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arXiv:2206.12212 · Nanophotonics

Optical‐cavity mode squeezing by free electrons

Valerio Di Giulio, F. Javier Garcı́a de Abajo

Published Oct 7, 2022• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The generation of nonclassical light states bears a paramount importance in quantum optics and is largely relying on the interaction between intense laser pulses and nonlinear media. Recently, electron beams, such as those used in ultrafast electron microscopy to retrieve information from a specimen, have been proposed as a tool to manipulate both bright and dark confined optical excitations, inducing semiclassical states of light that range from coherent to thermal mixtures. Here, we show that the ponderomotive contribution to the electron–cavity interaction, which we argue to be significant for low‐energy electrons subject to strongly confined near‐fields, can actually create a more general set of optical states, including coherent and squeezed states. The postinteraction electron spectrum further reveals signatures of the nontrivial role played by A 2 terms in the light–matter coupling Hamiltonian, particularly when the cavity is previously excited by either chaotic or coherent illumination. Our work introduces a disruptive approach to the creation of nontrivial quantum cavity states for quantum information and optics applications, while it suggests unexplored possibilities for electron beam shaping.

DOI
10.1515/nanoph-2022-0481

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Abstract The generation of nonclassical light states bears a paramount importance in quantum optics and is largely relying on the interaction between intense laser pulses and nonlinear media. Recently, electron beams, such as those used in ultrafast electron microscopy to retrieve information from a specimen, have been proposed as a tool to manipulate both bright and dark confined optical excitations, inducing semiclassical states of light that range from coherent to thermal mixtures. Here, we show that the ponderomotive contribution to the electron–cavity interaction, which we argue to be significant for low‐energy electrons subject to strongly confined near‐fields, can actually create a more general set of optical states, including coherent and squeezed states. The postinteraction electron spectrum further reveals signatures of the nontrivial role played by A 2 terms in the light–matter coupling Hamiltonian, particularly when the cavity is previously excited by either chaotic or coherent illumination. Our work introduces a disruptive approach to the creation of nontrivial quantum cavity states for quantum information and optics applications, while it suggests unexplored possibilities for electron beam shaping.
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.
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.
Ultrashort light pulses play an important role in the generation, manipulation and characterization of nonclassical light. Nonclassical light is often generated from a classical pump beam using a nonlinear optical process. One might expect that the high peak intensity of ultrashort pulses would provide the necessary driver for such processes, and this is indeed the case. Ultrashort pulses have been used to generate squeezed states, and quadrature entangled states via three and four wave mixing, photon number states, polarization and frequency or directional entangled photon pairs states via three wave mixing.
It is a long-standing goal to create light with unique quantum properties such as squeezing and entanglement. We propose the generation of quantum light using free-electron interactions, going beyond their already ubiquitous use in generating classical light. This concept is motivated by developments in electron microscopy, which recently demonstrated quantum free-electron interactions with light in photonic cavities. Such electron microscopes provide platforms for shaping quantum states of light through a judicious choice of the input light and electron states. Specifically, we show how electron energy combs implement photon displacement operations, creating displaced-Fock and displaced-squeezed states. We develop the theory for consecutive electron-cavity interactions with a common cavity and show how to generate any target Fock state. Looking forward, exploiting the degrees of freedom of electrons, light, and their interaction may achieve complete control over the quantum state of the generated light, leading to novel light statistics and correlations.
Light is routinely used to steer the motion of atoms in free space, enabling cooling and trapping of matter waves through ponderomotive interaction and Doppler-mediated photon scattering. In parallel, optical interaction with free electrons has recently emerged as a powerful way 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 by inelastic interaction with optical fields, allowing us to modulate the translational wave function and produce temporally and spatially compressed atomic beam pulses.
Abstract Entanglement of photons is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics, which stands at the core of quantum technologies such as photonic quantum computing, communication, and sensing. An ongoing challenge in all these is finding an efficient and controllable mechanism to entangle photons. Recent experimental developments in electron microscopy enable to control the quantum interaction between free electrons and light. Here, we show that free electrons can create entanglement and bunching of light. Free electrons can control the second-order coherence of initially independent photonic states, even in spatially separated cavities that cannot directly interact. Free electrons thus provide a type of optical nonlinearity that acts in a nonlocal manner, offering a way of heralding the creation of entanglement. Intriguingly, pre-shaping the electron’s wavefunction provides the knob for tuning the photonic quantum correlations. The concept can be generalized to entangle not only photons but also photonic quasiparticles such as plasmon-polaritons and phonons.