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arXiv:1012.4873 · Optics Express

Remnants of semiclassical bistability in the few-photon regime of cavity QED

Joseph Kerckhoff, Michael A. Armen, Hideo Mabuchi

Published Nov 16, 2011• 43 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Broadband homodyne detection of the light transmitted by a Fabry-Perot cavity containing a strongly-coupled (133)Cs atom is used to probe the dynamic optical response in a regime where semiclassical theory predicts bistability but strong quantum corrections should apply. While quantum fluctuations destabilize true equilibrium bistability, our observations confirm the existence of metastable states with finite lifetimes and a hysteretic response is apparent when the optical drive is modulated on comparable timescales. Our experiment elucidates remnant semiclassical behavior in the attojoule (~10 photon) regime of single-atom cavity QED, of potential significance for ultra-low power photonic signal processing.

DOI
10.1364/oe.19.024468

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Broadband homodyne detection of the light transmitted by a Fabry-Perot cavity containing a strongly-coupled (133)Cs atom is used to probe the dynamic optical response in a regime where semiclassical theory predicts bistability but strong quantum corrections should apply. While quantum fluctuations destabilize true equilibrium bistability, our observations confirm the existence of metastable states with finite lifetimes and a hysteretic response is apparent when the optical drive is modulated on comparable timescales. Our experiment elucidates remnant semiclassical behavior in the attojoule (~10 photon) regime of single-atom cavity QED, of potential significance for ultra-low power photonic signal processing.
Current research in single-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics largely emphasizes the input-output properties of strongly coupled systems, from normal mode splitting to photon blockade. But over the last decade, experiments have, with few exceptions, focused on relatively weak driving conditions. This thesis concentrates on a range of quantum nonlinear phenomena in the strong driving regime. In particular, I discuss the observation of random-telegraph phase switching in the light transmitted through a Fabry-Perot resonator containing one strongly coupled atom and 10-100 photons, confirming long-standing predictions of a phenomenon known as single-atom phase bistability. These results highlight the relevance of cavity quantum electrodynamics in the development of attojoule nanophotonic logic and signal processing. In addition, I consider a general class of bifurcation phenomena that are manifest within this physical setting. Here, focus is placed on the investigation of quantum-classical correspondence near semiclassical bifurcation points.
In the strong coupling regime of cavity QED where the characteristic damping rates are orders of magnitude below the coherent coupling, resolved multi-photon resonances can be observed for strong enough driving strength. In a certain frequency range, the external coherent drive field hits multi-photon resonances which correspond to very high order transitions that cannot be excited at the given power of the driving field. We found that in this range the cavity field evolves into a robust semiclassical solution which is the mixture of the vacuum and an excited quasi-classical state. The system is reminiscent of optical bistability, however, here a single atom produces a telegraph signal for the outgoing intensity by switching between two states with large photon number difference. We calculate this behavior also for the Tavis-Cummings model representing three qubits in an existing circuit QED experimental setting.
We utilize high-bandwidth phase-quadrature homodyne measurement of the light transmitted through a Fabry-Perot cavity, driven strongly and on resonance, to detect excess phase noise induced by a single intracavity atom. We analyze the correlation properties and driving-strength dependence of the atom-induced phase noise to establish that it corresponds to the long-predicted phenomenon of spontaneous dressed-state polarization. Our experiment thus provides a demonstration of cavity quantum electrodynamics in the strong-driving regime in which one atom interacts strongly with a many-photon cavity field to produce novel quantum stochastic behavior.
A common goal of recent research is the elucidation and control over quantum mechanical behavior in ever-larger physical systems. In this thesis I present an alternative target for investigating the quantum motion of macroscopic bodies: the collective motion of an ultracold atomic gas trapped within a high-finesse Fabry-Perot optical cavity in the single-atom strong-coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED). When ultracold atoms are trapped in the Lamb-Dicke regime, the cavity-mode structure selects a single collective degree of freedom that is at once actuated by the optical forces from cavity probe light and measured by the cavity’s optical properties. Dispersive optical bistability arising from collective motion of the atomic medium was observed. Measurement of the collective motion was subject to quantum measurement backaction by the quantum force fluctuations of the cavity optical field. The strength and spectrum of these backaction force fluctuations was measured by quantifying the cavity-light-induced heating rate of the intracavity atomic ensemble, finding quantitative agreement with the expected heating rate from quantum optical fluctuations. Dynamical phenomena in the optomechanical system were explored experimentally and theoretically. Quantum limited measurements are discussed and were
We consider an optomechanical system composed of a trapped ion dispersively coupled to a single mode of a pumped optical cavity. We focus on a parameter range for which the semiclassical description predicts two clearly distinct equilibrium configurations in the limits of small and large photon pumping, while a bistable regime is found for intermediate pumping. This semiclassical description, however, is not valid in close proximity to the system transitions or when the mean photon number is low. Here, we provide a numerical analysis of the fully quantum state in the few-photon regime, exploring the features of the asymptotic state across the transition and analyzing possible markers of semiclassical bistability. We find an increase in the entropy of the system and of the entanglement in the transition region but no clear signatures of metastability in the spectrum of the evolution.
The combination of cold atoms and large coherent coupling enables investigations in a new regime in cavity QED with single-atom trajectories monitored in real time with high signal-to-noise ratio. The underlying ``vacuum-Rabi'' splitting is clearly reflected in the frequency dependence of atomic transit signals recorded atom by atom, with evidence for mechanical light forces for intracavity photon number <1<1<1. The nonlinear optical response of one atom in a cavity is observed to be in accord with the one-atom quantum theory but at variance with semiclassical predictions.