The manipulation of individual, mobile quanta is a key goal of quantum communication; to achieve this, nonlinear phenomena in open systems can play a critical role. We show theoretically that a variety of strong quantum nonlinear phenomena occur in a completely open one-dimensional waveguide coupled to an N-type four-level system. We focus on photon blockade and the creation of single-photon states in the absence of a cavity. Many-body bound states appear due to the strong photon-photon correlation mediated by the four-level system. These bound states cause photon blockade, which can generate a sub-Poissonian single-photon source.
The manipulation of individual, mobile quanta is a key goal of quantum communication; to achieve this, nonlinear phenomena in open systems can play a critical role. We show theoretically that a variety of strong quantum nonlinear phenomena occur in a completely open one-dimensional waveguide coupled to an N-type four-level system. We focus on photon blockade and the creation of single-photon states in the absence of a cavity. Many-body bound states appear due to the strong photon-photon correlation mediated by the four-level system. These bound states cause photon blockade, which can generate a sub-Poissonian single-photon source.
Strong coupling between light and matter has been demonstrated both in classical cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems and in more recent circuit-QED experiments. This enables the generation of strong nonlinear photon-photon interactions at the single-photon level, which is of great interest for the observation of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena, the control of light quanta in quantum information protocols such as quantum networking, as well as the study of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems using light. Recently, strong coupling has also been realized in a variety of one-dimensional (1D) waveguide- QED experimental systems, which in turn makes them promising candidates for quantum information processing. Compared to cavity-QED systems, there are two new features in waveguide-QED: the existence of a continuum of states and the restricted 1D phase space, which together bring in new physical effects, such as the bound-state effects. This thesis consists of two parts: 1) understanding the fundamental interaction between local quantum objects, such as two-level systems and four-level systems, and photons confined in the waveguide; 2) exploring its implications in quantum information processing, in particular photonic quantum computation and quantum key distribution. First, we demonstrate that by coupling a two-level system (TLS) or three/fourlevel system to a 1D continuum, strongly-correlated photons can be generated inside the waveguide. Photon-photon bound states, which decay exponentially as a function of the relative coordinates of photons, appear in multiphoton scattering processes. As a result, photon bunching and antibunching can be observed in the photon-photon correlation function, and nonclassical light source can be generated on demand. In the case of an N-type four-level system, we show that the effective photon-photon interaction mediated by the four-level system, gives rise to a variety of nonlinear optical phenomena, including photon blockade, photon-induced tunneling, and creation of single-photon states and photon pairs with a high degree of spectral entanglement, all in the absence of a cavity. However, to enable greater quantum networking potential using waveguide- QED, it is important to study systems having more than just one TLS/qubit. We develop a numerical Green function method to study cooperative effects in a system of two qubits coupled to a 1D waveguide. Quantum beats emerge in photon-photon correlations, and persist to much longer time scales because of non-Markovian processes. In addition, this system can be used to generate a high-degree of long-distance entanglement when one of the two qubits is driven by an on-resonance laser, further paving the way toward waveguide-QED-based quantum networks. Furthermore, based on our study of light-matter interactions in waveguide- QED, we investigate its implications in quantum information processing. First, we study quantum key distribution using the sub-Possonian single photon source obtained by scattering a coherent state off a two-level system. The rate for key generation is found to be twice as large as for other sources. Second, we propose a new scheme for scalable quantum computation using flying qubits--propagating photons in a one-dimensional waveguide--interacting with matter qubits. Photonphoton interactions are mediated by the coupling to a three- or four-level system, based on which photon-photon -phase gates (Controlled-NOT) can be implemented for universal quantum computation. We show that high gate fidelity is possible given recent dramatic experimental progress in superconducting circuits and photonic-crystal waveguides. The proposed system can be an important building block for future on-chip quantum networks.
We study the generation of strongly correlated photons by coupling an atom to photonic quantum fields in a one-dimensional waveguide. Specifically, we consider a three-level or four-level system for the atom. Photon-photon bound states emerge as a manifestation of the strong photon-photon correlation mediated by the atom. Effective repulsive or attractive interaction between photons can be produced, causing either suppressed multiphoton transmission (photon blockade) or enhanced multiphoton transmission (photon-induced tunneling). As a result, nonclassical light sources can be generated on demand by sending coherent states into the proposed system. We calculate the second-order correlation function of the transmitted field and observe bunching and antibunching caused by the bound states. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed system can produce photon pairs with a high degree of spectral entanglement, which have a large capacity for carrying information and are important for large-alphabet quantum communication.
We investigate theoretically the photon statistics in a coupled cavity system mediated by a two-level atom. The system consists of a linear cavity weakly driven by a continuous laser, and a nonlinear cavity containing an atom inside. We find that there exists a photon blockade in the linear cavity for both parameter regimes where the coupling strength between the atom and the nonlinear cavity is greater (or less) than the dissipation rate of the linear cavity. We also extend our model by pumping the two cavities simultaneously and find that the conventional photon blockade is apparent in the linear cavity, whereas the unconventional photon blockade appears in the nonlinear cavity. These results show that our work has potential applications for a single photon source in a weakly nonlinear system.
A quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal resonator is used to investigate cavity quantum electro- dynamics phenomena in solid state physics. Nonlinear optical phenomena such as photon blockade and photon induced tunneling are observed in this system. The nonlinearity of this system is sensitive to intra-cavity photon numbers close to unity, and it has been used to demonstrate conditional phase shifts of 28° at a single photon level and a second order auto-correlation of g2(0) = 0.9 in the photon blockade regime.
We investigate the generation of nonreciprocal single photons in the chiral waveguide-cavity-emitter system. Due to the chirality of light-emitter interactions, photons in the left direction couple to a cavity which induces only linear optical effects, while photons in the right direction couple to a cavity-emitter system which can generate optical nonlinearity. In the regime of single-photon transmission, photons in the left direction are absorbed by the cavity at the resonance frequency, while photons in the right direction are transmitted due to the Rabi splitting. In the regime of two-photon transmission, optical linearity in the left direction cannot produce photon-photon interactions and does not change the statistics of photons. However, the effective repulsive interaction between photons can be produced by the optical nonlinearity in the right direction, suppressing two-photon transmission (photon blockade). Physically, the photon-photon bound state, which emerges due to the strong-photon-photon correlation mediated by the cavity-emitter system, plays a key role in generation of photon blockade at the resonance frequency. As a result, nonreciprocal single photons can be realized in the combination of single-photon transmission and photon blockade at the resonance frequency. Additionally, photon-photon interactions are sensitive to the width of the wave packet since photons should coincide at the interaction site.
We propose a novel scheme for realizing single-photon blockade in a weakly driven hybrid cavity optomechanical system consisting of a nonlinear photonic crystal. Sub-Poissonian statistics is realized even when the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength is smaller than the decay rate of the optical mode. The scheme relaxes the requirement of strong coupling for photon blockade in optomechanical systems. It is shown that photon blockade could be generated at the telecommunication wavelength.