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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Optical nonreciprocity of a single two-level atom in a cavity

Xiuwen Xia, Jingping Xu, Yaping Yang

Published Aug 22, 2014• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We analyze the transmission character of a single-mode cavity containing a resonant two-level atom. Such a simple structure exhibits optical nonlinearity and spatial symmetry breaking, as well as time-reversal symmetry breaking. We perform a detailed analysis in the Purcell regime and find out that there is giant optical nonreciprocity in proper parameter space. Therefore, it is feasible to assemble such a simple atom–cavity structure to realize an acceptable optical nonreciprocal device after carefully designing.

DOI
10.1364/josab.31.002175

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We analyze the transmission character of a single-mode cavity containing a resonant two-level atom. Such a simple structure exhibits optical nonlinearity and spatial symmetry breaking, as well as time-reversal symmetry breaking. We perform a detailed analysis in the Purcell regime and find out that there is giant optical nonreciprocity in proper parameter space. Therefore, it is feasible to assemble such a simple atom–cavity structure to realize an acceptable optical nonreciprocal device after carefully designing.
We present a work of promoted optical nonreciprocity (ONR) in an asymmetrical cavity containing two asymmetrically arranged two-level atoms with a weak atom-atom interaction. The input-output relation is worked out by using a perturbative approach. Results show that the bistable-monostable-bistable phase transition would exist when the second atom is present, where the optical bistability and nonreciprocity change considerably. Contributions of two types of spatial asymmetries suggest that the ONR originates from the cooperation of the cavity spatial symmetry breaking and the optical nonlinearity, regardless of the atomic spatial symmetry breaking. In addition to the experimentally proved bistable ONR, a type of monostable ONR is proposed, which operates in the monostable phase. Both the ONR optimal regime and the block rate are boosted by adding the other atom in the cavity. Our findings suggest a prospective approach to the generation of a giant ONR by two atoms with unequal atom-cavity coupling strengths.
Optical bistability of a single-mode cavity containing a two-level atom in the Purcell regime has been analyzed. Compared with the case of a symmetric cavity, we find that the bistable regime of input power in an asymmetric cavity can be controlled by adjusting the cavity-loss rates of the asymmetric walls. Such results provide an optimal window of input power to realize giant optical nonreciprocity, which has promising application as the smallest all-optical diode unit with low operation power and high transmitted contrast.
A two-level system that is coupled to a high-finesse cavity in the Purcell regime exhibits a giant optical nonlinearity due to the saturation of the two-level system at very low intensities, of the order of one photon per lifetime. We perform a detailed analysis of this effect, taking into account the most important practical imperfections. Our conclusion is that an experimental demonstration of the giant nonlinearity is feasible using semiconductor micropillar cavities containing a single quantum dot in resonance with the cavity mode.
Optical nonreciprocity is important in photonic information processing to route the optical signal or prevent the reverse flow of noise. By adopting the strong nonlinearity associated with a few atoms in a strongly coupled cavity QED system and an asymmetric cavity configuration, we experimentally demonstrate the nonreciprocal transmission between two counterpropagating light fields with extremely low power. The transmission of 18% is achieved for the forward light field, and the maximum blocking ratio for the reverse light is 30 dB. Though the transmission of the forward light can be maximized by optimizing the impedance matching of the cavity, it is ultimately limited by the inherent loss of the scheme. This nonreciprocity can even occur on a few-photon level due to the high optical nonlinearity of the system. The working power can be flexibly tuned by changing the effective number of atoms strongly coupled to the cavity. The idea and result can be applied to optical chips as optical diodes by using fiber-based cavity QED systems. Our work opens up new perspectives for realizing optical nonreciprocity on a few-photon level based on the nonlinearities of atoms strongly coupled to an optical cavity.
We developed and experimentally realized a scheme of optical nonreciprocity (ONR) by using degenerate two-level atoms embedded in an optical ring cavity. For the degenerate transition Fg = 4 ↔ Fe = 3, we first studied the cavity-transmission property in different coupling field configurations and verified that under the strong-coupling regime, the single-dark-state peak formed by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) showed ONR. The stable ground-state Zeeman coherence for Λ-chains involved in the degenerate two-level system was found to be important in the formation of intracavity EIT. However, different from the three-level atom–cavity system, in the degenerate two-level system, the ONR effect based on intracavity EIT occurred only at a low probe intensity, because the cavity–atom coupling strength was weakened in the counter-propagating probe and coupling field configuration. Furthermore, ONR transmission with a high contrast and linewidth-narrowing was experimentally demonstrated.
A scheme for magnetic-free optical nonreciprocity in an ensemble of four-level cold atoms is proposed by exploiting the directional four-wave mixing effect. Using experimentally achievable parameters, the nonreciprocal optical responses of the system can be observed and the conversion on nonreciprocal transmission and nonreciprocal phase shift can be implemented. These nonreciprocal phenomena originate from the directional phase matching, which breaks the time-reversal symmetry and dynamic reciprocity of the cold atomic system. Moreover, by embedding the cold atoms into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and choosing proper parameters, a two-port optical isolator with an isolation ratio of 79.70 dB and an insertion loss of 0.35 dB and a four-port optical circulator with a fidelity of 0.9985 and a photon survival probability of 0.9278 can be realized, which shows the high performance of isolation and circulation. The proposal may enable a new class of optically controllable cavity-free nonreciprocal devices in optical signal processing at the low light level.