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Physical Review A

Constructive and destructive quantum interference sensitive to quantum vacuum mode structure in a metallic waveguide

Jian Qi Shen

Published Dec 19, 2011• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum vacuum mode structure can be changed due to length scale fluctuation of the cross section of a metallic waveguide. Such a structure change in vacuum modes (particularly in cutoff vacuum modes) would lead to dramatic enhancement or inhibition of spontaneous emission decay of atoms and, if the waveguide is filled with a dilute atomic vapor consisting of quantum-coherent atoms of a four-level tripod-configuration system, an optical wave propagating inside the waveguide can be coherently manipulated by tunable constructive and destructive quantum interference between two control transitions (driven by two control fields) in a quite unusual way (e.g., the optical response, in which a three-level dark state is involved, is sensitive to the waveguide dimension variations at certain positions of resonance of the atomic spontaneous emission decay rate). Therefore, an intriguing effect that can be employed to designs of new photonic and quantum optical devices could be achieved based on the present mechanisms of quantum-vacuum manipulation and quantum coherence control.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.063841

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Quantum vacuum mode structure can be changed due to length scale fluctuation of the cross section of a metallic waveguide. Such a structure change in vacuum modes (particularly in cutoff vacuum modes) would lead to dramatic enhancement or inhibition of spontaneous emission decay of atoms and, if the waveguide is filled with a dilute atomic vapor consisting of quantum-coherent atoms of a four-level tripod-configuration system, an optical wave propagating inside the waveguide can be coherently manipulated by tunable constructive and destructive quantum interference between two control transitions (driven by two control fields) in a quite unusual way (e.g., the optical response, in which a three-level dark state is involved, is sensitive to the waveguide dimension variations at certain positions of resonance of the atomic spontaneous emission decay rate). Therefore, an intriguing effect that can be employed to designs of new photonic and quantum optical devices could be achieved based on the present mechanisms of quantum-vacuum manipulation and quantum coherence control.
A tripod-configuration four-level atomic system can exhibit nontrivial quantum destructive and constructive interference that could manipulate the optical response of an atomic vapour. It is shown that the tunable double-control electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) would be controlled via the quantum interference between two control fields interacting with the present atomic system. If a metallic waveguide is filled with such a double-control four-level atomic vapour, the quantum vacuum mode structure in the present EIT waveguide would have a novel influence on the atomic spontaneous emission decay (and hence on the EIT optical behavior). As the waveguide dimension change (i.e., the change in length scale of cross section of waveguide) can vary the vacuum mode structure, which can lead to spontaneous emission enhancement or inhibition, the optical response (including absorption and transparency induced by the tunable double-control quantum destructive and constructive interference) of the atomic vapour in the waveguide is quite sensitive to small change in the waveguide dimension caused by external environmental factors (such as electric signal voltage, environmental temperature change and acoustic pressure). The sensitive optical response based on the mechanisms of both double-control quantum interference and quantum-vacuum manipulation presented here may have some potential applications to the technique for designing new photonic and quantum optical devices.
The author of this thesis concentrates his attention on quantum optical properties of some artificial electromagnetic media, such as quantum coherent atomic vapors (various multilevel electromagnetically induced transparency vapors) and negative refractive index materials, and suggests some possible ways to manipulate wave propagations inside the artificial electromagnetic materials based on quantum coherence and quantum vacuum effects. In Chapters 1 and 2, the author reviews the previous papers on quantum coherence as well as the relevant work such as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), atomic population trapping and their various applications. The basic concepts of quantum coherence (atomic phase coherence, quantum interferences within atomic energy levels) and quantum vacuum are introduced, and the theoretical formulations for treating wave propagations in quantum coherent media are presented. In Chapter 3, the author considers three topics on the manipulation of light propagations via quantum coherence and quantum interferences: i) the evolutional optical behaviors (turn-on dynamics) of a four-level N-configuration atomic system is studied and the tunable optical behavior that depends on the intensity ratio of the signal field to the control field is considered. Some typical photonic logic gates (e.g. NOT and NOR gates) are designed based on the tunable four-level optical responses of the N-configuration atomic system; ii) the destructive and constructive quantum interferences between two control transitions (driven by the control fields) in a tripod-type four-level system is suggested. The double-control quantum interferences can be utilized to realize some photonic devices such as the logic-gate devices, e.g., NOT, OR, NOR and EXNOR gates; iii) some new quantum coherent schemes (using EIT and dressed-state mixed-parity transitions) for realizing negative refractive indices are proposed. The most remarkable characteristic (and advantage) of the present scenarios is such that the isotropic left-handed media (with microscopic structure units at the atomic level) in the optical frequency band can be achieved. Quantum vacuum (the ground state of quantized fields) can exhibit many interesting effects. In Chapter 4, we investigate two quantum-vacuum effects in artificial materials: i) the anisotropic distribution of quantum-vacuum momentum density in a moving electromagnetic medium; ii) the angular momentum transfer between quantum vacuum and anisotropic medium. Such quantum-vacuum macroscopic mechanical effects could be detected by current technology, e.g., the so-called fiber optical sensor that can measure motion with nanoscale sensitivity. We expect that these vacuum effects could be utilized to develop sensitive sensor techniques or to design new quantum optical and photonic devices.In Chapter 5, the author suggests some interesting effects due to the combination of quantum coherence and quantum vacuum, i.e., the quantum coherent effects, in which the quantum-vacuum fluctuation field is involved. Two topics are addressed: i) spontaneous emission inhibition due to quantum interference in a three-level system; ii) quantum light-induced guiding potentials for coherent manipulation of atomic matter waves (containing multilevel atoms). These quantum guiding potentials could be utilized to cool and trap atoms, and may be used for the development of new techniques of atom fibers and atom chips, where the coherent manipulation of atomic matter waves is needed.In Chapter 6, we conclude this thesis with some remarks, briefly discuss new work that deserves further consideration in the future, and present a guide to the previously published papers by us.
A new scheme is suggested to manipulate the probe transitions (and hence the optical properties of atomic vapors) via double-control destructive and constructive quantum interferences. The influence of phase coherence between the two control transitions on the probe transition is also studied. The most remarkable feature of the present scheme is that the optical properties (absorption, transparency and dispersion) of an atomic system can be manipulated using this double-control multi-pathway interferences (multiple routes to excitation). It is also shown that a four-level system will exhibit a two-level resonant absorption because the two control levels (driven by the two control fields) form a dark state (and hence a destructive quantum interference occurs between the two control transitions). However, the present four-level system will exhibit electromagnetically induced transparency to the probe field when the three lower levels (including the probe level and the two control levels) form a three-level dark state. The present scenario has potential applications in new devices (e.g. logic gates and sensitive optical switches) and new techniques (e.g. quantum coherent information storage).
An experimentally feasible scheme of a four-level atomic system driven by two microwaves and one optical field is suggested in order to realize destructive and constructive quantum interference between the two microwave-driven transition pathways and hence to coherently manipulate the applied optical field. The destructive quantum interference can be switched to the constructive interference and vice versa if one tunes the intensity ratio of the two microwaves. Such an effect of tunable optical response based on microwave quantum interference may have some potential applications to the technique for designing new photonic and quantum optical devices, e.g., photonic logic gates, optical switches, and photonic transistors.
The earliest studies on the subject of spontaneous emission from an excited atom via interaction with the vacuum modes of the radiation field go back to the early days of quantum mechanics. In view of the fundamental nature of the vacuum fluctuations, it was long thought that spontaneous emission could not be controlled. However, in 1946 Purcell noted that the spontaneous emission rate of the atom inside a resonant cavity can be substantially enhanced (or suppressed) over its free-space value. This is due to the dramatic change of the density of modes of the vacuum field in a cavity. The enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission in resonant and off-resonant cavities were observed experimentally in the 1980s. It was also realized in the 1950s and 1960s that coherent driving fields can dramatically change the characteristics of the spontaneous emission. The Autler-Townes doublet and Mollow three-peak spectrum are the examples of such behavior. A dramatic narrowing of the spectral peaks were discovered in driven multilevel atomic systems in the early 1990s. The role of atomic coherence in quenching spontaneous emission fluctuations in the context of laser physics was studied in the 1980s, via the correlated spontaneous emission laser (CEL). In this case atomic coherence results in the correlation of two spontaneous emission noise events so that the spontaneous emission quantum noise is eliminated in the relative linewidth. Later, it was “discovered” that the spontaneous emission can be suppressed through quantum interference between decay channels. Properly stated, this was rediscovered since it was first discovered and explained by Lamb in the 1940s. If the dipoles of two transitions from one upper level to two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission in an ordinary vacuum can be cancelled. In a nonuniform vacuum, e.g., a cavity, the quenching of spontaneous emission can be achieved, even for the orthogonal dipoles.
Spontaneous emission in atomic system arises due to the interaction of atoms with environmental modes. Atomic coherence and quantum interference are the most important mechanisms for controlling the spontaneous emission. We show that under certain conditions complete quenching of spontaneous emission is possible. By using V type three level system driven by two fields, the phase dependence of quantum interference is investigated. The Fano type and P type interference mechanism in atomic coherence system driven by microwaves are investigated. In particular we find that both phase dependence interference mechanism may be destructive simultaneously and thus lead to spontaneous emission cancellation in different parts of the spectrum. One of the most important applications of this system is the refractive index enhancement.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.