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Physical Review X

All-Optical Switching and Router via the Direct Quantum Control of Coupling between Cavity Modes

Keyu Xia, Jason Twamley

Published Sep 5, 2013• 97 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Classical optical communication and quantum information processing based on photonic networks require photonics signals to be switched on and off or routed via optical cavities and waveguides in the networks. Large-bandwidth and nearly perfect switching as well as low-loss, multiport routing remains challenging. A new proposal achieves these goals, relying on controlling the coupling between two neighboring cavities in a transmission path with a three-level atomic scatter of photons.

DOI
10.1103/physrevx.3.031013

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Classical optical communication and quantum information processing based on photonic networks require photonics signals to be switched on and off or routed via optical cavities and waveguides in the networks. Large-bandwidth and nearly perfect switching as well as low-loss, multiport routing remains challenging. A new proposal achieves these goals, relying on controlling the coupling between two neighboring cavities in a transmission path with a three-level atomic scatter of photons.
We propose an efficient single-photon router comprising two resonator waveguide channels coupled by several sequential cavities with embedded three-level atoms. We show that the system can operate as a perfect four-way single-photon switch. We also demonstrate that an incident single photon propagating in one of the waveguides can be routed into one or the other output channels; such routing can be controlled by the external classical electromagnetic field driving the atoms. We argue that, under appropriate conditions, the efficiency of such routing can be close to 100% within a broad operational bandwidth, suggesting various applications in photonics.
We demonstrate theoretically that waveguide-coupled cavities with embedded two-level emitters can act as a highly efficient, high-fidelity single-photon switch. The photon switch is an optical router triggered by a classical signal—the propagation direction of single input photons in the waveguide is controlled by changing the emitter-cavity coupling parameters , for example, using applied fields. The switch reflects photons in the weak emitter-cavity coupling regime and transmits photons in the strong coupling regime. By calculating transmission and reflection spectra using the input-output formalism of quantum optics and the transfer matrix approach, we obtain the fidelity and efficiency of the switch with a single-photon input in both regimes. We find that a single waveguide-coupled cavity can route input photon wave packets with near-unity efficiency and fidelity if the wave packet width is smaller than the cavity mode linewidth. We also find that using multiple waveguide-coupled cavities increases the switching bandwidth, allowing wider wave packets to be routed with high efficiency and fidelity. For example, an array of three waveguide-coupled cavities can reflect an input Gaussian wave packet with a full width at half-maximum of 1 nm (corresponding to a few-picosecond pulse) with an efficiency E r = 96.4 % and a fidelity F r = 97.7 % , or transmit the wave packet with an efficiency E t = 99.7 % and a fidelity F t = 99.8 % . Such efficient, high-fidelity single-photon routing is essential for scalable photonic quantum technologies. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The prospect of quantum networks, in which quantum information is carried by single photons in photonic circuits, has long been the driving force behind the effort to achieve all-optical routing of single photons. We realized a single-photon-activated switch capable of routing a photon from any of its two inputs to any of its two outputs. Our device is based on a single atom coupled to a fiber-coupled, chip-based microresonator. A single reflected control photon toggles the switch from high reflection (R ~ 65%) to high transmission (T ~ 90%), with an average of ~1.5 control photons per switching event (~3, including linear losses). No additional control fields are required. The control and target photons are both in-fiber and practically identical, making this scheme compatible with scalable architectures for quantum information processing.
The realization of the all-optical router with multiple input ports and output ports will have direct application to achieve the quantum network. We present a scheme of all-optical routing of coherent-state photons in a waveguide-cavity coupled system. Our router has four input ports and four output ports. The routing of photons is based on the interference. The outcomes show that the transport of the coherent-state photons injected through any input port can be controlled by the phases of the coherent-state photons injected through other input ports. This control can be realized at the single-photon level and requires no additional control fields. Therefore, the all-optical routing at single-photon level can be achieved.
I analyze an all-optical switching scheme in a cavity QED system consisting of multiple three-level atoms confined in a cavity mode. A control laser coupled to the atoms from free space induces quantum interference in the coupled cavity-atom system and performs all optical switching of the cavity-atom polaritons. When the cavity is tuned far away from the atomic resonance, the cavity-atom polariton consists of nearly pure photonic excitation and then the scheme can be used for photon switching at low light intensities.
Abstract We provide an approach to realize an optical switch using an induced transparency phenomenon in double-cavity structures. Our system consists of two directly coupled cavities, each coupled to a different waveguide. The system is pumped by a control field and a signal field propagating in the waveguides. We analyze the excitation spectra of the cavities, as well as corresponding transmission and reflection coefficients for the signal field. We find that induced transparency or an absorption phenomenon for the signal field can be established in this system, depending on the parameters of the control field. Thus, the transport properties for the signal field are highly controllable. Under appropriate parameters the system can behave as a nearly perfect optical switch for the signal field. The influence of dissipations on the efficiency of the switch is also discussed. The device studied here is suitable for on-chip integrations, and may have broad applications in future quantum networks.