The paper presents the authors' view on the relativity of optical coherence. Fields from two (or more) lasers are relatively coherent but incoherent relative to any other independent laser. Hence, to their view, there is no "true coherence", in contrast to Molmer's assertions.
Laser light possesses perfect coherence, but cannot be attenuated to single photons via linear optics. An elegant route to convert laser light into single photons is based on photon blockade in a cavity with a single atom in the strong coupling regime. However, the single-photon purity achieved by this method remains relatively low. Here we propose an interference-based approach where laser light can be transformed into single photons by destructively interfering with a weak but super-bunched incoherent field emitted from a cavity coupling to a single quantum emitter. We demonstrate this idea by measuring the reflected light of a laser field which drives a double-sided optical microcavity containing a single artificial atom-quantum dot (QD) in the Purcell regime. The reflected light consists of a superposition of the driving field with the cavity output field. We achieve the second-order autocorrelation g2(0)=0.030+-0.002 and the two-photon interference visibility 94.3%+-0.2. By separating the coherent and incoherent fields in the reflected light, we observe that the incoherent field from the cavity exhibits super-bunching with g2(0)=41+-2 while the coherent field remains Poissonian statistics. By controlling the relative amplitude of coherent and incoherent fields, we verify that photon statistics of reflected light is tuneable from perfect anti-bunching to super-bunching in agreement with our predictions. Our results demonstrate photon statistics of light as a quantum interference phenomenon that a single QD can scatter two photons simultaneously at low driving fields in contrast to the common picture that a single two-level quantum emitter can only scatter (or absorb and emit) single photons. This work opens the door to tailoring photon statistics of laser light via cavity or waveguide quantum electrodynamics and interference.
Optical homodyne detection is examined in view of the joint probability distribution. The usual view is that the relative phase between independent laser fields is localized by photon-number measurements in interference experiments such as homodyne detection. This is why operationally coherent states for laser fields are used in the description of homodyne detection and optical quantum-state tomography. Here, we elucidate these situations by considering the joint probability distribution and the invariance of homodyne detection under the phase transformation of optical fields.
Abstract Magnetic field plays an important role in studying the transient response because the transition probabilities of degenerate energy levels depend on the external field. The application of an external magnetic field is of particular interest, as the magnetic field is readily available and more flexible to control than an additional laser field, which is an essential consideration in our paper. In this work, we propose a simple model for managing the transient absorption and dispersion properties in a degenerate two-level atomic medium under both transparency and absorption regimes in the presence of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC), an incoherent pumping field, and an external magnetic field. We show that a magnetic field can be utilized as a ‘knob’ to swap the transient absorption and dispersion properties of the system in both transparency and absorption regimes. The magnetic field not only aids in creating transparency and absorption regimes but is also helpful in controlling the system operating at different frequency regions for the probe field without changing the frequency of the coupling field; SGC is introduced to enhance the laser phase dependence of the atomic optical properties, while the incoherent pumping field plays a role in enhancing the effects of SGC and relative phase on the atomic optical properties. The influences of SGC, relative phase, and incoherent pumping rate on transient response are also considered to improve the stability of transient absorption and dispersion properties. Moreover, the essential time required for swapping between subluminal and superluminal light propagation is also provided. The proposed model shows that the system can be used as an ultrafast optical switch, which, in practice, may enable control over switching rates in quantum storage and information-processing devices.