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arXiv:1603.05494

Quantum choppers

Mikhail Pletyukhov, Kim G. L. Pedersen, Vladimir Gritsev

Published Mar 17, 2016• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

An optical chopper periodically interrupts a classical light beam. We propose a realizable quantum version of the optical chopper, where the time-periodic driving of the light-matter coupling is achieved through a nonlinear three wave mixing element. We theoretically investigate how our scheme can be used for the controllable shaping of few photon light. Using Floquet dynamics, we find strong periodic modulations of the transmission and reflection envelopes in the scattered few-photon pulses, including photon compression and blockade, as well as dramatic changes in the quantum light statistics. Our theoretical analysis allows us to explain these non-trivial phenomena as arising from non-adiabatic memory effects.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1603.05494

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An optical chopper periodically interrupts a classical light beam. We propose a realizable quantum version of the optical chopper, where the time-periodic driving of the light-matter coupling is achieved through a nonlinear three wave mixing element. We theoretically investigate how our scheme can be used for the controllable shaping of few photon light. Using Floquet dynamics, we find strong periodic modulations of the transmission and reflection envelopes in the scattered few-photon pulses, including photon compression and blockade, as well as dramatic changes in the quantum light statistics. Our theoretical analysis allows us to explain these non-trivial phenomena as arising from non-adiabatic memory effects.
We develop a Floquet scattering formalism for the description of quasistationary states of microwave photons in a one-dimensional waveguide interacting with a nonlinear cavity by means of a periodically modulated coupling. This model is inspired by the recent progress in engineering of tunable coupling schemes with superconducting qubits. We argue that our model can realize the quantum analog of an optical chopper. We find strong periodic modulations of the transmission and reflection envelopes in the scattered few-photon pulses, including photon compression and blockade, as well as dramatic changes in statistics. Our theoretical analysis allows us to explain these nontrivial phenomena as arising from nonadiabatic memory effects.
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Light is extensively used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has recently emerged as a versatile approach to modulate the electron wave function for applications in ultrafast electron microscopy. Here, we combine these two worlds by theoretically demonstrating that matter waves can be optically manipulated via inelastic interactions with optical fields, allowing us to modulate the translational wave function and produce temporally and spatially compressed atomic beam pulses. Specifically, we realize such modulation through stimulated photon absorption and emission by atoms traversing phase-matching evanescent optical fields generated upon light scattering by a nanostructure, but also via stimulated Compton scattering in free space without any assistance from material media. Our results support optical manipulation of matter waves as a powerful tool for microscopy, spectroscopy, and the exploration of novel fundamental phenomena associated with light-atom interactions.
Most phenomena around us can be explained by classical optics since photons interact weakly with atoms. When the interaction is strong enough where one photon affects the properties of other photons, we go to the regime of quantum photon-photon nonlinear optics. The work in this thesis explores this regime of physics. This paves the path to exploring strongly interacting many-body physics with photons which is still a largely unexplored domain. The ability to control strongly interacting photons is also of central importance in quantum science and engineering. We use the approach of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) in atomic ensembles to create strong interactions and demonstrate coherent control between single photons. Using EIT, we coherently map single photons onto the atoms which travel as coupled excitations of light and matter called dark-state polaritons. When the medium is optically dense, the polariton propagates as a massive particle with a velocity that is much smaller than the speed of light. These polaritons interact with each other via their atomic component. In this thesis, we show robust symmetry-protected collisions between photons that imprint a large phase of π/2 with little loss and extend the nature of photon-photon interactions to the repulsive regime, which are essential for quantum communication and metrology. We use the technique of photon blockade to make a fast optical detector of Rydberg states, directly demonstrating the use of quantum nonlinear optics for quantum computation. We also study the extensions of the attractive and repulsive photons for three particles shedding light into the formation of bound states and crystals of photons and paving the way to studying many-body physics of photons.
Light is used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive forces and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. Likewise, light interaction with free electrons has recently emerged as a versatile approach to modulate the electron wave function for applications in ultrafast electron microscopy. Here, we combine these two worlds, theoretically demonstrating that matter waves can be optically manipulated via inelastic interactions with optical fields. This allows us to modulate the translational part of the wave function and produce temporally and spatially compressed atomic beam pulses. We realize such modulation through stimulated photon absorption and emission by atoms traversing phase-matching evanescent optical fields generated upon light scattering by a nanostructure and via stimulated Compton scattering in free space without any assistance from material media. Our results support optical manipulation of matter waves as a powerful tool for microscopy, spectroscopy, and exploration of fundamental phenomena associated with light-atom interactions.