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arXiv:1206.0944 · Physical Review Letters

Photon Blockade in the Ultrastrong Coupling Regime

A. Ridolfo, Martin Leib, Salvatore Savasta, Michael J. Hartmann

Published Nov 8, 2012• 352 citations
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Abstract

We explore photon coincidence counting statistics in the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the atom-cavity coupling rate becomes comparable to the cavity resonance frequency. In this regime, usual normal order correlation functions fail to describe the output photon statistics. By expressing the electric-field operator in the cavity-emitter dressed basis, we are able to propose correlation functions that are valid for arbitrary degrees of light-matter interaction. Our results show that the standard photon blockade scenario is significantly modified for ultrastrong coupling. We observe parametric processes even for two-level emitters and temporal oscillations of intensity correlation functions at a frequency given by the ultrastrong photon emitter coupling. These effects can be traced back to the presence of two-photon cascade decays induced by counterrotating interaction terms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.109.193602

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We investigate the photon emission properties of the driven-dissipative Rabi model in the so-called ultrastrong- and deep strong-coupling regimes where the atom-cavity coupling rate ggg becomes comparable or larger than the cavity frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$. By solving numerically the master equation in the dressed-state basis, we compute the output field correlation functions in the steady-state for a wide range of coupling rates. We find that, as the atom-cavity coupling strength increases, the system undergoes multiple transitions in the photon statistics. In particular, a first sharp antibunching-to-bunching transition, occurring at $g\ensuremath{\sim}0.45{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$, leading to the breakdown of the photon blockade due to the counter-rotating terms, is shown to be the consequence of a parity shift in the energy spectrum. A subsequent revival of the photon blockade and the emergence of the quasicoherent statistics for even larger coupling rates are attributed to an interplay between the nonlinearity in the energy spectrum and the transition rates between the dressed states.
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Photon antibunching in the light scattered by single quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of quantum optics, providing an unequivocal demonstration of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Antibunching can be intuitively understood by the need for a two-level system lying in its lower state after emitting a photon to be re-excited into the upper one before a second emission can take place. Here we show that such a picture breaks down in the ultrastrong light–matter coupling regime, when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the bare emitter frequency. Specializing to the cases of both a natural and an artificial atom, we thus show that a single emitter coupled to a photonic resonator can emit bunched light. The result presented herein is clear evidence of how the ultrastrong coupling regime is able to change the nature of individual atoms.
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