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arXiv:1807.04105 · Physical Review A

Tunable bandwidth and nonlinearities in an atom-photon interface with subradiant states

Ilan Shlesinger, P. Senellart, L. Lanco, Jean‐Jacques Greffet

Published Jul 9, 2018• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical nonlinearities at the single-photon level are key features to build efficient photon-photon gates and to implement quantum networks. Such optical nonlinearities can be obtained using an ideal two-level system such as a single atom coupled to an optical cavity. While efficient, such atom-photon interface however presents a fixed bandwidth, determined by the spontaneous emission time and thus the spectral width of the cavity-enhanced two-level transition, preventing an efficient transmission to bandwidth-mismatched atomic systems in a single quantum network. In the present work, we propose a tunable atom-photon interface making use of the direct dipole-dipole coupling of two slightly different atomic systems. We show that, when weakly coupled to a cavity mode and directly coupled through dipole-dipole interaction, the subradiant mode of two slightly detuned atomic systems is optically addressable and presents a widely tunable bandwidth and single-photon nonlinearity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.98.013813

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Optical nonlinearities at the single-photon level are key features to build efficient photon-photon gates and to implement quantum networks. Such optical nonlinearities can be obtained using an ideal two-level system such as a single atom coupled to an optical cavity. While efficient, such atom-photon interface however presents a fixed bandwidth, determined by the spontaneous emission time and thus the spectral width of the cavity-enhanced two-level transition, preventing an efficient transmission to bandwidth-mismatched atomic systems in a single quantum network. In the present work, we propose a tunable atom-photon interface making use of the direct dipole-dipole coupling of two slightly different atomic systems. We show that, when weakly coupled to a cavity mode and directly coupled through dipole-dipole interaction, the subradiant mode of two slightly detuned atomic systems is optically addressable and presents a widely tunable bandwidth and single-photon nonlinearity.
An atomic system that can be addressed via a single optical mode, hereafter called a one-dimensional atom, is central for many applications in optical quantum technologies. A cavity with a large Purcell factor is required to collect the emission efficiently, but a small Purcell factor is required for long-time memory storage. Here, we introduce an effective and versatile one-dimensional atom consisting of two interacting quantum emitters efficiently coupled to a cavity mode with a large Purcell factor. The dipole–dipole interaction gives rise to a subradiant state with a tunable bandwidth. We demonstrate generation of time-shaped single photons and implementation of quantum memory. We discuss experimental challenges and practical implementation using different systems.
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A one-dimensional atom -- an atomic system coupled to a single optical mode -- is central for many applications in optical quantum technologies. Here we introduce an effective one-dimensional atom consisting of two interacting quantum emitters coupled to a cavity mode. The dipole-dipole interaction and cavity coupling gives rise to optical resonances of tunable bandwidth with a constant mode coupling. Such versatility, combined with a dynamical control of the system, opens the way to many applications. It can be used to generate single photon light pulses with continuous variable encoding in the time-frequency domain and light states that show sub-Planck features. It can also be exploited to develop a versatile quantum memory of tunable bandwidth, another key ingredient for quantum networks. Our scheme ensures that all above functionalities can be obtained at record high efficiencies. We discuss practical implementation in the most advanced platform for quantum light generation, namely the semiconductor quantum dot system where all the technological tools are in place to bring these new concepts to reality.
Motivated by developments in quantum information science, much recent effort has been directed toward coupling individual quantum emitters to optical microcavities. Such systems can be used to produce single photons on demand, enable nonlinear optical switching at a single photon level, and implement functional nodes of a quantum network, where the emitters serve as processing nodes and photons are used for long-distance quantum communication. For many of these practical applications, it is important to develop techniques that allow one to generate outgoing single photons of desired frequency and bandwidth, enabling hybrid networks connecting different types of emitters and long-distance transmission over telecommunications wavelengths. Here, we propose a novel approach that makes use of a nonlinear optical resonator, in which the single photon originating from the atom-like emitter is directly converted into a photon with desired frequency and bandwidth using the intracavity nonlinearity. As specific examples, we discuss a high-finesse, TE-TM double-mode photonic crystal cavity design that allows for direct generation of single photons at telecom wavelengths starting from an InAs/GaAs quantum dot with a 950 nm transition wavelength, and a scheme for direct optical coupling of such a quantum dot with a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center at 637 nm.
A promising approach to realize a quantum internet [1] is to use a hybrid quantum network - a network composed of many different quantum devices, such as quantum emitters, quantum repeaters, or quantum gates, interconnected via photonic links. However, such a wide variety of quantum devices tends to be spectrally incompatible. Especially, the challenge arises to interface different single-photon spectral bandwidths with high efficiency. In particular, an important link is bridging the ultrafast optics with hundreds of GHz spectral bandwidths with nanosecond timescales of single-photon pulses, hence MHz-wide spectra. Such an interface corresponds, e.g., to coupling a single photon produced in a commonly used bulk spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) photon sources to atomic-based quantum memories. The already demonstrated spectral compression techniques, based mostly on optical nonlinearities, operate only in the above GHz regime and are not suitable for this task [2].
Strong interactions between light and atoms at the single-quantum level are an important ingredient for quantum technologies, as well as for studies of fundamental effects in quantum optics. This thesis describes the development of a novel experimental platform that allows for trapping a single rubidium atom in the evanescent mode of a nano-fabricated optical cavity with sub-wavelength dimensions. By virtue of their small size, these cavities provide extremely large atom-photon coupling strengths and good prospects for scalability and integration into complex quantum optical circuits. Positioning the atom near the nano-structure is accomplished using a scanning optical tweezer dipole trap. As a first application, we have demonstrated a coherent optical switch, where a single gate photon controls the propagation of many subsequent signal photons, with the interaction mediated by the atom and cavity. We have also shown that the optical response of the combined atom-cavity system is nonlinear at the level of one or two photons.