillating terms conventionally disregarded in the rotating wave approximation (RWA). The tunneling amplitude displays resonant peaks as a function of the modulation frequency; near the maxima it is exponentially larger than the RWA tunneling amplitude.
We propose novel types of parametric oscillators generating both three-photon and four-photon bright light which are accessible for an experiment. The devices are based on the cascaded down-conversion processes and consist of second-order media inserted in two-resonant mode cavity. Discussion of dissipation and quantum features of the system are performed by the quantum-jump simulation method and concerns to the Wigner functions. The phase-space multistabilities and critical threshold behavior of three- and four-photon subharmonics are obtained.
For many open quantum systems, a master equation approach employing the Markov approximation cannot reliably describe the dynamical behaviour. This is the case, for example, in a number of solid state or biological systems, and it has motivated a line of research aimed at quantifying the amount of non-Markovian behaviour in a given model. Within this framework, we investigate the dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a bosonic bath. We focus on Gaussian states, which are suitably treated using a covariance matrix approach. Concentrating on an entanglement based non-Mark…
Coupling a microscopic mechanical resonator to a nano-scale quantum system enables control of the mechanical resonator via the quantum system, and vice versa. The coupling is usually achieved through functionalization of the mechanical resonator but this results in additional mass and dissipation channels. An alternative is an intrinsic coupling based on strain. We employ here a monolithic semiconductor system. The nano-scale quantum system is a quantum dot; the mechanical resonator a microscopic trumpet which simultaneously optimizes the mechanical and photonic properties. The quantum dot tra…
We study the generalized Jaynes-Cummings model of quantum optics at the inversion-symmetry-breaking and in the ultrastrong coupling regime. With the help of a generalized multiphoton rotating-wave approximation, we study the stationary solutions of the Schrödinger equation. It is shown that the problem is reduced to resonant interaction of two position-displaced harmonic oscillators. Explicit expressions for the eigenstates and eigenvalues of generalized Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian are presented. We exemplify our physical model with analytical and numerical considerations regarding collapse an…
We address the consequences of backaction in the unidirectional coupling of two cascaded open quantum subsystems connected to the same reservoir at different spatial locations. In the spirit of [H. J. Carmichael, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2273 (1993)], the second subsystem is a two-level atom, while the first transforms from a driven empty cavity to a perturbative QED configuration and ultimately to a driven Jaynes-Cummings (JC) oscillator through a varying light-matter coupling strength. For our purpose, we appeal at first to the properties of resonance fluorescence in the statistical description …
Periodically-driven oscillators are commonly described in a frame co-rotating with the drive and using the rotating-wave approximation (RWA). This description, however, is known to induce errors for off-resonant driving. Here we show that the standard quantum description, using creation and annihilation of particles with the oscillator's natural frequency, necessarily leads to incorrect results when combined with the RWA. We demonstrate this on the simple harmonic oscillator and present an alternative operator basis which reconciles the RWA with off-resonant driving. The approach is also appli…
We show that nonlinear response of a quantum oscillator displays antiresonant dips and resonant peaks with varying frequency of the driving field. The effect is a consequence of special symmetry and is related to resonant multiphoton mixing of several pairs of oscillator states at a time. We discuss the possibility to observe the antiresonance and the associated multiphoton Rabi oscillations in Josephson junctions.
We investigate the nonlinear response of an anharmonic monostable quantum mechanical resonator to strong external periodic driving. The driving thereby induces an effective bistability in which resonant tunneling can be identified. Within the framework of a Floquet analysis, an effective Floquet-Born-Markovian master equation with time-independent coefficients can be established which can be solved straightforwardly. Various effects including resonant tunneling and multi-photon transitions will be described. Our model finds applications in nano-electromechanical devices such as vibrating suspe…
This book chapter describes the dynamics of a modulated oscillator for resonant and nonresonant modulation. Two types of resonant modulation are considered: additive, with frequency close to the oscillator eigenfrequency, and parametric, with frequency close to twice the eigenfrequency. It is shown that relaxation of the oscillator is accompanied by quantum noise, which leads to a finite-width distribution over quantum states even for T=0. The quantum noise also leads to switching between coexisting vibrational states via transitions over the barrier in phase space. The switching mechanism, qu…
We introduce a detection scheme for the state of a qubit, which is based on resonant few-photon transitions in a driven nonlinear resonator. The latter is parametrically coupled to the qubit and is used as its detector. Close to the fundamental resonator frequency, the nonlinear resonator shows sharp resonant few-photon transitions. Depending on the qubit state, these few-photon resonances are shifted to different driving frequencies. We show that this detection scheme offers the advantage of small back action, a large discrimination power with an enhanced read-out fidelity, and a sufficiently…
We study Kerr nonlinear resonators (KNR) driven by a continuous wave field in quantum regimes where strong Kerr interactions give rise to selective resonant excitations of oscillatory modes. We use an exact quantum theory of KNR in the framework of the Fokker-Planck equation without any quantum state truncation or perturbation procedure. This approach allows non-perturbative consideration of KNR for various quantum operational regimes including cascaded processes between oscillatory states. We focus on understanding of multi-photon non-resonant and selective resonant excitations of introcavity…
We investigate a hybrid electro-mechanical system consisting of a pair of charged macroscopic mechanical oscillators coupled to a small ensemble of Rydberg atoms. The resonant dipole-dipole coupling between an internal atomic Rydberg transition and the mechanics allows cooling to its motional ground state with a single atom despite the considerable mass imbalance between the two subsystems. We show that the rich electronic spectrum of Rydberg atoms, combined with their high degree of optical control, paves the way towards implementing various quantum-control protocol for the mechanical oscilla…
We report the plausibility of using quantum mechanical transitions, induced by the combined effect of Gravitational wave (GW) and noncommutative (NC) structure of space, among the states of a 2-dimensional harmonic oscillator, to probe the spatial NC geometry. The phonon modes excited by the passing GW within the resonant bar-detector are formally identical to forced harmonic oscillator and they represent a length variation of roughly the same order of magnitude as the characteristic length-scale of spatial noncommutativity estimated from the phenomenological upper bound of the NC parameter. T…
