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arXiv:2505.04280 · Physical Review A

Unconventional photon blockade in cavity QED with parametric amplification

Madan Mohan Mahana, Sanket Das, Tarak Nath Dey

Published Dec 24, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the quantum-interference-induced photon blockade effect in a single two-level atom-cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system with degenerate parametric amplification. The analytical calculations reveal the optimal parametric gain and phase parameters for achieving optimum unconventional photon blockade conditions. Under the optimal parameter regime, the numerical results of the second-order correlation function demonstrate strong photon antibunching consistent with the analytical results. Furthermore, the numerical results corroborate that coherently driving the atom leads to a stronger photon blockade than a coherently driven cavity with the optimal parameters. We numerically demonstrate that the UPB effect is compromised by a non-zero cavity-atom coupling in the cavity-driven configuration. However, stronger photon antibunching can be attained with a non-zero cavity-atom coupling in the atom-driven configuration. This work may be suitable for experimentally realising a strongly antibunched single-photon source for applications in quantum technology.

DOI
10.1103/twhg-9tks

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We theoretically investigate the quantum-interference-induced photon blockade effect in a single two-level atom-cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system with degenerate parametric amplification. The analytical calculations reveal the optimal parametric gain and phase parameters for achieving optimum unconventional photon blockade conditions. Under the optimal parameter regime, the numerical results of the second-order correlation function demonstrate strong photon antibunching consistent with the analytical results. Furthermore, the numerical results corroborate that coherently driving the atom leads to a stronger photon blockade than a coherently driven cavity with the optimal parameters. We numerically demonstrate that the UPB effect is compromised by a non-zero cavity-atom coupling in the cavity-driven configuration. However, stronger photon antibunching can be attained with a non-zero cavity-atom coupling in the atom-driven configuration. This work may be suitable for experimentally realising a strongly antibunched single-photon source for applications in quantum technology.
We propose a scheme to achieve a strong photon antibunching with a degenerate optical parametric amplifier coupled to a cavity via unconventional photon blockade. The photon blockade occurs as a result of the suppression of two-photon excitation due to a quantum interference effect between different transition paths. Via analytical calculations, we find out the conditions for optimized photon antibunching in terms of parametric gain and the parametric amplifier pump phase. Calculations of second-order correlation function demonstrate strong photon antibunching. The numerical results are compared with the analytical results and both are in complete agreement. Under the optimal parameters, the system can be used to generate sub-Poissonian light.
Abstract Unconventional photon blockade (UPB) is an important quantum phenomenon that relies on the quantum interference effect. Here, we propose coupling an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) to a Kerr nonlinear single-mode cavity in a two-photon dissipation environment, enabling strong photon antibunching based on the UPB mechanism. The optimal conditions for achieving UPB are first derived analytically. The results are subsequently compared with the second-order correlation function derived from numerical simulations, and excellent agreement is observed. The findings show that UPB is enhanced without significantly reducing the mean photon number. This further demonstrates that the width of the UPB occurrence window increases with increasing OPA coefficient and driving laser intensity. Finally, theoretical analysis reveals the physical mechanism of UPB, showing that the Kerr medium is not the dominant factor for UPB generation in this system. Thus, our work offers valuable theoretical guidance for precisely controlling UPB and optimizing single-photon source performance.
We investigate theoretically the model of a cavity-quantum-electrodynamics (QED) system that consists of two two-level atoms coupled to a single-mode cavity in the weak coupling regime, where the system is driven by quantum light. The dynamics behavior of the entire system is tackled in the framework of a cascaded quantum system. We find that the two-photon blockade with two-photon bunching and three-photon antibunching can be obtained even when the strong system dissipation is included. This result shows that our work has potential for realizing entangled photon pairs in a weakly coupled cavity. Moreover, we also analyze the photon statistics of the system in the case of out-of-resonance coupling between cavity and two nonidentical atoms. Here, an unconventional photon blockade effect with suppression of two-photon correlation and enhancement of three-photon correlation can be realized, which shows many quantum statistical characteristics of a cavity QED system in weak coupling.
The antibunching effect generated in a cavity containing first a single two-level atomic system and then two identical atoms is explored for off-resonant interactions, in strong- and weak-coupling regimes. The cavity is driven by coherent and squeezed sources. Using the second-order correlation function analytically derived in the weak-excitation regime, we show that squeezed light achieves and improves strong antibunching, leading to a photon blockade. This enhancement is due to a destructive quantum interference mechanism induced by the nonclassical light, creating a supplementary transition pathway. The best effect is obtained for equal frequency detunings in the strong-coupling regime. More interestingly, our investigation reveals that the two-atom-cavity system can further improve the antibunching effect compared to the single-atom cavity. It turns out that the additional couplings appearing in the cavity due to the implementation of the two atoms, combined with the squeezed light, could substantially enhance the photon-blockade effect.
In this paper, we show that the photon blockade (PB) can be observed in a nonreciprocal way with a driven spinning atom-cavity coupled filled with [Formula: see text] nonlinear medium. We analytically derive the optimal conditions for strong photon antibunching, which are in good agreement with those obtained by numerical simulations. Under the weak driving condition, we discuss the physical origins of the nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade (UPB), which originates from the destructive quantum interference between different paths from the ground state to two-photon states by driving the device from the left side. While the quantum interference paths are broken when the device is driven from the right side, which leads to the occurrence of the photon bunching. Moreover in the opposite direction of driving the device, we also observe another nonreciprocal UPB effect, which can occur by generating bunching and antibunching effects via driving the device from the left and right sides under the derived optimal conditions, respectively. Finally, we cannot observe the nonreciprocal UPB phenomenon with the large cavity decay compared to the atomic spontaneous emission rate (or the bad cavity limit), and give the physical reason behind it. Possible experimental implementation for this scheme is presented.
Abstract We have investigated the unconventional photon blockade (UPB) in a hybrid system consisting of a Jaynes–Cummings model nonlinearly coupled with two other modes via a three-wave mixing interaction, operating in the weak coupling regime (compared with the decay rates of the system). We present both analytical and numerical results, obtained by solving the Schrödinger equation and the quantum master equation, respectively. The results show that the numerical simulations agree well with the analytical predictions and that the UPB effect would occur in this hybrid system both in the cavity-driven and atom-driven conditions. Under both driving conditions, the hybrid system could exhibit superior performance over the Jaynes–Cummings model under the same driving condition, i.e. achieve a stronger photon blockade effect. The influences of driving strength and coupling coefficient on photon blockade effect have also been discussed. Our finding may have potential applications in single-photon sources design.