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Physical Review A

Single-atom switching in photonic crystals

Marian Florescu A, Sajeev John

Published Aug 2, 2001• 109 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe the role of first non-Markovian corrections to resonance fluorescence in photonic crystals, using a perturbative expansion of the Heisenberg equations of motion in powers of the atom-field reservoir coupling strength. Non-Markovian effects arise from the rapid variation of the photonic density of states with frequency. Our method recaptures the physics of the photon-atom bound state in the presence of a full photonic band gap. For the anisotropic three-dimensional photonic band gap, it predicts remarkable features in the resonance fluorescence, such as atomic population inversion and switching behavior in a two-level atom for moderate values of the applied laser field. The magnitude of the switching effect depends sensitively on the external laser intensity and its detuning frequency from the atomic transition. The robustness of this effect against nonradiative decay and dephasing mechanisms is also investigated.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.64.033801

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 16, 2003•0 citations
We describe the role of first non-Markovian corrections to resonance fluorescence in photonic crystals, using a perturbative expansion of the Heisenberg equations of motion in powers of the atom-field reservoir coupling strength. Non-Markovian effects arise from the rapid variation of the photonic density of states with frequency. Our method recaptures the physics of the photon-atom bound state in the presence of a full photonic band gap. For the anisotropic three-dimensional photonic band gap, it predicts remarkable features in the resonance fluorescence, such as atomic population inversion and switching behavior in a two-level atom for moderate values of the applied laser field. The magnitude of the switching effect depends sensitively on the external laser intensity and its detuning frequency from the atomic transition. The robustness of this effect against nonradiative decay and dephasing mechanisms is also investigated.
We introduce a dressed-state Monte Carlo wave-function technique to describe resonance fluorescence in a broad class of non-Markovian reservoirs with strong atom-reservoir interaction. The method recaptures photon localization effects which are beyond the Born and Markovian approximations, and describes the influence of the driving field on the atom-reservoir interaction. Using this approach, we predict a number of fundamentally new features in resonance fluorescence near the edge of a photonic band gap. In particular, the atomic population exhibits inversion for moderate applied field intensity. For a low external field intensity, the atomic system retains a long-time memory of its initial state.
We describe the spectral characteristics of the radiation scattered by two-level atoms (quantum dots) driven by a strong external field, and coupled to a photonic crystal radiation reservoir. We show that in the presence of strong variations with the frequency of the photonic reservoir density of states, the atomic, Mollow, sideband components of the scattered intensity can be strongly modified. Consequently, a weak optical probe field experiences a substantial differential gain in response to slight variations in the intensity of an optical driving field. We suggest that these effects may be of relevance to all-optical transistor action in photonic crystals. Using a specific photonic crystal heterostructure, we suggest that an all-optical microtransistor based on photonic crystals may operate at less than 100nW100\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{nW}100nW switching threshold power. Collective NNN-atom effects substantially enhance this optical switching effect. Near the switching threshold intensity, collective effects are manifest in the N2{N}^{2}N2 scaling of the intensity spectrum (reminiscent of superradiance). Above and below this critical region, the gain spectrum widens (linearly with NNN). This correspondingly reduces the switching time scales of the atomic system in response to external fields. Furthermore, the quantum degree of second-order coherence exhibits unusual features. Scattered photons display a variable degree of antibunching as function of driving laser field intensity and the photonic density of states discontinuity. We analyze the effects of the inhomogeneous atomic line broadening on the amplification process. We show, using suitable photonic density of states engineering, that it is possible to select a narrow spectral range around the central frequency of the atomic frequency distribution over which amplification and switching occur. This is done either by spectral decoupling of the active elements from the electromagnetic field (through the introduction of band gaps at specified spectral locations) or through incoherent pumping to selectively saturate atoms outside the spectral region chosen for amplification.
In this thesis we demonstrate that the photonic band edge facilitates fundamental switching effects for resonant two-level atomic systems. In a photonic crystal, a coherent laser beam can drive a two-level atom to inverted atomic states, a phenomenon forbidden in ordinary vacuum. In this process, the atomic system switches from a passive medium to a gain medium as a function of the driving field intensity. We show that the large differential gain exhibited by the atomic medium is robust against non-radiative relaxation and dephasing mechanisms. This switching effect exhibits collective enhancement for a large number of two-level atoms within a cubic wavelength. In this case, the ensemble of atoms sharply switches to a highly inverted state at a very well defined threshold value of the laser field intensity. We next demonstrate that a probe laser field of prescribed wavelength experiences a substantial differential gain by slight modulations in the control laser field. We suggest that a doped photonic band gap material may, in this sense, be used as an all-optical micro-transistor. We analyze the effects of inhomogeneous line broadening on the probe beam spectrum and demonstrate that further electromagnetic density of states engineering combined with photo-bleaching techniques can be used to both offset the deleterious effects of inhomogeneous broadening and to enlarge the switching bandwidth. We investigate the prospects and challenges in designing microstructures with characteristics required by our proposal. We further show that the switching power and the response time of an all-optical transistor can be dramatically reduced by including collective effects, which also provide a natural mechanism of broadening of the gain spectrum. Finally, we develop an exact multi-photon scattering theory of resonance fluorescence in frequency-dependent photonic reservoirs. We show that, in the limit of weak driving field, the scattering cross section becomes strongly non-Lorentzian, reflecting the non exponential character of the atomic decay. As the driving field intensity increases, the scattered field acquires new features, consistent with predictions of a dynamical decoupling of the atomic system from the photonic reservoir.
We demonstrate population inversion and sub-Poissonian excitation statistics of NNN two-level atoms in the context of collective resonance fluorescence. This occurs within photonic band gap and other confined photonic systems that exhibit sharp features in the optical density of states. When the deviation in the photon density of states between the Mollow spectral components is considerable, the atoms switch collectively from ground to excited states at a critical value of the applied laser field. This suggests a new mechanism of sub-Poissonian pumping of lasers, fast optical switching, and optical transistor action.
Summary form only given. In this work we suggest and discuss the method of collective atomic-field operators for the resonance fluorescence of two-level atom with the transition frequency near the band gap edge. The method is based on the formal diagonalization of the interaction Hamiltonian in the absence of driving. In the absence of driving the method also allows to obtain the exact solution for the case when there are two photons in the field. We show that due to closeness to the gap edge the collective operators are weakly coupled. This allows to develop an effective approximation applicable when the problem is strongly non-Markovian, i.e. when in the absence of driving the effect of "freezing" of upper-level atomic population takes place. Then the dynamics of all but one collective operators becomes similar to the bosonic one. Only the dynamics of this one collective operators is nonlinear. We show that in this case a perturbation theory could be developed using as a small parameter a respective coupling strength between this one collective operator and others. In fact, the method of collective operators gives possibility to develop a perturbation theory "tailored" especially for the essentially non-Markovian problem. We derive a condition of applicability for this theory. Essentially, it is the condition of weak excitation of all collective atom-field "modes" corresponding to the collective operators with dynamics similar to the bosonic one. For the moderate intensities of the driving field even an approximation of independent collective operators gives good results. In the limit of weak driving field a simple analytic approximation is developed. As comparison shows, this approximation allows to describe a basic features of atomic population dynamics even for the cases when the driving field could not any more be considered weak.
Steady state resonance fluorescence spectra from a two-level atom embedded in a photonic bandgap crystal and resonantly driven by a classical pump light are calculated. The photonic crystal is considered to be with a small bandgap which is in the order of magnitude of the Rabi frequency and is modeled by the anisotropic two-band dispersion relation. Non-Markovian noises caused by the non-uniform distribution of photon density states near the photonic bandgap are taken into account by a new approach which linearizes the optical Bloch equations by using the Liouville operator expansion. Fluorescence spectra that only exhibit sidebands of the Mollow triplet are found, indicating that there is no coherent Rayleigh scattering process.