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arXiv:1302.5937

Unconventional photon blockade in coupled optomechanical systems

Vincenzo Savona

Published Feb 24, 2013• 6 citations
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Abstract

We show that in laser-driven coupled optomechanical systems, photon antibunching can occur under weak optomechanical coupling, contrarily to common expectation. This unconventional photon blockade originates from destructive quantum interference between different excitation pathways bringing from the ground to two-photon states. Using a quantum open-system approach, we study the antibunching as a function of driving field amplitude, temperature, and pure dephasing rate, and derive optimal values of the system parameters for its occurrence. These values are remarkably close to those characterizing optomechanical systems in some current experimental studies.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1302.5937

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We show that in laser-driven coupled optomechanical systems, photon antibunching can occur under weak optomechanical coupling, contrarily to common expectation. This unconventional photon blockade originates from destructive quantum interference between different excitation pathways bringing from the ground to two-photon states. Using a quantum open-system approach, we study the antibunching as a function of driving field amplitude, temperature, and pure dephasing rate, and derive optimal values of the system parameters for its occurrence. These values are remarkably close to those characterizing optomechanical systems in some current experimental studies.
We analyze the photon correlations in an optomechanical system containing two nonlinear optical modes and one mechanical mode which are coupled via a three-mode mixing. Under a weak driving condition, we determine the optimal conditions for photon antibunching in the weak-Kerr-nonlinear regime and find that the analytical calculations are consistent with the numerical results. The photon blockade effect is attributed to destructive quantum interference in the two-photon excitation pathways created as a result of the three-mode interaction.
The research article studies the unconventional photon blockade effect in a hybrid optomechanical system with an embedded spin-triplet state. The interaction between the optomechanical system and the spin state generates new transition paths for the destructive quantum interference of the two-photon excitation state. By analytically solving the Schrodinger equation and numerically simulating the master equation, it can be found that the modulated mechanical dissipation is essential for achieving the strong photon blockade in our system. Unlike the conventional cavity optomechanical system, the second-order correlation function g(2)(0) =0 can be obtained with the weak single-photon optomechanical coupling. By adjusting the system parameters, the strong photon blockade and the single-photon resonance can coincide, which indicates the hybrid system has the potential to be a high-quality and efficient single-photon source. Finally, the influence of the thermal noise on photon blockade is investigated. The results show that the second-order correlation function is more robust for the weaker phonon-spin coupling.
We theoretically study the photon blockade (PB) effect in a double-cavity optomechanical system with the two-photon driving. By analytical calculations and numerical simulations, the physical mechanisms of conventional photon blockade (CPB) and unconventional photon blockade (UPB) are discussed in detail. And then we obtain the optimal parameter conditions for PB. In our work, there exist both the CPB induced by strong nonlinear interaction and the UPB caused by quantum interference. In particular, we find that CPB and UPB can occur simultaneously under the same parameters. In addition, we also prove that the appropriate values of nonreciprocal coupling and two-photon driving are favorable to the improvement of PB. Our proposal provides an idea for simultaneously realizing CPB and UPB in the optomechanical system and offers a route for constructing high-quality single-photon sources.
Abstract This research investigates the unconventional photon blockade in a hybrid optomechanical system with an embedded spin‐triplet state. The self‐homodyning interference between squeezed quantum fluctuations produced by the emitter and the coherent fraction from the driving laser results in two‐photon suppression. Analytical solutions of the correlator equation and numerical simulations of the master equation reveal that modulated mechanical dissipation plays a crucial role in achieving strong single‐photon blockade. In contrast to conventional cavity optomechanical systems, a second‐order correlation function of can be achieved with weak single‐photon optomechanical coupling. By combining unconventional and conventional antibunching, the hybrid system achieves the convergence of maximal photon population, two‐photon interference, and suppression of higher‐order correlations. Additionally, the influence of the thermal noise on photon blockade is investigated, demonstrating greater robustness of the second‐order correlation under weaker phonon‐spin coupling.
The photon blockade based on weak nonlinearities is called unconventional photon blockade. The studies of the unconventional photon blockade in recent decades are all limited to Markovian approximation. In this paper, we propose a scheme to achieve a strong photon antibunching in non-Markovian reservoir. An exact non-Markovian master equation for the optical cavity coupled with a degenerate optical parametric amplifier (DOPA) is derived. We show that this unconventional photon blockade originates from the destructive interference between two paths which are formed by the DOPA pump and a driving field. Unconventional single-photon blockades that exhibit a transition from the non-Markovian to Markovian regime by controlling environmental spectral width regardless of the weakness of DOPA gain and driving field are found. We analytically derive an optimal condition for strong antibunching, which is in good agreement with that obtained by the full numerical simulation. The presented results then are compared with that given by Markovian approximation in the weak-coupling limit. Our scheme might have paved an avenue towards the investigations of unconventional photon blockades in many other non-Markovian quantum systems in quantum optics.
Photon antibunching is a quantum phenomenon typically observed in strongly nonlinear systems where photon blockade suppresses the probability of detecting two photons at the same time. Antibunching has also been reported with Gaussian states, where optimized amplitude squeezing yields classically forbidden values of the intensity correlation, g(2)(0)<1{g}^{(2)}(0)<1g(2)(0)<1. As a consequence, observation of antibunching is not necessarily a signature of photon-photon interactions. To clarify the significance of the intensity correlations, we derive a sufficient condition for deducing whether a field is non-Gaussian based on a g(2)(0){g}^{(2)}(0)g(2)(0) measurement. We then show that the Gaussian antibunching obtained with a degenerate parametric amplifier is close to the ideal case reached using dissipative squeezing protocols. We finally shed light on the so-called unconventional photon blockade effect predicted in a driven two-cavity setup with surprisingly weak Kerr nonlinearities, stressing that it is a particular realization of optimized Gaussian amplitude squeezing.