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arXiv:1601.00886 · Physical Review Letters

One Photon Can Simultaneously Excite Two or More Atoms

Luigi Garziano, Vincenzo Macrí, Roberto Stassi, Omar Di Stefano, Franco Nori, Salvatore Savasta

Published Jul 22, 2016• 171 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider two separate atoms interacting with a single-mode optical or microwave resonator. When the frequency of the resonator field is twice the atomic transition frequency, we show that there exists a resonant coupling between one photon and two atoms, via intermediate virtual states connected by counterrotating processes. If the resonator is prepared in its one-photon state, the photon can be jointly absorbed by the two atoms in their ground state which will both reach their excited state with a probability close to one. Like ordinary quantum Rabi oscillations, this process is coherent and reversible, so that two atoms in their excited state will undergo a downward transition jointly emitting a single cavity photon. This joint absorption and emission process can also occur with three atoms. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.117.043601

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We consider two separate atoms interacting with a single-mode optical or microwave resonator. When the frequency of the resonator field is twice the atomic transition frequency, we show that there exists a resonant coupling between one photon and two atoms, via intermediate virtual states connected by counterrotating processes. If the resonator is prepared in its one-photon state, the photon can be jointly absorbed by the two atoms in their ground state which will both reach their excited state with a probability close to one. Like ordinary quantum Rabi oscillations, this process is coherent and reversible, so that two atoms in their excited state will undergo a downward transition jointly emitting a single cavity photon. This joint absorption and emission process can also occur with three atoms. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.
We consider two separate atoms interacting with a single-mode optical resonator. When the frequency of the resonator field is twice the atomic transition frequency, we show that there exists a resonant coupling between one photon and two atoms, via intermediate virtual states connected by counter-rotating processes. If the resonator is prepared in its one-photon state, the photon can be jointly absorbed by the two atoms in their ground state which will both reach their excited state with probability close to one. Like ordinary quantum Rabi oscillations, this process is coherent and reversible, so that two atoms in their excited state will undergo a downward transition jointly emitting a single cavity photon. This joint absorption and emission processes can also occur with three atoms. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.
Abstract In this paper, we present a theoretical investigation of multiphoton processes between a single atom and a multimode optical or microwave field. At first, we examine two-photon excitation, which involves the simultaneous excitation of two photons in different cavity modes by a single atom. We demonstrate that when the transition frequency of an atom is equal to the sum of the frequencies of two cavity modes, there exists a resonant coupling between the atom and the two-mode cavity field, which leads to the simultaneous excitation of the two cavity photons with the atom initially in its excited state. Moreover, we found that this coupling is coherent and reversible, allowing the atom initially in the ground state to simultaneously absorb all the photons from the cavities and transit to its excited state. Finally, we also show that this coherent interaction, in principle, can be extended to describe multiphoton processes between a single atom and a multimode cavity field, such as a three-mode cavity. The parameters used in the numerical simulation are based on the experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.
The coherent nonlinear process where a single photon simultaneously excites two or more two-level systems (qubits) in a single-mode resonator has recently been theoretically predicted. Here we explore the case where the two qubits are placed in different resonators in an array of two or three weakly coupled resonators. Investigating different setups and excitation schemes, we show that this process can still occur with a probability approaching one under specific conditions. The obtained results provide interesting insights into subtle causality issues underlying the simultaneous excitation processes of qubits placed in different resonators.
We study the dynamics of a system composed of two coupled cavities, each interacting with a single Rydberg atom. The interplay between Rydberg-Rydberg interaction and photon hopping enables the transition of the atoms from the collective ground state to the double Rydberg excitation state by individually interacting with the optical normal modes and suppressing the upconversion process between them. The atomic transition is accompanied by the two-photon absorption and emission of the normal modes. Since the energy level structure of the atom-cavity system is photon number dependent there is only a pair of states being in the two-photon resonance. Therefore, the system can act as a quantum nonlinear absorption filter through the nonclassical quantum process, converting coherent light field into a nonclassical state. Meanwhile, the vacuum field in the cavity inspires the Rydberg atoms to simultaneously emit two photons into the normal mode, resulting in obvious emission enhancement of the mode.
We show that an atom can be coupled to a mechanical oscillator via quantum vacuum fluctuations of a cavity field enabling energy transfer processes between them. In a hybrid quantum system consisting of a cavity resonator with a movable mirror and an atom, these processes are dominated by two pair-creation mechanisms: the counterrotating (atom-cavity system) and dynamical Casimir interaction terms (optomechanical system). Because of these two pair-creation mechanisms, the resonant atom-mirror coupling is the result of high-order virtual processes with different transition paths well described in our theoretical framework. We perform a unitary transformation to the atom-mirror system Hamiltonian, exhibiting two kinds of multiple-order transitions of the pair creation. By tuning the frequency of the atom, we show that photon frequency conversion can be realized within a cavity of multiple modes. Furthermore, when involving two atoms coupled to the same mechanical mode, a single vibrating excitation of the mechanical oscillator can be simultaneously absorbed by the two atoms. Considering recent advances in strong and ultrastrong coupling for cavity optomechanics and other systems, we believe our proposals can be implemented using available technology.
The coherent process that a single photon simultaneously excites two qubits has recently been theoretically predicted by Garziano et al. [L. Garziano, V. Macr\`{\i}, R. Stassi, O. Di Stefano, F. Nori, and S. Savasta, One Photon Can Simultaneously Excite two or More Atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 043601 (2016)]. We propose a different approach to observe a similar dynamical process based on a superconducting quantum circuit, where two coupled flux qubits longitudinally interact with the same resonator. We show that this simultaneous excitation of two qubits (assuming that the sum of their transition frequencies is close to the cavity frequency) is related to the counter-rotating terms in the dipole-dipole coupling between two qubits, and the standard rotating-wave approximation is not valid here. By numerically simulating the adiabatic Landau-Zener transition and Rabi-oscillation effects, we clearly verify that the energy of a single photon can excite two qubits via higher-order transitions induced by the longitudinal couplings and the counter-rotating terms. Compared with previous studies, the coherent dynamics in our system only involves one intermediate state and, thus, exhibits a much faster rate. We also find transition paths which can interfere. Finally, by discussing how to control the two longitudinal-coupling strengths, we find a method to observe both constructive and destructive interference phenomena in our system.