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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Quantum optics in a photonic band gap material

Sajeev John

Published May 12, 2000• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Summary form only given. Unlike semiconductors which facilitate the coherent propagation of electrons, photonic band gap (PBG) materials execute their novel functions through the coherent localization of photons. When a PBG material is doped with impurity atoms which have an electronic transition that lies within the gap, spontaneous emission of light from the atom is inhibited. Inside the gap, the photon forms a bound state to the atom. Outside the gap, radiative dynamics in the colored vacuum is highly nonMarkovian. I discuss the influence of these memory effects on laser action. When spontaneous emission is absent, the next order radiative effect (resonance dipole-dipole interaction between atoms) must be incorporated, leading to anomalous nonlinear optical effects which occur at a much lower threshold than in ordinary vacuum. I describe the collective switching of two-level atoms near a photonic band edge, by external laser field, from a passive stare to one exhibiting population inversion. This effect is forbidden in ordinary vacuum. Finally, I discuss the prospects for a phase sensitive, single (3-level) atom quantum memory device, onto which information may be written by an external laser pulse. By scattering polarized photons (flying qubit) this system may execute certain quantum logic operations.

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Physical Review Letters•Apr 1, 1996•63 citations
Summary form only given. Unlike semiconductors which facilitate the coherent propagation of electrons, photonic band gap (PBG) materials execute their novel functions through the coherent localization of photons. When a PBG material is doped with impurity atoms which have an electronic transition that lies within the gap, spontaneous emission of light from the atom is inhibited. Inside the gap, the photon forms a bound state to the atom. Outside the gap, radiative dynamics in the colored vacuum is highly nonMarkovian. I discuss the influence of these memory effects on laser action. When spontaneous emission is absent, the next order radiative effect (resonance dipole-dipole interaction between atoms) must be incorporated, leading to anomalous nonlinear optical effects which occur at a much lower threshold than in ordinary vacuum. I describe the collective switching of two-level atoms near a photonic band edge, by external laser field, from a passive stare to one exhibiting population inversion. This effect is forbidden in ordinary vacuum. Finally, I discuss the prospects for a phase sensitive, single (3-level) atom quantum memory device, onto which information may be written by an external laser pulse. By scattering polarized photons (flying qubit) this system may execute certain quantum logic operations.
Summary form only given. Photonic band gap (PBG) materials are a new class of dielectrics which represent a major new frontier in quantum, nonlinear, and classical optics. They also represent a new technology platform for the optical networking industry. Unlike semiconductors which facilitate the coherent propagation of electrons, PBG materials execute their novel functions through the coherent localization of photons. When a PBG material is doped with impurity atoms (or other two-level systems) which have an electronic transition that lies within the gap, spontaneous emission of light from the atom is inhibited. Instead, the photon forms a bound state to the atom. This has dramatic consequences for collective light emission from a large number of atoms and for the interaction of such atoms with an external laser field. I describe the design of an all optical micro-transistor based on collective switching of two-level atoms near a photonic band edge, by an external laser field. I discuss tunable PBG materials whose band structure can be modulated by means of an external field. This effect enables the steering of light in a manner similar to the steering of electrons by an electric field in a semiconductor.
We demonstrate the coherent control of spontaneous emission for a three-level atom located within a photonic band gap (PBG) material, with one resonant frequency near the edge of the PBG. Spontaneous emission from the three-level atom can be totally suppressed or strongly enhanced depending on the relative phase between the steady-state control laser coupling the two upper levels and the pump laser pulse used to create an excited state of the atom in the form of a coherent superposition of the two upper levels. Unlike the free-space case, the steady-state inversion of the atomic system is strongly dependent on the externally prescribed initial conditions. This non-zero steady-state population is achieved by virtue of the localization of light in the vicinity of the emitting atom. It is robust to decoherence effects provided that the Rabi frequency of the control laser field exceeds the rate of dephasing interactions. As a result, such a system may be relevant for a single-atom, phase-sensitive optical memory device on the atomic scale. The protected electric dipole within the PBG provides a basis for a qubit to encode information for quantum computations. A detailed literature survey on the nature, fabrication and applications of PBG materials is presented to provide context for this research.
We demonstrate the coherent control of spontaneous emission for a three-level atom located within a photonic band-gap structure with one resonant frequency near the edge of the photonic band gap. Spontaneous emission from the three-level atom can be totally suppressed or strongly enhanced depending on the relative phase between the steady-state control laser coupling the two upper levels and the pump laser pulse used to create an excited state of the atom in the form of a coherent superposition of the two upper levels. Unlike the free-space case, the steady-state inversion of the atomic system is strongly dependent on the externally prescribed initial conditions. This nonzero steady-state population is achieved by virtue of the localization of light in the vicinity of the emitting atom. It is robust to decoherence effects provided that the Rabi frequency of the control laser field-atom interaction exceeds the rate of dephasing interactions. As a result, such a system may be relevant for a single-atom, phase-sensitive, optical memory device on the atomic scale. The protected electric dipole within the photonic band gap provides a basis for a qubit to encode information for quantum computations.
We describe all-optical transistor action in photonic band gap materials doped with active atoms. In the presence of a photonic band gap (PBG) material, a coherent laser beam with the frequency slightly detuned from the resonant atomic transition frequency can drive a collection of two-level atoms to an almost totally inverted state, a phenomenon strictly forbidden in ordinary vacuum. By changing the laser field intensity in the neighborhood of a threshold value, it is possible to drive the atomic system through a transition from states in which the atoms populate preferentially the ground level to almost totally inverted states. In this process, the atomic system switches from a passive medium (highly absorptive) to a active medium (highly amplifying). The switching action in a PBG material is not associated with operating near a narrow cavity resonance with conventional trade-off between switching time and switching threshold intensity. Rather it is associated with an abrupt discontinuity in the engineered broad band electromagnetic density of states of the PBG material. We demonstrate all-optical transistor action in PBG materials by analyzing the absorption spectrum of a second probe laser beam and we show that the probe beam experience a substantial differential gain by slight intensity modulations in the control laser field.
We studied the effects of a coherent monochromatic resonant laser field driving the transition of a two-level atom embedded in a photonic band gap (PBG) material on the emission dynamics of the atom. When the transition frequency of the atom lies outside a PBG and sufficiently far from the band edge that the emission dynamics of the atom is not normally affected by the gap, the dynamic stark splitting of the upper level of the atom into two dressed states by a sufficiently strong resonant driving field can bring the lower dressed state close enough to the band edge or even inside the gap so as to be affected by the gap, providing a switchable means of extending the novel effects of atom–photon interaction near the edge of a PBG for atomic transitions outside the gap and far from the band edge. The net effect is as if a sufficiently strong resonant field driving a transition of an atom embedded in a PBG actively shifts the PBG close enough to the transition so that the gap affects the emission dynamics associated with the transition.
We study the dielectric response of impurity two-level atoms in a photonic band gap (PBG) to an applied laser field. In this system, the atoms may exchange energy coherently by resonance dipole-dipole interaction (RDDI) which is assumed to be strong compared to the spontaneous emission rate. When the applied Rabi frequency exceeds the RDDI energy scale, nonlinear saturation of the absorptive part of the susceptibility occurs while the real part of the nonlinear susceptibility remains large. This suggests that doped PBG materials may act as nearly lossless, but highly nonlinear dielectrics.