Single-photon nonlinearities using arrays of cold polar molecules
R.M.G. Rajapakse, T. Bragdon, Ana María Rey +2 more
We model single-photon nonlinearities resulting from the dipole-dipole interactions of cold polar molecules. We propose utilizing ``dark state polaritons'' to effectively couple photon and molecular states; through this framework, coherent control of the nonlinearity can be expressed and potentially used in an optical quantum computation architecture. Due to the dipole-dipole interaction the photons pick up a measurable nonlinear phase even in the single-photon regime. A manifold of protected symmetric eigenstates is used as basis. Depending on the implementation, major sources of decoherence result from nonsymmetric interactions and phonon dispersion. We discuss the strength of the nonlinearity per photon and the feasibility of this system.
arXiv:0902.3964•Physical Review A•Jul 15, 2009•26 citations