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arXiv:0909.4005 · Physical Review A

Coherent spin control by electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations

Jing Wang, Ren‐Bao Liu, Bang-Fen Zhu, Lu Jeu Sham, Duncan G. Steel

Published May 23, 2011• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In coherent control, electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations usually cause coherence loss through irreversible spontaneous emission. However, since the dissipation via emission is essentially due to correlation of the fluctuations, when emission ends in a superposition of multiple final states, correlation between different pathways may build up if the ``which way'' information is not fully resolved (i.e., the emission spectrum is broader than the transition energy range). Such correlation can be exploited for spin-flip control in a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type three-level system, which manifests itself as an all-optical spin echo in nonlinear optics with two orders of optical fields saved as compared with stimulated Raman processes. This finding represents a class of optical nonlinearity induced by electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.83.053833

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In coherent control, electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations usually cause coherence loss through irreversible spontaneous emission. However, since the dissipation via emission is essentially due to correlation of the fluctuations, when emission ends in a superposition of multiple final states, correlation between different pathways may build up if the ``which way'' information is not fully resolved (i.e., the emission spectrum is broader than the transition energy range). Such correlation can be exploited for spin-flip control in a \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ-type three-level system, which manifests itself as an all-optical spin echo in nonlinear optics with two orders of optical fields saved as compared with stimulated Raman processes. This finding represents a class of optical nonlinearity induced by electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations.
The control of light-matter interaction at the quantum level usually requires coherent laser fields. But already an exchange of virtual photons with the electromagnetic vacuum field alone can lead to quantum coherences, which subsequently suppress spontaneous emission. We demonstrate such spontaneously generated coherences (SGC) in a large ensemble of nuclei operating in the x-ray regime, resonantly coupled to a common cavity environment. The observed SGC originates from two fundamentally different mechanisms related to cooperative emission and magnetically controlled anisotropy of the cavity vacuum. This approach opens new perspectives for quantum control, quantum state engineering and simulation of quantum many-body physics in an essentially decoherence-free setting.
The interaction of light and matter can be described by a set of coupled nonlinear evolution equations for the material and electromagnetic fields. In order to account for the effects of vacuum fluctuations, noise forces which cause spontaneous transitions have to be included. In these macroscopic systems various sources of noise besides fundamental quantum fluctuations exist which are of macroscopic origin. These cause fluctuations of the cavity dissipation as well as of the external pumping power. In the course of an adiabatic elimination procedure, these fluctuations appear as multiplicative noise in the equations of motion (e.g. for the field intensity, due to the nonlinearity of the interaction). While fluctuations of the cavity damping create noise linear in the field intensity, randomness in the pump strength causes fluctuations that depend nonlinearly on the light intensity. In this respect, the noise terms enter the equations of motion quite differently and have to be distinguished from spontaneous emission noise which is independent of the field strength, and is the basis of all traditional laser models.
The earliest studies on the subject of spontaneous emission from an excited atom via interaction with the vacuum modes of the radiation field go back to the early days of quantum mechanics. In view of the fundamental nature of the vacuum fluctuations, it was long thought that spontaneous emission could not be controlled. However, in 1946 Purcell noted that the spontaneous emission rate of the atom inside a resonant cavity can be substantially enhanced (or suppressed) over its free-space value. This is due to the dramatic change of the density of modes of the vacuum field in a cavity. The enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission in resonant and off-resonant cavities were observed experimentally in the 1980s. It was also realized in the 1950s and 1960s that coherent driving fields can dramatically change the characteristics of the spontaneous emission. The Autler-Townes doublet and Mollow three-peak spectrum are the examples of such behavior. A dramatic narrowing of the spectral peaks were discovered in driven multilevel atomic systems in the early 1990s. The role of atomic coherence in quenching spontaneous emission fluctuations in the context of laser physics was studied in the 1980s, via the correlated spontaneous emission laser (CEL). In this case atomic coherence results in the correlation of two spontaneous emission noise events so that the spontaneous emission quantum noise is eliminated in the relative linewidth. Later, it was “discovered” that the spontaneous emission can be suppressed through quantum interference between decay channels. Properly stated, this was rediscovered since it was first discovered and explained by Lamb in the 1940s. If the dipoles of two transitions from one upper level to two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission in an ordinary vacuum can be cancelled. In a nonuniform vacuum, e.g., a cavity, the quenching of spontaneous emission can be achieved, even for the orthogonal dipoles.
Introduction Ever since 1916/17 when Einstein argued [45] [46] that spontaneous emission must occur if matter and radiation are to achieve thermal equilibrium, physicists have believed that spontaneous emission is an inherent quantum mechanical property of atoms and that excited atoms inevitably radiate. This view, however, overlooks the fact that spontaneous emission is a consequence of the coupling of quantized energy states of atoms with the quantized radiation field, and is a manifestation of quantum noise or of emission ‘stimulated’ by ‘vacuum fluctuations’. An infinity of vacuum states is available to the photon radiated by an excited atom placed in free space, leading to the effective irreversibility of such emissions. If these vacuum states are modified, as for example by placing an excited atom between closely spaced mirrors or in a small cavity (essentially the Casimir effect), spontaneous emission can be greatly inhibited or enhanced or even made reversible. Recent advances in atomic and optical techniques have made it possible to control and manipulate spontaneous emission. A whole new branch of quantum optics called ‘cavity QED’ has developed since 1987 utilizing these dramatic changes in spontaneous emission rates in cavities to construct new kinds of microscopic masers or micromasers that operate with a single atom and a few photons or with photons emitted in pairs in a two-photon transition.