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arXiv:1006.3814 · Physical Review A

Measuring photon-photon interactions via photon detection

Mihai Macovei

Published Dec 10, 2010• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Strong nonlinearity plays a significant role in physics, particularly in the design of novel quantum sources of light and matter as well as in quantum chemistry and quantum biology. In simple systems, the photon-photon interaction can be determined analytically. However, it becomes challenging to obtain it for more complex systems. Therefore, we show here how to measure strong nonlinearities by allowing the sample to interact with a weakly pumped quantized leaking optical mode. We found that the detected mean photon number versus pump-field frequency shows several peaks. Interestingly, the interval between neighboring peaks equals the photon-photon interaction potential. Furthermore, the system exhibits sub-Poissonian photon statistics, entanglement, and photon switching with less than one photon. Finally, we connect our study with existing experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.82.063815

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Strong nonlinearity plays a significant role in physics, particularly in the design of novel quantum sources of light and matter as well as in quantum chemistry and quantum biology. In simple systems, the photon-photon interaction can be determined analytically. However, it becomes challenging to obtain it for more complex systems. Therefore, we show here how to measure strong nonlinearities by allowing the sample to interact with a weakly pumped quantized leaking optical mode. We found that the detected mean photon number versus pump-field frequency shows several peaks. Interestingly, the interval between neighboring peaks equals the photon-photon interaction potential. Furthermore, the system exhibits sub-Poissonian photon statistics, entanglement, and photon switching with less than one photon. Finally, we connect our study with existing experiments.
The direct measurement of the Mandel parameter of weak laser pulses, with 10 ns pulse duration time and the mean number of photon per pulse nˉ\bar nnˉ being approximately 0.1, is investigated by recording every photocount event. With the Hanbury Brown and Twiss detection scheme, and not more than one photon per pulse being detected during the sample time by single-photon counters, we have found that the single mode diode laser with driving current lower than the threshold yields a sub-Poissonian statistics. In addition, when the diode laser driving current is much higher than the threshold, it is validated that the Mandel parameterQ C of the Poissonian coherent state is nearly −nˉ/2 - \bar n/2−nˉ/2 . The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction considering the measurement error.
Abstract In this paper, we investigate the photon correlations and the statistical properties of light produced by an optical cavity with an embedded quantum well interacting with squeezed light. We show that the squeezed source substantially improves the intensity of the emitted light and generates a narrowing and a duplication of the spectrum peaks. With a strong dependence on frequency detuning, the cavity produces considerably squeezed radiation, and perfect squeezing is predicted for weak light–matter interactions. Furthermore, the system under consideration presents a bunching effect of the transmitted radiation resulting from weak pumping of the coherent field. The results obtained may have potential applications in the fields of very accurate measurement and quantum computing.
A method for exploring photon-number entangled states with weak nonlinearities is described. We show that it is possible to create and detect such entanglement at various scales, ranging from microscopic to macroscopic systems. In the present architecture, we suggest that the maximal phase shift induced in the process of interaction between photons is proportional to photon numbers. Also, in the absence of decoherence we analyze maximum error probability and show its feasibility with current technology.
Squeezed light is expected to enable new quantum metrology and quantum computation applications, but the very high degree of experimental control required in practice places severe demands on the physical devices used to generate it. As ultrafast squeezed light sources are reaching an unprecedented degree of brightness and modal control, there is a strong interest in developing methods for their experimental characterization and theoretical understanding. In this thesis, we demonstrate both a new application and a new characterization technique for pulsed squeezed light. In the first part of the thesis, we present a new metrological application of pulsed squeezed light: quantum-enhanced label-free nonlinear microscopy. Stimulated emission microscopy (SEM) is a state-of-the-art pump-probe microscopy technique whose sensitivity is ultimately limited by shot noise in the probe beam. We propose to overcome this fundamental limitation by using a sub-Poissonian probe generated via optical parametric amplification. We demonstrate an intensity-squeezed sub-picosecond pulsed probe, and a simple stimulated emission microscope. Using this squeezed probe, sub-Poissonian statistics are observed in the SEM signal. After this proof-of-principle experiment, we aim to provide an improved design for a source of intensity-squeezed light. First, we develop a theoretical framework to simulate the photon statistics of a general sub-Poissonian source, considering pulsed and focused pump and seed fields in a unified spatio-temporal description. Next, we use this framework to suggest possible improvements to our previous squeezed probe. In the second part of this thesis, we provide new theoretical and experimental tools to analyze the high gain regime of pulsed spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). We study a waveguided source capable of generating twin-beams with tens of photons in a single spatio-temporal mode. We develop a framework to efficiently simulate SPDC for an arbitrary nonlinear gain, including the effect of parasitic nonlinearities such as self-phase modulation (SPM) of the pump and cross-phase modulation (XPM) between pump and twin-beams. We experimentally characterize our source using a new technique based on stimulated difference-frequency generation (DFG). In a type-II down-conversion process, we measure the frequency generation produced not only in the orthogonal polarization to the seeding beam, but also in its same polarization, which we interpret as cascaded difference-frequency generation. We argue that the additional information obtained in this measurement allows for a self-referenced estimation of the squeezing gain. Using these measurements, we accurately fit our theoretical model, revealing that, in the high gain regime, parasitic nonlinearities strongly affect the spectral structure of the twin-beams. We propose a simple strategy to reduce the impact of these nonlinearities on the modal structure of SPDC.
In this thesis, we study a system consisting of qubits—two-level quantum systems— interacting in the strong-coupling regime for a finite amount of time with a mode of the electromagnetic field inside a resonator. In particular, we are interested in the dynamics of the photon number and the possibility of controlling its statistics to produce sub-Poissonian light. To describe the system we use quantum trajectory theory where the time evolution of the state vector consists of both a continuous part and jumps, which account for the resonator losses. We also incorporate a variable number of qubits (changing in time) interacting with the mode. A computer simulation was developed and optimised to calculate the quantum trajectories. When one sets the qubits initially to the excited state and fixes the interaction time accordingly, so-called “trapping states” (photon numbers which block the addition of a photon by a single qubit) appear. These states are instrumental in the generation of sub-Poisson fields, for some cases even when the number of interacting qubits follow a Poisson process. We take advantage of the existence of trapping states to implement control protocols based on the measurement of the output field of the resonator, with the objective of lowering the uncertainty in the number of photons. Furthermore, we explore the possibility of creating a source of sub-Poissonian pulses by first using a random interaction time (which bypasses the trapping states) and then utilising the control protocols developed. We are able to achieve fields with a Mandel Q parameter of QM = −0.98 and a photon number of n 68.