We explore the photon statistics of light emitted from a system comprising a single four--level atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity mode which is driven by a coherent laser field. In the weak driving regime this system is found to exhibit a photon blockade effect. For intermediate driving strengths we find a sudden change in the photon statistics of the light emitted from the cavity. Photon antibunching switches to photon bunching over a very narrow range of intracavity photon number. It is proven that this sudden change in photon statistics occurs due to the existence of robust quantum interference of transitions between the dressed states of the atom-cavity system. Furthermore, it is shown that the strong photon bunching is a nonclassical effect for certain values of driving field strength, violating classical inequalities for field correlations.
We show that the intracavity Kerr nonlinear coupler is a potential source of bright continuous variable entangled light beams which are tunable and spatially separated. This system may be realised with integrated optics and thus provides a potentially rugged and stable source of bright entangled beams.
We consider the dynamics of intracavity electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an ensemble of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms. By combining the advantage of variable cavity lifetimes with intracavity EIT and strongly interacting Rydberg dark-state polaritons, we show that such intracavity EIT system could exhibit very strong photon blockade effect.
We investigate a doubly resonant optical cavity containing a Kerr nonlinear medium that couples two modes by a cross phase modulation. One of these modes is driven by a single photon pulsed field, and the other mode is driven by a coherent state. We find an intrinsic phase noise mechanism for the cross phase shift on the coherent beam which can be attributed to the random emission times of single photons from the cavity. An application to a weak nonlinearity phase gate is discussed.
We study theoretically nonlinear effects arising from the presence of a Kerr-down conversion nonlinear crystal inside an optomechanical cavity. For this system we investigate the influences of the two nonlinearities, i.e., the Kerr nonlinearity and the parametric gain, on the dynamics of the oscillating mirror, the intensity and the squeezing spectra of the transmitted field, and the steady-state mirror-field entanglement. We show that in comparison with a bare optomechanical cavity, the combination of the cavity energy shift due to the Kerr nonlinearity and increase in the intracavity photon …
The output field from a continuously driven linear parametric oscillator may exhibit considerably more squeezing than the intracavity field. Inspired by this fact, we explore the nonclassical features of the steady-state output field of a driven nonlinear Kerr parametric oscillator using a temporal wave packet mode description. Utilizing a new numerical method, we have access to the density matrix of arbitrary wave packet modes. Remarkably, we find that even though the steady-state cavity field is always characterized by a positive Wigner function, the output may exhibit Wigner negativity, dep…
Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a ladder system involving a Rydberg level is known to yield giant optical nonlinearities for the probe field, even in the few-photon regime. This enhancement is due to the strong dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms and the resulting excitation blockade phenomenon. In order to study such highly correlated media, ad hoc models or low-excitation assumptions are generally used to tackle their dynamical response to optical fields. Here, we study the behaviour of a cavity Rydberg-EIT setup in the non-equilibrium quantum field formalism, …
We present an experimental study of cavity assisted Rydberg atom electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) using a high-finesse optical cavity ($F \sim 28000$). Rydberg atoms are excited via a two-photon transition in a ladder-type EIT configuration. A three-peak structure of the cavity transmission spectrum is observed when Rydberg EIT is generated inside the cavity. The two symmetrically spaced side peaks are caused by bright-state polaritons, while the central peak corresponds to a dark-state polariton. Anti-crossing phenomenon and the effects of mirror adsorbate electric fields are st…
We perform a quantum-theoretical treatment of cavity linewidth narrowing with intracavity electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). By means of intracavity EIT, the photons in the cavity are in the form of cavity polaritons: bright-state polariton and dark-state polariton. Strong coupling of the bright-state polariton to the excited state induces an effect known as vacuum Rabi splitting, whereas the dark-state polariton decoupled from the excited state induce a narrow cavity transmission window. Our analysis would provide a quantum theory of linewidth narrowing with a quantum field pulse…
We theoretically analyze the optical and optomechanical nonlinearity present in a hybrid system consisting of a quantum dot(QD) coupled to an optomechanical cavity in the presence of a nonlinear Kerr medium, and show that this hybrid system can be used as an all optical switch. A high degree of control and tunability via the QD-cavity coupling strength, the Kerr and the optomechanical nonlinearity over the bistable behavior shown by the mean intracavity optical field and the power transmission of the weak probe field can be achieved.The results obtained in this investigation has the potential …
Suppressing Cavity Frequency Noise Using a Kerr Nonlinearity
Kavli Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology（代尔夫特理工大学卡弗里纳米科学研究所）；Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学电气与软件工程系）
Operating the cavity-embedded Cooper pair transistor (cCPT) in the Kerr bistable regime, we demonstrate single-shot resolution between two charge states that are $0.09e$ apart. The measurement is performed with 94$\%$ fidelity in a duration of 3 $μ$s. The drive power at which the measurement is performed corresponds to only 20 intracavity photons on average in the high oscillation amplitude state of the cCPT, which is orders-of-magnitude smaller than that in rf-SETs. We find that the limiting factor for this mode of operation of the cCPT is the spontaneous fluctuation-induced switching between…
An optical resonator with intracavity Kerr nonlinearity can exhibit dispersive bistability suitable for all-optical switching. With nanophotonic elements it may be possible to achieve attojoule switching energies, which would be very attractive for ultra-low power operation but potentially problematic because of quantum fluctuation-induced spontaneous switching. In this manuscript I derive a quantum-optical model of two Kerr-nonlinear ring resonators connected in a coherent feedback loop, and show via numerical simulation that a properly designed `controller' cavity can significantly reduce th…
We report on Kerr nonlinearity and dispersive optical bistability of a Fabry-Perot optical resonator due to the displacement of ultracold atoms trapped within. In the driven resonator, such collective motion is induced by optical forces acting upon up to $10^5$ $^{87}$Rb atoms prepared in the lowest band of a one-dimensional intracavity optical lattice. The longevity of atomic motional coherence allows for strongly nonlinear optics at extremely low cavity photon numbers, as demonstrated by the observation of both branches of optical bistability at photon numbers below unity.
Photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits is a promising platform for investigating radiation-pressure coupling in novel parameter regimes and for the development of radio-frequency (RF) quantum photonics and quantum-limited RF sensing. So far, the intrinsic Josephson nonlinearity of photon-pressure coupled circuits has not been considered a potential resource for enhanced devices or novel experimental schemes. Here, we implement photon-pressure coupling between a RF circuit and a microwave cavity containing a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) which can be…
The field of cavity optomechanics has achieved groundbreaking photonic control and detection of mechanical oscillators, based on their coupling to linear electromagnetic modes. Lately, however, there is an uprising interest in exploring cavity nonlinearities as a powerful new resource in radiation-pressure interacting systems. Here, we present a flux-mediated optomechanical device combining a nonlinear Josephson-based superconducting quantum interference cavity with a mechanical nanobeam. We demonstrate how the intrinsic Kerr nonlinearity of the microwave circuit can be used for a counter-intu…
The interaction of a single-mode field with both a weak Kerr medium and a parametric nonlinearity in an intrinsically nonlinear optomechanical system is studied. The nonlinearities due to the optomechanical coupling and Kerr-down conversion lead to the bistability and tristability in the mean intracavity photon number. Also, our work demonstrates that the lower bound of the resolved sideband regime and the minimum attainable phonon number can be less than that of a bare cavity by controlling the parametric nonlinearity and the phase of the driving field. Moreover, we find that in the system un…
We describe a method to project photonic two-qubit states onto the symmetric and antisymmetric subspaces of their Hilbert space. This device utilizes an ancillary coherent state, together with a weak cross-Kerr non-linearity, generated, for example, by electromagnetically induced transparency. The symmetry analyzer is non-destructive, and works for small values of the cross-Kerr coupling. Furthermore, this device can be used to construct a non-destructive Bell state detector.
We study microwave response of a Josephson parametric oscillator consisting of a superconducting transmission-line resonator with an embedded dc-SQUID. The dc-SQUID allows to control the magnitude of a Kerr nonlinearity over the ranges where it is smaller or larger than the photon loss rate. Spectroscopy measurements reveal the change of the microwave response from a classical Duffing oscillator to a Kerr parametric oscillator in a single device. In the single-photon Kerr regime, we observe parametric oscillations with a well-defined phase of either $0$ or $π$, whose probability can be control…
In the field of cavity nano-optomechanics, the nanoresonator-in-the-middle approach consists in inserting a sub-wavelength sized deformable resonator, here a nanowire, in the small mode volume of a fiber microcavity. Internal resonances in the nanowire enhance the light nanowire interaction which provide giant coupling strengthes -- sufficient to enter the single photon regime of cavity optomechanics -- at the condition to precisely position the nanowire within the cavity field. Here we expose a theoretical description that combines an analytical formulation of the Mie-scattering of the intrac…
We present a novel cavity QED system in which a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is trapped within a high-finesse optical cavity whose length may be adjusted to access both single-mode and multimode configurations. We demonstrate the coupling of an atomic ensemble to the cavity in both configurations. The atoms are confined either within an intracavity far-off-resonance optical dipole trap (FORT) or a crossed optical dipole trap via transversely oriented lasers. Multimode cavity QED provides fully emergent and dynamical optical lattices for intracavity BECs. Such systems will enable explorations…
Micro- and nanoscale optical or microwave cavities are used in a wide range of classical applications and quantum science experiments, ranging from precision measurements, laser technologies to quantum control of mechanical motion. The dissipative photon loss via absorption, present to some extent in any optical cavity, is known to introduce thermo-optical effects and thereby impose fundamental limits on precision measurements. Here, we theoretically and experimentally reveal that such dissipative photon absorption can result in quantum feedback via in-loop field detection of the absorbed opti…
We give a theoretical study of a double-cavity system in which a mechanical resonator beam is coupled to two cavity modes on both sides through radiation pressures. The indirect coupling between the cavities via the resonator sets up a correlation in the optomechanical entanglements between the two cavities with the common resonator. This correlation initiates an entanglement transfer from the intracavity photon-phonon entanglements to an intercavity photon-photon entanglement. Using numerical solutions, we show two distinct regimes of the optomechanical system, in which the indirect entanglem…
Quantum states can be stabilized in the presence of intrinsic and environmental losses by either applying active feedback conditioned on an ancillary system or through reservoir engineering. Reservoir engineering maintains a desired quantum state through a combination of drives and designed entropy evacuation. We propose and implement a quantum reservoir engineering protocol that stabilizes Fock states in a microwave cavity. This protocol is realized with a circuit quantum electrodynamics platform where a Josephson junction provides direct, nonlinear coupling between two superconducting wavegu…
We report the experimental observations on the simultaneous EIT effects for probe and trigger fields (double EIT) as well as the large cross-phase modulation (XPM) between the two fields in a four-level tripod EIT system of the D1 line of 87Rb atoms. The XPM coefficients (larger than 2*10-5cm2/W) and the accompanying transmissions (higher than 60%) are measured at slightly detuning of the probe field from the exact EIT resonance condition. The presented system can be applied in the recently proposed quantum information processing with weak cross-Kerr nonlinearities.
One of the most studied model systems in quantum optics is a two-level atom strongly coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field stored in a cavity, a research field named cavity quantum electrodynamics or CQED. CQED has recently received renewed attention due to its implementation with superconducting artificial atoms and coplanar resonators in the so-called circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture. In cQED, the couplings can be much stronger than in CQED due to the design flexibility of superconducting circuits and to the enhanced field confinement in one-dimensional cav…
Microwave optomechanical circuits have been demonstrated in the past years to be extremely powerfool tools for both, exploring fundamental physics of macroscopic mechanical oscillators as well as being promising candidates for novel on-chip quantum limited microwave devices. In most experiments so far, the mechanical oscillator is either used as a passive device element and its displacement is detected using the superconducting cavity or manipulated by intracavity fields. Here, we explore the possibility to directly and parametrically manipulate the mechanical nanobeam resonator of a cavity el…
We investigate experimentally the lifetime of the photons in a cavity containing a medium exhibiting strong positive dispersion. This intracavity positive dispersion is provided by a metastable helium gas at room temperature in the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) regime, in which light propagates at a group velocity of the order of 10000 m/s. The results definitely prove that the lifetime of the cavity photons is governed by the group velocity of light in the cavity, and not its phase velocity.
We consider the quantum effect of slow light dark soliton (SLDS) in a cold atomic gas with defocuing Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We calculate the quantum fluctuations of the SLDS by solving the relevant non-Hermitian eigenvalue problem describing the quantum fluctuations, and find that only one zero mode is allowed. This is different from the quantum fluctuations of bright solitons, where two independent zero modes occur. We rigorously prove that the eigenmodes, which consist of continuous modes and the zero mode, are bi-orthogonal and constitute a com…
We investigate the quantum squeezing of slow-light solitons generated in a $Λ$-shaped three-level atomic system working under condition of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We show that due to the giant Kerr nonlinearity contributed from the EIT effect, significant quantum squeezing of the slow-light soliton can be realized within a short propagation distance. The results reported here are helpful for understanding the quantum property of slow-light solitons and for realizing light squeezing via EIT in cold atomic gases experimentally.
We study linear and nonlinear optical properties of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) medium interacting with two quantized laser fields for adiabatic EIT case. We show that EIT medium exhibits normal dispersion. Kerr and higher order nonlinear refractive-index coefficients are also calculated in a completely analytical form. It is indicated that EIT medium exhibits giant resonantly enhanced nonlinearities. We discuss the response of the EIT medium to nonclassical light fields and find that the polarization vanishes when the probe laser is initially in a nonclassical state of no s…
