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arXiv:2606.11550 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Polarization-Resolved Photon Statistics of Cavity Quantum Materials

Benjamin Kass, Spenser Talkington, Martin Claassen

cond-mat.mes-hallcond-mat.str-elphysics.opticsquant-phSubmitted Jun 10, 2026• Announced Jun 11, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Jun 10, 2026v2 · Sep 22, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

By forming hybrid light-matter states, optical cavities offer a route for engineering material properties, however, unambiguously probing the effects of light-matter coupling remains difficult. Here, we show that the polarization-resolved statistics of photons transmitted through a cavity, measurable via $g^{(2)}$, provide one such diagnostic. By relating $g^{(2)}$ to matter correlation functions such as the Raman structure factor, we link photon bunching and antibunching to material properties. By applying this method to the stripy-to-antiferromagnetic transition in the Kitaev-Heisenberg spin model, we find that polarization-dependent patterns of bunching and antibunching encode the magnetic point-group symmetries of each phase and characterize the behavior at the phase boundary. Finally, we predict measuring $g^{(2)}$ for output photon pairs polarized orthogonal to the input field will isolate higher-order light-matter scattering processes that probe higher-order material correlations.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. B 114, 165130 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/34vt-61w5
Comments
9+10 pages, 3+7 figures

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