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arXiv:2403.12177 · Physical Review A

Vacuum Rabi splitting as a manifestation of virtual two-mode squeezing: Extracting the squeezing parameters from frequency shifts

Karol Gietka

Published Dec 6, 2024• 5 citations
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Abstract

Vacuum Rabi splitting relies on symmetrical splitting of the common resonance frequency of atoms and the cavity in which the atoms reside. In this work, we argue that vacuum Rabi splitting is a manifestation of virtual light-matter two-mode squeezing. We establish a connection between squeezing parameters of virtual excitations and frequency shifts of the physical modes, which allows to nondestructively extract the squeezing parameters without measuring correlations. To this end, we use the mapping between the Dicke model and two interacting harmonic oscillators, which we analyze in the framework of bare and physical modes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.110.063703

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Vacuum Rabi splitting relies on symmetrical splitting of the common resonance frequency of atoms and the cavity in which the atoms reside. In this work, we argue that vacuum Rabi splitting is a manifestation of virtual light-matter two-mode squeezing. We establish a connection between squeezing parameters of virtual excitations and frequency shifts of the physical modes, which allows to nondestructively extract the squeezing parameters without measuring correlations. To this end, we use the mapping between the Dicke model and two interacting harmonic oscillators, which we analyze in the framework of bare and physical modes.
The vacuum-field Rabi splitting of an optical mode in a cavity interacting with a system of N excitations (atomic or electronic) represented by harmonic oscillators is obtained quantum mechanically both without and with coupling to dissipation. The optical lineshapes and the scaling of the Rabi splitting with the number of oscillators and its dependence on the damping parameters are given. Corresponding results are given for a classical treatment of the oscillators, and it is shown that to the leading order in the dissipation, the quantum mechanical results for absorption are the same as the classical ones.
Virtual excitations, inherent to ultrastrongly coupled light-matter systems, induce measurable modifications in system properties, offering a novel resource for quantum technologies. In this Letter, we demonstrate how these virtual excitations and their correlations can be harnessed to enhance precision measurements, without the need to extract them. Building on the paradigmatic Dicke model, which describes the interaction between an ensemble of two-level atoms and a single radiation mode, we propose a method to harness hybridized light-matter modes whose renormalized frequencies encode the effects of virtual excitations for quantum metrology. Remarkably, we find that, for a fixed squeezing parameter ξ, exploiting virtual squeezing through oscillator frequency shifts yields a quadratic enhancement in estimation precision-scaling as exp(4ξ)-compared to the conventional exp(2ξ) scaling of real squeezed states. These results show that virtual excitations, though unobservable, can drive metrological performance beyond the standard quantum limit. Our approach establishes a broadly applicable framework for high-precision measurements across a wide class of ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems.
We measure the transmission spectrum of an optical cavity filled with two-level atoms. For small intensities, the coupling between atoms and a single mode of the cavity splits the spectrum into two normal modes: the vacuum Rabi peaks. We gradually decouple the system in two ways and study the evolution of the vacuum Rabi peaks. First we lower the atom-cavity coupling frequency through its intensity dependence, showing that the peaks shift, deform, exhibit frequency hysteresis, and eventually merge into a single peak that approaches the empty cavity resonance. Second we detune the atoms and the cavity mode and observe an avoided crossing. The normal modes of the coupled system transform into the two resonances of the uncoupled system. We map out the transition region and find good agreement with theoretical predictions.
Interaction of the vacuum field of an optical mode with an electronic two-level system can drive non-perturbative light-matter dynamics, resulting in an exotic quantum ground state containing a sizeable population of virtual excitations. In the deep-strong coupling (DSC) regime, where the Rabi frequency,ΩR\Omega_{\mathrm{R}}ΩR​, exceeds the eigen-frequencies of the coupled systems, this extreme ground state can result in spectacular effects of cavity-QED, such as the expected release of the virtual photon ground state population as vacuum radiation by non-adiabatic modulation of the coupling mechanism [1], [2]. However, for resonant coupling of two single modes [3], the finite oscillator strength of resonant electronic excitation sets a natural limit to the achievable coupling strength, hindering further exploration of this exciting field.
A theoretical and experimental investigation of the generation of squeezed states of light has been carried out for a system of two-level atoms inside a high-finesse cavity. The regime that we consider is such that the coupling of atoms to the cavity mode produces a splitting in the normal mode structure of the atom-field system (the so-called vacuum-field Rabi splitting). We have employed this splitting to generate squeezing with observed reductions in photocurrent noise of 30 % below the shot-noise level. A degree of squeezing of ~50% is inferred for the field state in the absence of propagation and detection losses. Squeezing has been observed in two different cavity geometries with quite different coupling coefficients. In each case, the frequency of best squeezing corresponds to that of the normal mode splitting g N (g= single atom coupling coefficent and N = number of atoms) in good agreement with our theoretical predictions. Regions of parameter space with very large degrees of squeezing (>20×) are identified. Preliminary extensions of the theory into a transient regime with (cavity lifetime) ≪ (interaction time) ≪ (atomic lifetime) are described.
We study the extracavity quantum vacuum radiation generated by a sudden switch on and off of the vacuum Rabi frequency of a single two-level system coupled to a single cavity mode in the strong and ultrastrong coupling regime. Dissipation is described by including the qubit-resonator coupling in the derivation of the master equation. The output stream of photons and their second-order correlation functions are calculated by exploiting a recently developed input-output formulation of resonators valid for arbitrary light-matter couplings. The obtained output photon correlations provide direct information on the quantum correlations among the virtual excitations of the dressed vacuum.