The process in which Raman scattering produces correlated Stokes and anti‐Stokes radiation is known as Stokes–anti‐Stokes (SaS) scattering. It has been shown recently that this process can generate entangled photon pairs, making it a promising tool for quantum optical technologies, but a proper quantum theoretical description was lacking. In this article, a fully quantum derivation of the electric polarization in a medium with vibrational Raman response, with quantized electromagnetic fields, is developed. Using quantum perturbation theory for Heisenberg operators, the solution for the material electric polarization is found and it is shown that a four‐wave mixing‐like correlated SaS scattering appears in the first order of perturbation and completely characterizes the nonresonant SaS photon pair production. It is also discussed how to construct the third‐order nonlinear optical susceptibility for the SaS scattering from the quantum formalism and show that it coincides with the one derived for classical fields in stimulated Raman.
The process in which Raman scattering produces correlated Stokes and anti‐Stokes radiation is known as Stokes–anti‐Stokes (SaS) scattering. It has been shown recently that this process can generate entangled photon pairs, making it a promising tool for quantum optical technologies, but a proper quantum theoretical description was lacking. In this article, a fully quantum derivation of the electric polarization in a medium with vibrational Raman response, with quantized electromagnetic fields, is developed. Using quantum perturbation theory for Heisenberg operators, the solution for the material electric polarization is found and it is shown that a four‐wave mixing‐like correlated SaS scattering appears in the first order of perturbation and completely characterizes the nonresonant SaS photon pair production. It is also discussed how to construct the third‐order nonlinear optical susceptibility for the SaS scattering from the quantum formalism and show that it coincides with the one derived for classical fields in stimulated Raman.
Quantum information research has been through numerous evolutionary stages, and photonic transport is one of the most promising methods for information processing. Within the context of the use of photons for information transportation, Raman spectroscopy, which consists of an optical spectroscopy technique based on the inelastic scatter of light, where the scattered photons carry information from the vibration structure of the medium, is presented as an exciting way for coding and transportation of quantum information. Herein, the phenomenon of correlated Stokes‐anti‐Stokes (SaS) Raman scattering is explored, analyzing the quantum character of the phenomenon. A state tomography is performed to fully characterize the SaS pair's polarization state. During this study, it is possible to observe the influence of the crystallographic orientation of the diamond on the SaS polarization state, which directly influences the entanglement generation. A Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt‐type Bell's inequality measurement is conducted to confirm the entanglement in the polarization of the SaS state.
In the correlated Stokes--anti-Stokes scattering (SAS) an incident photon interacts with a Raman-active material, creating a Stokes photon and exciting a quantum vibrational mode in the medium, which is posteriorly annihilated on contact with a second incident photon, producing in turn an anti-Stokes photon. This can be accomplished by real and virtual processes. In the real process the quantum mode shared between the Stokes and anti-Stokes events is a real particle, whereas in virtual processes the pair formation is mediated by the exchange of virtual particles. Here, we introduce a Hamiltonian to describe the pair production in SAS scattering, for both types of process, when stimulated by two orthogonally polarized laser pulses in a pump-and-probe configuration. We also model the effect of the natural decay of the vibration created in the Stokes event and compute the probability of producing SAS pairs. Additionally, we follow the dynamics of the vibration by considering the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields as external reservoirs, obtaining thus a master equation for the reduced density matrix for the vibrational population. Finally, we compare our theoretical results to recently published experimental data.
The correlated Raman scattering, referred to here as the SaS process, occurs with the annihilation, within a material, of two photons of an excitation laser and the creation of a quantum correlated Stokes (S) and anti-Soktes (aS) photon pair where the phonon created in the S process is annihilated in the aS scattering. We found that, in addition to real SaS process where the energy exchange coincides with the energy of a vibrational state of the material, there is also the virtual SaS process, whose the exchange of energy and momentum between the photons of the laser, generating the S-aS photon pair, is mediated by a virtual vibrational excitation, setting up a photon-photon interaction similar to the electron-electron attraction responsible for the creation of Cooper pairs of the BCS theory of superconductivity. We observed the SaS process in transparent media in general, by measuring non-classical values of the normalized second-order cross-correlation function of the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields, 2(0). In diamond, we characterize the intensity of the virtual SaS scattering ( ) as a function of the virtual phonon energy, proving that the SaS process occurs only when the photon-photon interaction is attractive, as in the BCS theory for the Cooper pairs. We show that photons S and aS from the SaS process are scattered predominantly in the same polarization as the excitation laser of the sample and, with this, we implemented the pump-probe technique to study the lifetime of the real phonon (obtained in the diamond order 2.8 ps ) and the lifetime of the virtual excitation, which proved to be inferior to the temporal resolution of the measurement’s, characterizing one of the main differences between the two processes. We also observed that, due to the relations of energy and momentum conservation, have the same spatial intensity profile of the non-interacting laser that crosses the sample, different from the behavior observed for uncorrelated Raman scattering which spreads photons in all directions. We observed that the efficiency of the SaS scattering is proportional to the Raman scattering cross-section when we compare the process in different hydrocarbons and we generalize the observations made in the diamond to the sample of liquid decane. In water, the values of 2(0), predicted by the theoretical description of the process, corroborate the experimental data, validating the BCS theory for virtual SaS scattering, setting the pair of Stokes and anti-Stokes photons as counterparts of the Cooper pairs.
The photon wave function formalism provides an alternative description of some quantum optical phenomena in a more intuitive way. We use this formalism to describe the Stokesanti-Stokes (SaS) correlated scattering process present in Raman scattering. In this process, two photons from a laser beam are inelastically scattered by a phonon created by the first photon (Stokes processes) and annihilated by the second photon (anti-Stokes process), producing a pair of Stokes–anti-Sokes (SaS) photons. . We arrive at an expression for the two-photon wavefunction, in the time and frequency domains, of the scattered SaS photon pair, which is in agreement with a number of experimental results. It was shown, from the phase matching analysis, that the scattering pattern is compatible with the experiments. It was seen that, in the application for Pump-and-probe experiments, it was possible to generate the correct curves for the decay of the population of phonons in the sample. Finally, it was verified that, through the analysis of the joint spectrum of the pairs, information was obtained about the entanglement in frequency of the scattered photons. Thus, it is concluded that, from the results, the photon wave function formalism provides an intuitive and robust way to calculate the SaS scattering properties.
The photon-wave-function formalism provides an alternative description of some quantum optical phenomena in a more intuitive way. We use this formalism to describe the process of correlated Stokes--anti-Stokes Raman scattering. In this process, two photons from a laser beam are inelastically scattered by a phonon created by the first photon (Stokes processes) and annihilated by the second photon (anti-Stokes process), producing a Stokes--anti-Sokes (SaS) photon pair. We arrive at an expression for the two-photon wave function of the scattered SaS photon pair, which is in agreement with a number of experimental results.
Inelastic light scattering is a central tool for sample characterization and label-free imaging across the physical and life sciences. Recent work has suggested that scattered light can also exhibit nonclassical correlations. Here, we develop a microscopic theory of Raman scattering that connects naturally to established descriptions of entangled-photon generation in three- and four-wave mixing, while capturing essential differences arising from the resonant, dissipative character of Raman scattering. Using a cumulant-expansion approach, we analyze the entanglement structure of the scattered sidebands and identify signatures that distinguish Raman-mediated correlations from those generated in conventional off-resonant nonlinear wave mixing. In particular, we show that Raman scattering induces chiral couplings between Stokes and anti-Stokes sidebands, leading to nonreciprocal amplification of coherent seed fields. These results establish a theoretical framework for Raman-based quantum photonic protocols and suggest routes toward quantum-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and imaging.