Nonclassicality Made Observable

Philip R. Wallace

Javid Naikoo, Kishore Thapliyal, Anirban Pathak +1 more

The possibility of observing nonclassical features in a physical system comprised of a cavity with two ensembles of two-level atoms has been investigated by considering different configurations of the ensembles with respect to the node and antinode of the cavity field under the framework of open quantum systems. The study reveals the strong presence of nonclassical characters in the physical system by establishing the existence of many facets of nonclassicality, such as the sub-Poissonian boson statistics and squeezing in single modes, intermodal squeezing, intermodal entanglement, antibunching, and steering. The effect of a number of parameters, characterizing the physical system, on the different aspects of nonclassicality is also investigated. Specifically, it is observed that the depth of the nonclassicality witnessing parameters can be enhanced by externally driving one of the ensembles with an optical field. The work is done in the presence of open system effects, in particular, use is made of Langevin equations along with a suitable perturbative technique.

R. Loudon

Abstract The single-mode theory of Chapter 5 is inherently limited to the description of experiments that use time-independent light beams. The light is essentially nonergodic, in that its statistical fluctuations may be described by an ensemble, but these are not apparent in a time series of experiments made on the single member of the ensemble corresponding to a practical realization of the state. Identical measurements always give the same results and there are no time-dependent correlations of the kind considered in the classical theory of Chapter 3. Many of the nonclassical properties of light can be understood in terms of single-mode theory but other properties involve excitations of two or more modes. Practical observations of nonclassical effects are usually made on time-dependent light beams.

Alfredo Luis

H. J. Carmichael

We review studies of the fluctuations of light made accessible by the invention of the laser and the strong interactions realized in cavity QED experiments. Photon antibunching advocating the discrete (particles), is contrasted with amplitude squeezing which speaks of the continuous (waves). The tension between particles and waves is demonstrated by a recent experiment which combines the measurement strategies used to observe these nonclassical behaviors of light [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3149 (2000)].