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Physical Review Letters

Analytic Properties of Two-Photon Scattering Matrix in Integrated Quantum Systems Determined by the Cluster Decomposition Principle

Shanshan Xu, Eden Rephaeli, Shanhui Fan

Published Nov 27, 2013• 73 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider a general class of integrated quantum systems where photon-photon interaction occurs in a quantum device that is localized in space. Using techniques that are closely related to cluster decomposition principles in quantum field theory, we provide a general constraint on the analytic properties of a two-photon S matrix in this class of systems. We also show that the photon-photon interaction in these systems inevitably leads to frequency mixing and entanglement and that frequencies of the single photons cannot be preserved in these systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.111.223602

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We consider a general class of integrated quantum systems where photon-photon interaction occurs in a quantum device that is localized in space. Using techniques that are closely related to cluster decomposition principles in quantum field theory, we provide a general constraint on the analytic properties of a two-photon S matrix in this class of systems. We also show that the photon-photon interaction in these systems inevitably leads to frequency mixing and entanglement and that frequencies of the single photons cannot be preserved in these systems.
We show that the form of the cluster decomposition principle, commonly used in quantum field theory, needs to be significantly generalized. As an illustration, we consider the general structure of two-photon SSS matrix for a waveguide coupled to a local quantum system that supports multiple ground states. The presence of the multiple ground states results in a noncommutative aspect of the system with respect to the exchange of the orders of photons. Consequently, the two-photon SSS matrix significantly differs from the standard form in quantum field theory.
In the framework of quantum field theory, one finds multiple load-bearing locality and causality conditions. One of the most important is the cluster decomposition principle, which requires that scattering experiments conducted at large spatial separation have statistically independent results. The principle grounds a number of features of quantum field theory, especially the structure of scattering theory. However, the statistical independence required by cluster decomposition is in tension with the long-range correlations characteristic of entangled states. In this paper, we argue that cluster decomposition is best stated as a condition on the dynamics of a quantum field theory, not directly as a statistical independence condition. This redefinition avoids the tension with entanglement while better capturing the physical significance of cluster decomposition and the role it plays in the structure of quantum field theory.
We study the scattering of photons from periodically modulated quantum-optical systems. For excitation-number-conserving quantum-optical systems, we connect the analytic structure of the frequency-domain NNN-photon scattering matrix of the system to the Floquet decomposition of its effective Hamiltonian. Furthermore, it is shown that the first-order contribution to the transmission or equal-time NNN-photon correlation spectrum with respect to the modulation frequency is completely geometric in nature, i.e., it depends only on the Hamiltonian trajectory and not on the precise nature of the modulation being applied.
Realising a platform for efficiently guiding and manipulating light at the singlephoton level lies at the heart of optical quantum information processing. In this thesis we aid in the pursuit of this goal by analysing few-photon transport properties in photonic devices while keeping in mind possible applications and experimental challenges. We especially focus on single and two-photon transport properties in one-dimensional waveguides coupled to (artificial) atoms modelled as two and three-level emitters. We begin by introducing key concepts relevant for this thesis and then explain how to model such waveguide geometries. We show how directional-dependent coupling between a waveguide and a localized quantum system can be modelled from a chain of harmonic oscillators by allowing the system to couple to more than one site. Using the input-output formalism and scattering matrix theory we determine a general form for the single and two-photon S-matrices for a waveguide coupled to a two-level system. We also explain how to engineer a quantum optical Fanoresonance waveguide geometry and calculate how this modifies the S-matrices, the few-photon scattering probabilities, and the scattered output spectra. We show that the nonlinear effects in such a system generates highly correlated directional scattering probabilities. We device a protocol that can generate maximal entanglement between two spectrally distinct solid-state emitters by the use of multi-photon scattering. The results also reveal a rich structure for multi-photon states interacting with non-identical emitters. As a final investigation, we quantify how spectral diffusion in quantum dots affects finite-width single and two-photon scattering. Single-photon scattering probabilities are described by a simple convolution but this is not the case for a two-photon state scattering off a two-level emitter. We show that the effect of spectral wandering depletes the nonlinear scattering properties, but that it affects co and counter-propagating output probabilities differently.
We consider the transport properties of multiple-particle quantum states in a class of one-dimensional systems with a single quantum impurity. In these systems, the local interaction at the quantum impurity induces strong and nontrivial correlations between the multiparticles. We outline an exact theoretical approach, based upon real-space equations of motion and the Bethe ansatz, that allows one to construct the full scattering matrix (SSS matrix) for these systems. In particular, we emphasize the need for a completeness check upon the eigenstates of the SSS matrix, when these states obtained from Bethe ansatz are used for describing the scattering properties. As a detailed example of our approach, we solve the transport properties of two photons incident on a single two-level atom, when the photons are restricted to a one-dimensional system such as a photonic crystal waveguide. Our approach predicts a number of nonlinear effects involving only two photons, including background fluorescence, spatial attraction and repulsion between the photons, as well as the emergence of a two-photon bound state.