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Physical Review A

Quantum tunneling and thermal activation in the parametric oscillator

P. D. Drummond, Paul Kinsler

Published Oct 1, 1989• 56 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The mean time taken for the degenerate parametric oscillator to quantum tunnel between its two above-threshold stable states is calculated in the large photon-number limit. The result is compared with an earlier approximate result using a truncated Fokker-Planck equation in the Wigner representation. This earlier theory is equivalent to stochastic electrodynamics. Our quantum theory results indicate orders of magnitude faster tunneling far above threshold, when compared to the truncated Wigner theory.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.40.4813

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The mean time taken for the degenerate parametric oscillator to quantum tunnel between its two above-threshold stable states is calculated in the large photon-number limit. The result is compared with an earlier approximate result using a truncated Fokker-Planck equation in the Wigner representation. This earlier theory is equivalent to stochastic electrodynamics. Our quantum theory results indicate orders of magnitude faster tunneling far above threshold, when compared to the truncated Wigner theory.
We present dynamical calculations for the quantum parametric oscillator using both number-state and coherent-state bases. The coherent-state methods use the positive-P representation, which has a nonclassical phase space---an essential requirement in obtaining an exact stochastic representation of this nonlinear problem. This also provides a way to directly simulate quantum tunneling between the two above-threshold stable states of the oscillator. The coherent-state methods provide both analytic results at large photon numbers, and numerical results for any photon number, while our number-state calculations are restricted to numerical results in the low-photon-number regime. The number-state and coherent-state methods give precise agreement within the accuracy of the numerical calculations. We also compare our results with methods based on a truncated Wigner representation equivalent to stochastic electrodynamics, and find that these are unable to correctly predict the tunneling rate given by the other methods. An interesting feature of the results is the much faster tunneling predicted by the exact quantum-theory methods compared with earlier semiclassical calculations using an approximate potential barrier. This is similar to the faster tunneling found when comparing quantum penetration of a barrier to classical thermal activation. The quantum parametric oscillator, which has an exact steady-state solution, therefore provides a useful and accessible system in which nonlinear quantum effects can be studied far from thermal equilibrium.
We develop a systematic theory of critical quantum fluctuations in the driven parametric oscillator. Our analytic results agree well with stochastic numerical simulations. We also compare the results obtained in the positive-P representation, as a fully quantum-mechanical calculation, with the truncated Wigner phase-space equation, also known as the semiclassical theory. We show when these results agree and differ in calculations taken beyond the linearized approximation. We find that the optimal broadband noise reduction occurs just above threshold. In this region where there are large quantum fluctuations in the conjugate variance and macroscopic quantum superposition states might be expected, we find that the quantum predictions correspond very closely to the semiclassical theory.
We demonstrate a method which allows the stochastic modelling of quantum systems for which the generalised Fokker-Planck equation in the phase space contains derivatives of higher than second order. This generalises quantum stochastics far beyond the quantum-optical paradigm of three and four-wave mixing problems to which these techniques have so far only been applicable. To verify our method, we model a full Wigner representation for the optical parametric oscillator, a system where the correct results are well known and can be obtained by other methods. 1 I.
We demonstrate a method which allows the stochastic modelling of quantum systems for which the generalised Fokker-Planck equation in the phase space contains derivatives of higher than second order. This generalises quantum stochastics far beyond the quantum-optical paradigm of three- and four-wave mixing problems to which these techniques have so far only been applicable. To verify our method, we model a full Wigner representation for the optical parametric oscillator, a system where the correct results are well known and can be obtained by other methods.
We present a fully quantum mechanical treatment of the nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator both below and near threshold. This is a nonequilibrium quantum system with a critical point phase transition, that is also known to exhibit strong yet easily observed squeezing and quantum entanglement. Our treatment makes use of the positive PPP representation and goes beyond the usual linearized theory. We compare our analytical results with numerical simulations and find excellent agreement. We also carry out a detailed comparison of our results with those obtained from stochastic electrodynamics, a theory obtained by truncating the equation of motion for the Wigner function, with a view to locating regions of agreement and disagreement between the two. We calculate commonly used measures of quantum behavior including entanglement, squeezing, and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlations as well as higher order tripartite correlations, and show how these are modified as the critical point is approached. These results are compared with those obtained using two degenerate parametric oscillators, and we find that in the near-critical region the nondegenerate oscillator has stronger EPR correlations. In general, the critical fluctuations represent an ultimate limit to the possible entanglement that can be achieved in a nondegenerate parametric oscillator.
We develop a systematic theory of quantum fluctuations in the driven optical parametric oscillator, including the region near threshold. This allows us to treat the limits imposed by nonlinearities to quantum squeezing and noise reduction in this nonequilibrium quantum phase transition. In particular, we compute the squeezing spectrum near threshold and calculate the optimum value. We find that the optimal noise reduction occurs at different driving fields, depending on the ratio of damping rates. The largest spectral noise reductions are predicted to occur with a very high-QQQ second-harmonic cavity. Our analytic results agree well with stochastic numerical simulations. We also compare the results obtained in the positive-PPP representation, as a fully quantum-mechanical calculation, with the truncated Wigner phase-space equation, also known as the semiclassical theory.