Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Science

When Photons Bunch

Published Feb 24, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Being bosons, photons like to group together, with the behavior of photon bunching described as an attribute of classical light. At the other extreme, photons emitted by a single emitter are expected to antibunch, trickling out of the emitter one at a time. Although bunching and antibunching are well established behaviors of classical and nonclassical light, respectively, the transition between the two has not been observed. It is expected that as the number of emitters is increased, a smooth transition should occur. Using a high-quality cavity into which they can place a variable number of atoms, Hennrich et al. show that they can probe the transition systematically as the number of emitters (atoms in the cavity) is gradually increased. They observe that the antibunching behavior disappears when the average number of atoms in the cavity is one, and they are able to explain the experimental data well if the emitters are assumed to form an independent ensemble. — ISO

DOI
10.1126/science.307.5713.1171a

Related papers

Transition from Antibunching to Bunching in Cavity QED

Markus Hennrich, Axel Kuhn, Gerhard Rempe

The photon statistics of the light emitted from an atomic ensemble into a single field mode of an optical cavity is investigated as a function of the number of atoms. The light is produced in a Raman transition driven by a pump laser and the cavity vacuum, and a recycling laser is employed to repeat this process continuously. For weak driving, a smooth transition from antibunching to bunching is found for about one intracavity atom. Remarkably, the bunching peak develops within the antibunching dip. The observed behavior is well explained by a model describing an ensemble of independent emitters.

arXiv:quant-ph/0406035•Physical Review Letters•Feb 10, 2005•121 citations

Cavity QED in the Ultrastrong Coupling Regime: Photon Bunching from the Emission of Individual Dressed Qubits

Luigi Garziano, A. Ridolfo, Simone De Liberato +1 more

Photon antibunching in the light scattered by single quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of quantum optics, providing an unequivocal demonstration of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Antibunching can be intuitively understood by the need for a two-level system lying in its lower state after emitting a photon to be re-excited into the upper one before a second emission can take place. Here we show that such a picture breaks down in the ultrastrong light–matter coupling regime, when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the bare emitter frequency. Specializing to the cases of both a natural and an artificial atom, we thus show that a single emitter coupled to a photonic resonator can emit bunched light. The result presented herein is clear evidence of how the ultrastrong coupling regime is able to change the nature of individual atoms.

ACS Photonics•Aug 24, 2017•39 citations

Cavity QED Beyond Rotating Wave Approximation: Photon Bunching from the Emission of Individual Qubits

Luigi Garziano, A. Ridolfo, Simone De Liberato +1 more

Photon antibunching in the light scattered by single quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of quantum optics, providing an unequivocal demonstration of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Antibunching can be intuitively understood by the need for a two-level system lying in its lower state after emitting a photon to be re-excited into the upper one before a second emission can take place. Here we show that such a picture breaks down in the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime, when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the bare emitter frequency. Specialising to the cases of both a natural and a superconducting artificial atom, we thus show that a single emitter coupled to a photonic resonator can emit bunched light. The result presented herein is a clear evidence of how the ultrastrong coupling regime is able to change the nature of individual atoms.

arXiv:1702.00532•Feb 2, 2017•0 citations

Light of Two Atoms in Free Space: Bunching or Antibunching?

Sebastian Wolf, Stefan Richter, Joachim von Zanthier +1 more

Photon statistics divides light sources into three different categories, characterized by bunched, antibunched, or uncorrelated photon arrival times. Single atoms, ions, molecules, or solid state emitters display antibunching of photons, while classical thermal sources exhibit photon bunching. Here we demonstrate a light source in free space, where the photon statistics depends on the direction of observation, undergoing a continuous crossover between photon bunching and antibunching. We employ two trapped ions, observe their fluorescence under continuous laser light excitation, and record spatially resolved the autocorrelation function g^{(2)}(τ) with a movable Hanbury Brown and Twiss detector. Varying the detector position we find a minimum value for antibunching, g^{(2)}(0)=0.60(5) and a maximum of g^{(2)}(0)=1.46(8) for bunching, demonstrating that this source radiates fundamentally different types of light alike. The observed variation of the autocorrelation function is understood in the Dicke model from which the observed maximum and minimum values can be modeled, taking independently measured experimental parameters into account.

arXiv:1911.10983•Physical Review Letters•Feb 13, 2020•50 citations

Rolling Out Single Photons

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been studied exhaustively in terms of electronic and mechanical properties. A large repertoire of potential applications has been demonstrated for these one-dimensional systems of rolled-up sheets of carbon. To date, most of the optical studies on CNTs have focused more on characterization. Högele et al. now show that CNTs exhibit quantum optical behavior. Photons, being bosons, like to bunch together. However, in quantum systems such as atoms and artificial atoms, the confinement of carriers can split the pack behavior, resulting in the photons being emitted one at a time. For applications such as ultrasecure communication, such antibunching behavior is desirable. These authors excite a single CNT with a laser pulse and observe that light is emitted as single photons upon relaxation. The results suggest that CNTs may extend their repertoire beyond logic circuits and other electronic devices, finding application in quantum optoelectronics. — ISO

Science•Jun 19, 2008•0 citations

Coherence of Light Scattered by a Large Number of Independent Single-Photon Emitters

A. Kovalenko, Lukáš Lachman, D. T. Tran +7 more

We present the experimental characterization of coherence of light scattered from ensembles of noninteracting trapped ions. We set up and prove an indistinguishable emission from many ions by observation of photon bunching in a single-mode Hanbury-Brown and Twiss detection scheme.

Quantum Information and Measurement (QIM)•Jan 1, 2021•0 citations
Being bosons, photons like to group together, with the behavior of photon bunching described as an attribute of classical light. At the other extreme, photons emitted by a single emitter are expected to antibunch, trickling out of the emitter one at a time. Although bunching and antibunching are well established behaviors of classical and nonclassical light, respectively, the transition between the two has not been observed. It is expected that as the number of emitters is increased, a smooth transition should occur. Using a high-quality cavity into which they can place a variable number of atoms, Hennrich et al. show that they can probe the transition systematically as the number of emitters (atoms in the cavity) is gradually increased. They observe that the antibunching behavior disappears when the average number of atoms in the cavity is one, and they are able to explain the experimental data well if the emitters are assumed to form an independent ensemble. — ISO
The photon statistics of the light emitted from an atomic ensemble into a single field mode of an optical cavity is investigated as a function of the number of atoms. The light is produced in a Raman transition driven by a pump laser and the cavity vacuum, and a recycling laser is employed to repeat this process continuously. For weak driving, a smooth transition from antibunching to bunching is found for about one intracavity atom. Remarkably, the bunching peak develops within the antibunching dip. The observed behavior is well explained by a model describing an ensemble of independent emitters.
Photon antibunching in the light scattered by single quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of quantum optics, providing an unequivocal demonstration of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Antibunching can be intuitively understood by the need for a two-level system lying in its lower state after emitting a photon to be re-excited into the upper one before a second emission can take place. Here we show that such a picture breaks down in the ultrastrong light–matter coupling regime, when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the bare emitter frequency. Specializing to the cases of both a natural and an artificial atom, we thus show that a single emitter coupled to a photonic resonator can emit bunched light. The result presented herein is clear evidence of how the ultrastrong coupling regime is able to change the nature of individual atoms.
Photon antibunching in the light scattered by single quantum emitters is one of the hallmarks of quantum optics, providing an unequivocal demonstration of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Antibunching can be intuitively understood by the need for a two-level system lying in its lower state after emitting a photon to be re-excited into the upper one before a second emission can take place. Here we show that such a picture breaks down in the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime, when the coupling strength becomes comparable to the bare emitter frequency. Specialising to the cases of both a natural and a superconducting artificial atom, we thus show that a single emitter coupled to a photonic resonator can emit bunched light. The result presented herein is a clear evidence of how the ultrastrong coupling regime is able to change the nature of individual atoms.
Photon statistics divides light sources into three different categories, characterized by bunched, antibunched, or uncorrelated photon arrival times. Single atoms, ions, molecules, or solid state emitters display antibunching of photons, while classical thermal sources exhibit photon bunching. Here we demonstrate a light source in free space, where the photon statistics depends on the direction of observation, undergoing a continuous crossover between photon bunching and antibunching. We employ two trapped ions, observe their fluorescence under continuous laser light excitation, and record spatially resolved the autocorrelation function g^{(2)}(τ) with a movable Hanbury Brown and Twiss detector. Varying the detector position we find a minimum value for antibunching, g^{(2)}(0)=0.60(5) and a maximum of g^{(2)}(0)=1.46(8) for bunching, demonstrating that this source radiates fundamentally different types of light alike. The observed variation of the autocorrelation function is understood in the Dicke model from which the observed maximum and minimum values can be modeled, taking independently measured experimental parameters into account.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been studied exhaustively in terms of electronic and mechanical properties. A large repertoire of potential applications has been demonstrated for these one-dimensional systems of rolled-up sheets of carbon. To date, most of the optical studies on CNTs have focused more on characterization. Högele et al. now show that CNTs exhibit quantum optical behavior. Photons, being bosons, like to bunch together. However, in quantum systems such as atoms and artificial atoms, the confinement of carriers can split the pack behavior, resulting in the photons being emitted one at a time. For applications such as ultrasecure communication, such antibunching behavior is desirable. These authors excite a single CNT with a laser pulse and observe that light is emitted as single photons upon relaxation. The results suggest that CNTs may extend their repertoire beyond logic circuits and other electronic devices, finding application in quantum optoelectronics. — ISO