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Entangling atoms and photons in photonic crystals. Single photon switches and more.

Dimitris G. Angelakis, Y. Yamamoto

Published Jan 1, 2001• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We show how highly non-linear interactions between single photon pulses can be realized in a photonic crystal doped with four level atoms. We describe how two photons, each coupled to a different atomic transition in such atoms, can manifest strong amplitude correlations. In some cases one single photon can trigger the absorption of the other and the device could thus operate as an ultrasensitive nonlinear photon-switch. These effects also allow for the creation of three-partite entangled states of the GHZ form. The realization of a possible GHZ type of non-locality test is investigated. We note the simplicity of the above case over the usual EIT type of schemes requiring the existence of external coupling lasers.

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We show how highly non-linear interactions between single photon pulses can be realized in a photonic crystal doped with four level atoms. We describe how two photons, each coupled to a different atomic transition in such atoms, can manifest strong amplitude correlations. In some cases one single photon can trigger the absorption of the other and the device could thus operate as an ultrasensitive nonlinear photon-switch. These effects also allow for the creation of three-partite entangled states of the GHZ form. The realization of a possible GHZ type of non-locality test is investigated. We note the simplicity of the above case over the usual EIT type of schemes requiring the existence of external coupling lasers.
We consider a photonic crystal (PC) doped with four-level atoms whose intermediate transition is coupled near resonantly with a photonic band-gap edge. We show that two photons, each coupled to a different atomic transition in such atoms, can manifest strong phase or amplitude correlations: One photon can induce a large phase shift on the other photon or trigger its absorption and thus operate as an ultrasensitive nonlinear photon switch. These features allow the creation of entangled two-photon states and have unique advantages over previously considered media: (i) no control lasers are needed; (ii) the system parameters can be chosen to cause full two-photon entanglement via absorption; (iii) a number of PCs can be combined in a network.
Quantum computers require technologies that offer both sufficient control over coherent quantum phenomena and minimal spurious interactions with the environment. We show, that photons confined to photonic crystals, and in particular to highly efficient waveguides formed from linear chains of defects doped with atoms can generate strong non-linear interactions which allow to implement both single and two qubit quantum gates. The simplicity of the gate switching mechanism, the experimental feasibility of fabricating two dimensional photonic crystal structures and integrability of this device with optoelectronics offers new interesting possibilities for optical quantum information processing networks.
Achieving strong interactions between individual photons enables a wide variety of exciting possibilities in quantum information science and many-body physics. Cold atoms interfaced with nanophotonic structures have emerged as a platform to realize novel forms of nonlinear interactions. In particular, when atoms are coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide, long-range atomic interactions can arise that are mediated by localized atom-photon bound states. We theoretically show that in such a system, the absorption of a single photon can change the band structure for a subsequent photon. This occurs because the first photon affects the atoms in the chain in an alternating fashion, thus leading to an effective period doubling of the system and a new optical band structure for the composite atom-nanophotonic system. We demonstrate how this mechanism can be engineered to realize a single-photon switch, where the first incoming photon switches the system from being highly transmissive to highly reflective, and analyze how signatures can be observed via non-classical correlations of the outgoing photon field.
We propose all-optical switching schemes using a single three-level atomic system placed within a 3D photonic crystal that exhibits a complete 3D photonic band gap. The optical schemes we propose can be classified into two types with respect to a physical process that causes the switching effect. One switching type is mediated by changing an atom-field coupling strength. The other switching type is mediated by controlling quantum interference. Furthermore, we consider conditions of realizing a wide range of signals, which contributes to an improvement of the Signal to Noise ratio. The phases and strengths of the external laser fields required for the all-optical switching are revealed. Next, we estimate their switching times. Using these results, we propose the fastest scheme for every configuration of the atomic system, which is important for realizing a high-speed optical memory or switching device on an atomic scale that can be used in novel optical integrated systems, such as quantum computers.
A single two-level system constitutes an extremely non-linear optical medium, where the interaction with a first single photon modifies the transmission probability for a second photon. The main difficulty to implement a single photon switch using this property is to ensure that a gate single photon will interact with the quantum emitter with a near-unity probability. In the solid state, all-optical switching has been demonstrated using photonic crystals or microdisks coupled to quantum dots, but these systems were not well externally matched: hundreds of incident photons were thus required to trigger the optical nonlinearity.
This paper demonstrates switching of a single signal photon by a single gating photon of a different frequency, via a cross-phase-modulation. This effect is mediated by materials exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), which are embedded in photonic crystals (PhCs). An analytical model based on waveguide-cavity QED is constructed for our system, which consists of a PhC waveguide and a PhC microcavity containing a four-level EIT atom. It is solved exactly and analyzed using experimentally accessible parameters. It is found that the strong coupling regime is required for lossless two-photon quantum entanglement.