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arXiv:1610.02316 · Physical Review A

Interference control of perfect photon absorption in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Liyong Wang, Ke Di, Yifu Zhu, G. S. Agarwal

Published Jan 26, 2017• 36 citations
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Abstract

We propose and analyze a scheme for controlling coherent photon transmission and reflection in a cavity-quantum-electrodynamics (CQED) system consisting of an optical resonator coupled with three-level atoms coherently prepared by a control laser from free space. When the control laser is off and the cavity is excited by two identical light fields from two ends of the cavity, the two input light fields can be completely absorbed by the CQED system and the light energy is converted into the excitation of the polariton states, but no light can escape from the cavity. Two distinct cases of controlling the perfect photon absorption are analyzed: (a) when the control laser is tuned to the atomic resonance and creates electromagnetically induced transparency, the perfect photon absorption is suppressed and the input light fields are nearly completely transmitted through the cavity; (b) when the control laser is tuned to the polariton state resonance and inhibits the polariton state excitation, the perfect photon absorption is again suppressed and the input light fields are nearly completely reflected from the cavity. Thus, the CQED system can act as a perfect absorber or near-perfect transmitter and/or reflector by simply turning the control laser off or on. Such interference control of the coherent photon-atom interaction in the CQED system should be useful for a variety of applications in optical logical devices.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.95.013841

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We propose and analyze a scheme for controlling coherent photon transmission and reflection in a cavity-quantum-electrodynamics (CQED) system consisting of an optical resonator coupled with three-level atoms coherently prepared by a control laser from free space. When the control laser is off and the cavity is excited by two identical light fields from two ends of the cavity, the two input light fields can be completely absorbed by the CQED system and the light energy is converted into the excitation of the polariton states, but no light can escape from the cavity. Two distinct cases of controlling the perfect photon absorption are analyzed: (a) when the control laser is tuned to the atomic resonance and creates electromagnetically induced transparency, the perfect photon absorption is suppressed and the input light fields are nearly completely transmitted through the cavity; (b) when the control laser is tuned to the polariton state resonance and inhibits the polariton state excitation, the perfect photon absorption is again suppressed and the input light fields are nearly completely reflected from the cavity. Thus, the CQED system can act as a perfect absorber or near-perfect transmitter and/or reflector by simply turning the control laser off or on. Such interference control of the coherent photon-atom interaction in the CQED system should be useful for a variety of applications in optical logical devices.
It has been shown that perfect photon absorption can occur in the linear excitation regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED), in which photons from two identical light fields coupled into two ends of the cavity are completely absorbed and result in excitation of the polariton state of the CQED system. The output light from the cavity is totally suppressed by destructive interference and the polariton state can only decay incoherently back to the ground state. Here we analyze perfect photon absorption and the onset of optical bistability in the nonlinear regime of the CQED and show that perfect photon absorption persists in the nonlinear regime of the CQED below the threshold of optical bistability. Therefore perfect photon absorption is a phenomenon that can be observed in both linear and nonlinear regimes of CQED. Furthermore, our study reveals that optical bistability is influenced by input-light interference and can be manipulated by varying the relative phase of the two input fields.
We propose a scheme for controlling coherent photon absorption by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a three-level atom-cavity system. Coherent perfect absorption (CPA) occurs when time-reversed symmetry of lasing process is obtained with the destructive interference at the cavity interfaces. The frequency range of CPA is generally dependent on the decay rates of the cavity mirrors. The smaller decay rate of the cavity mirror causes the wider frequency range of CPA, and the needed intensity of the probe fields is larger to satisfy CPA condition for a given frequency. Although Rabi frequency of the control laser has little effect on the frequency range of CPA, with EIT-type quantum interference, the CPA mode is tunable by the control laser. In addition, with the relative phase, the probe fields can be perfectly transmitted and/or reflected. Therefore, the system can be used as a controllable coherent perfect absorber or transmitter (reflector), and our work may have practical applications in optical logic devices.
We investigate coherent perfect absorption (CPA) and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a cavity QED system that includes a degenerate optical parametric amplifier (OPA). We derive the condition for CPA and identify two distinct regimes controlled by the control laser. When the control laser is resonant and induces EIT, DQI suppresses CPA, thereby making the system a near-perfect transmitter. When the control laser is detuned, DQI again suppresses CPA, but now the system acts as a near-perfect reflector. In the EIT regime, increasing OPA strength enhances both transmitted and intracavity intensities. At the optimal detuning of the reflector regime, the input light is reflected, and the intracavity intensity drops to zero.
We propose and analyze a scheme for photon trapping in an optical resonator coupled with two-level atoms. We show that when the cavity is excited by two identical light fields, one from each end of the cavity, the output light from the cavity is suppressed while the intracavity light field is nearmaximum due to the excitation of the polariton state of the coupled cavity and atom system. We also present methods for the direct probing of the trapped polariton state. The photon trapping is manifested by the destructive interference of the transmitted light and the incident light, which is conditioned on the presence of incoherent processes such as spontaneous decay of the atomic excitation of the polariton state. Such photon trapping is quite generic and should be observable experimentally in a variety of cavity quantum electrodynamics systems.
We propose and analyze a scheme for tunable coherent perfect absorption (CPA) and near-perfect reflection (near CPR) in a three-level $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-type atom-cavity system. With electromagnetically-induced-transparency-type interference induced by a coherent coupling laser, it provides a method of tunable near CPR at two-photon resonance. By virtue of different coupling strengths, CPA can be tuned from the linear regime to the nonlinear or bistable regime at a fixed input-field frequency. In addition, the CPA regime can be switched to the near-CPR regime with variable linear absorption or gain by an incoherent pump field. This work suggests a mechanism for manipulation on perfect absorption and reflection theoretically which can potentially be applied to logical gates and optical switches for coherent optical computing and communication.
We propose an ultrahigh-efficiency and broadband all-optical switching scheme based on coherent perfect absorption (CPA) in linear and nonlinear excitation regimes in a cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) system. Two separate atomic transitions are excited simultaneously by two signal fields coupled from two ends of an optical cavity under the collective strong coupling condition. Three polariton eigenstates are produced which can be tuned freely by varying system parameters. The output field intensities of multiple channels are zero when the CPA criterion is satisfied. However, destructive quantum interference can be induced by a free-space weak control laser when it is tuned to be resonant to the polariton state. As a consequence, the CQED system acts as a coherent perfect light absorber/transmitter as the control field is turned on/off the polariton resonances. In particular, the proposed scheme may be used to realize broadband multi-throw all-optical switching in the nonlinear excitation regime. The proposed scheme is useful for constructing all-optical routing, all-optical communication networks and various all-optical logic elements.