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arXiv:2302.05967 · Science

Quantum vortices of strongly interacting photons

Lee Drori, Bankim Chandra Das, Tomer Danino Zohar, Gal Winer, Eilon Poem, Alexander N. Poddubny, Ofer Firstenberg

Published Jul 13, 2023• 33 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Vortices are topologically nontrivial defects that generally originate from nonlinear field dynamics. All-optical generation of photonic vortices-phase singularities of the electromagnetic field-requires sufficiently strong nonlinearity that is typically achieved in the classical optics regime. We report on the realization of quantum vortices of photons that result from a strong photon-photon interaction in a quantum nonlinear optical medium. The interaction causes faster phase accumulation for copropagating photons, producing a quantum vortex-antivortex pair within the two-photon wave function. For three photons, the formation of vortex lines and a central vortex ring confirms the existence of a genuine three-photon interaction. The wave function topology, governed by two- and three-photon bound states, imposes a conditional phase shift of π per photon, a potential resource for deterministic quantum logic operations.

DOI
10.1126/science.adh5315

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Vortices are topologically nontrivial defects that generally originate from nonlinear field dynamics. All-optical generation of photonic vortices-phase singularities of the electromagnetic field-requires sufficiently strong nonlinearity that is typically achieved in the classical optics regime. We report on the realization of quantum vortices of photons that result from a strong photon-photon interaction in a quantum nonlinear optical medium. The interaction causes faster phase accumulation for copropagating photons, producing a quantum vortex-antivortex pair within the two-photon wave function. For three photons, the formation of vortex lines and a central vortex ring confirms the existence of a genuine three-photon interaction. The wave function topology, governed by two- and three-photon bound states, imposes a conditional phase shift of π per photon, a potential resource for deterministic quantum logic operations.
Bound states of massive particles, such as nuclei, atoms, or molecules, constitute the bulk of the visible world around us. By contrast, photons typically only interact weakly. We report the observation of traveling three-photon bound states in a quantum nonlinear medium where the interactions between photons are mediated by atomic Rydberg states. Photon correlation and conditional phase measurements reveal the distinct bunching and phase features associated with three-photon and two-photon bound states. Such photonic trimers and dimers possess shape-preserving wave functions that depend on the constituent photon number. The observed bunching and strongly nonlinear optical phase are described by an effective field theory of Rydberg-induced photon-photon interactions. These observations demonstrate the ability to realize and control strongly interacting quantum many-body states of light.
Optical vortices are lines of phase singularity which percolate through all optical fields. We report the entanglement of linked optical vortex loops in the light produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. As measured by using a Bell inequality, this entanglement between topological features extends over macroscopic and finite volumes. The entanglement of photons in complex three-dimensional topological states suggests the possibility of entanglement of similar features in other quantum systems describable by complex scalar functions, such as superconductors, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates.
Nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs (VAPs) is believed to play a central role in the photon detection mechanism of superconducting detectors; however, their direct dynamic observation has remained challenging. Here, we report the direct observation of photon-induced VAP dynamics in a current-carrying superconductor as quantized voltage signals following photon absorption. The observed signals are interpreted as discrete phase-slip events, where each vortex traversal induces a 2 π phase change of the superconducting order parameter, resulting in a quantized voltage pulse whose time integral is given by the magnetic flux quantum Φ 0 . We analyze the resulting quantized signals as a function of bias current, base temperature, and input photon-number states and find that the number of VAPs generated per absorbed photon becomes effectively stabilized under specific conditions. Under these conditions, we demonstrate photon-number-resolving capability by directly counting phase-slip-induced voltage quanta. Our results reveal a detection mechanism governed by phase dynamics rather than conventional resistive transitions and represent the first demonstration of photon-number resolution based on VAP counting, enabling fast multi-photon-resolving superconducting detectors for quantum optics.
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.
Nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs (VAPs) is believed to play a central role in the photon detection mechanism of superconducting detectors; however, their direct dynamic observation has remained challenging. Here, we report the direct observation of photon-induced VAP dynamics in a current-carrying superconductor as quantized voltage signals following photon absorption. The observed signals are interpreted as discrete phase-slip events, where each vortex traversal induces a 2-pi phase change of the superconducting order parameter, resulting in a quantized voltage pulse whose time integral is given by the magnetic flux quantum. We analyze the resulting quantized signals as a function of bias current, base temperature, and input photon-number states, and find that the number of VAPs generated per absorbed photon becomes effectively stabilized under specific conditions. Under these conditions, we demonstrate photon-number-resolving capability by directly counting phase-slip-induced voltage quanta. Our results reveal a detection mechanism governed by phase dynamics rather than conventional resistive transitions. We further show that photon-number resolution emerges when the fluctuation of photon-induced vortex-antivortex pair generation becomes statistically suppressed. These findings establish a new route toward photon-number-resolving detection based on phase-slip counting and open opportunities for high-speed superconducting detectors for quantum optics and photonic quantum technologies.
We report the entanglement of topological features, namely, isolated, linked optical vortex loops in the light from spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). In three dimensions, optical vortices are lines of phase singularity and vortices of energy flow which percolate through all optical fields. This example of entanglement is between features that extend over macroscopic and finite volumes, furthermore, topological features are robust to perturbation . The entanglement of photons in complex three-dimensional(3D) topological states suggests the possibility of entanglement of similar structures in other quantum systems describable by complex scalar functions, such as superconductors, superfluids and Bose-Einstein condensates.