The mediated photon-photon interaction due to the resonant Kerr nonlinearity in an inhomogeneously broadened atomic vapor is considered. The time-scale for photon-photon scattering is computed and found to be determined by the inhomogeneous broadening and the magnitude of the momentum transfer. This time can be shorter than the atomic relaxation time. Effects of atom statistics are included and the special case of small-angle scattering is considered. In the latter case the time-scale of the nonlinear response remains fast, even though the linear response slows as the inverse of the momentum transfer.
We theoretically investigate the non-radiative heat transfer between two photonic crystals separated by a small gap in non-equilibrium thermal situation. We predict that the surface Bloch states coupling supported by these media can make heat exchanges larger than those measured at the same separation distance between two massive homogeneous materials made with the elementary components of photonic crystals. These results could find broad applications in near-field technologies.
Coupling of electric and magnetic responses of a scatterer known as bianisotropy enables rich physics and unique optical phenomena, including asymmetric absorption or reflection, one-way transparency, and photonic topological phases. Here we demonstrate yet another feature stemming from bianisotropic response, namely, polarization-dependent scattering of light by bianisotropic dielectric meta-atom with broken mirror symmetry, which yields a photonic analogue of spin Hall effect. Based on a simple dipole model, we explain the origin of the effect confirming our conclusions by experimental obser…
Nanoscale control over the second-order photon correlation function $g^{(2)}(τ)$ is critical to emerging research in nonlinear nanophotonics and integrated quantum information science. Here we report on quasiparticle control of photon bunching with $g^{(2)}(0)>45$ in the cathodoluminescence of nanodiamond nitrogen vacancy (NV$^0$) centers excited by a converged electron beam in an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. Plasmon-mediated NV$^0$ cathodoluminescence exhibits a 16-fold increase in luminescence intensity correlated with a three fold reduction in photon bunch…
The photon blockade is a hallmark of quantum light transport through a single two-level system that can accomodate only one photon. Here, we theoretically show that two-photon transmission can be suppressed even for a seemingly classical system with large number of quantum dots in a cavity when the biexciton nonlinearity is taken into account. We reveal the nonmonotonous dependence of the second-order correlation function of the transmitted photons on the biexciton binding energy. The blockade is realized by proper tuning the biexciton resonance that controls the collective superradiant modes.
We predict the existence of a novel interaction-induced spatial localization in a periodic array of qubits coupled to a waveguide. This localization can be described as a quantum analogue of a self-induced optical lattice between two indistinguishable photons, where one photon creates a standing wave that traps the other photon. The localization is caused by the interplay between on-site repulsion due to the photon blockade and the waveguide-mediated long-range coupling between the qubits.
We report a photon number resolving detector using two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) based transistors. When the photon pulses impinge on the absorption region, the generated phonons dissipate ballistically in the 2DEG toward the trench isolated nanowire transistors near the surface. The phonon-electron interaction induces a positive conductance in the transistors, resulting in a current increase. With this principle, we obtain an internal quantum efficiency for this type of detector of up to 85%.
We show that the scattering interaction between a high energy electron and a photon can be strongly enhanced by different types of localized plasmons in a non-trivial way. The scattering interaction is predicted by an eigen-response theory, numerically verified by finite-difference-time-domain simulation, and experimentally verified by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. We find that the scattering interaction associated with dark plasmons can be as strong as that of bright plasmons. Such a strong interaction may offer new opportunities to improve single-plasmon detection and high-resolution cha…
We show that photons propagating through a Rydberg-dressed atomic ensemble can exchange its spin state with a single atom. Such a spin-exchange collision exhibits both dissipative and coherent features, depending on the interaction strength. For strong interaction, the collision dissipatively drives the system into an entangled dark state of the photon with an atom. In the weak interaction regime, the scattering coherently flips the spin of a single photon in the multi-photon input pulse, demonstrating a generic single-photon subtracting process. An analytic analysis of this process reveals a …
We describe how a structured photonic medium controls the spontaneous emission rate from an excited quantum dot in the presence of electron-phonon coupling. We analyze this problem using a polaron transformed master equation and we consider specific examples of a photonic crystal cavity and a coupled cavity waveguide. We find that when the relaxation times of the photon and phonon baths are comparable, phonons influence spontaneous emission in a non-trivial way. We demonstrate why and how the broadband frequency dependence of the local photon density of states determines the photon emission ra…
We propose a scheme generating robust squeezed light by using double cavity optomechanical system driven by a blue detuned laser in one cavity and by a red detuned laser in the other. This double cavity system is shown to mimic effectively an interaction that is similar to the one for the downconverter, which is known to be a source of strong squeezing for the light fields. There are however distinctions as the phonons, which lead to such an interaction, can contribute to the quantum noise. We show that the squeezing of the output fields in the order of $10$dB can be achieved even at the mirro…
Advancing quantum information, communication and sensing relies on the generation and control of quantum correlations in complementary degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate the preparation of electron-photon pair states using the phase-matched interaction of free electrons with the evanescent vacuum field of a photonic-chip-based optical microresonator. Spontaneous inelastic scattering produces intracavity photons coincident with energy-shifted electrons. Harnessing these pairs for correlation-enhanced imaging, we achieve a two-orders of magnitude contrast improvement in cavity-mode mapping…
This article discusses self-organization in cold atoms via light-mediated interactions induced by feedback from a single retro-reflecting mirror. Diffractive dephasing between the pump beam and the spontaneous sidebands selects the lattice period. Spontaneous breaking of the rotational and translational symmetry occur in the 2D plane transverse to the pump. We elucidate how diffractive ripples couple sites on the self-induced atomic lattice. The nonlinear phase shift of the atomic cloud imprinted onto the optical beam is the parameter determining coupling strength. The interaction can be tailo…
