Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review A

Utilizing competitions between optical parametric amplifications and dissipations to manipulate photon transport

Cong-Hua Yan, W. Z. Jia, Xin-Hong Jia, Hao Yuan, Yong Li, Haidong Yuan

Published Aug 16, 2019• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Dissipations in the waveguide-cavity systems destroy quantum interference between the incident signal photons and the cavity photons linearly and, thus, usually limit the manipulation of the photon transport. Here, we adopt a four-mode microring cavity including both second-order (${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(2)}$) and third-order (${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}$) nonlinearities side coupled to two different waveguides to manipulate photon transport against dissipative effects. The results show that the incident signal photons can be amplified due to the optical parametric amplification (OPA) originated from ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}$ nonlinearities. Owing to the coherent interference between cavity photons with different frequencies, the transmission spectra of the signal field are split into two amplified peaks. The transmission intensities are not always linearly reduced by increasing the dissipations but determined by the competition between the OPA and the dissipations. It means that we can utilize the OPA process to overcome the dissipative effects to manipulate photon transport and, thus, control the transmission intensities of the incident signal photon from ${T}_{c}=0$ to ${T}_{c}>100%$. This competition can also be used to convert the signal field to the idler field with amplified efficiencies.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.100.023826

Related papers

Research of radiation characteristics in a parametrically driven cavity

Xue SHANG, Binfang Cao, Guo Miaodi +2 more

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) serves as a fundamental platform for studying light-matter interactions at a single-particle level and has been extensively investigated in fundamental physics and quantum information. Recent development of parametrically squeezed techniques has demonstrated that they have the remarkable ability to exponentially enhance coherent atom-cavity coupling. However, the full extent to which these techniques can manipulate quantum optical phenomena requires further exploration. This work systematically investigates the influence of optical parametric amplification on single-photon excited atom-cavity systems within a parametrically driven cavity. In the proposed model, optical parametric amplification converts the driving photons into a squeezed cavity mode, which enhances the atom-cavity interaction into the strong coupling region. Through analytical derivation of atomic and cavity radiation spectra, we demonstrate that the optical parametric amplification induces splitting of atomic radiation spectra while exerting negligible effects on spectral intensity. Conversely, the cavity transmission spectrum exhibits both pronounced splitting and nonlinear intensity amplification. Notably, as driving field intensity approaches a critical intensity regime, the cavity radiation spectrum intensity is significantly enhanced. The underlying mechanism is parametric driving amplification, which converts the driving light into a squeezed cavity mode. When this squeezed mode is mapped back to the fundamental mode of the cavity through Bogoliubov squeezing transformation, the pump photons within the squeezed cavity mode are converted into the photons that contribute to the radiation spectrum of the cavity, thereby amplifying its intensity. This parametric enhancement method not only deepens the basic understanding of light-matter interactions, but also establishes a practical framework for improving the single-photon detection sensitivity in cavity-based quantum systems. These findings have broad prospects for quantum sensing and information processing applications.

Acta Physica Sinica•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations

Unconventional photon blockade under the combined effects of optical parametric amplification and two-photon dissipation

Yan Li, Ling-Juan 玲娟 Feng 封, Ling-Juan Feng

Abstract Unconventional photon blockade (UPB) is an important quantum phenomenon that relies on the quantum interference effect. Here, we propose coupling an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) to a Kerr nonlinear single-mode cavity in a two-photon dissipation environment, enabling strong photon antibunching based on the UPB mechanism. The optimal conditions for achieving UPB are first derived analytically. The results are subsequently compared with the second-order correlation function derived from numerical simulations, and excellent agreement is observed. The findings show that UPB is enhanced without significantly reducing the mean photon number. This further demonstrates that the width of the UPB occurrence window increases with increasing OPA coefficient and driving laser intensity. Finally, theoretical analysis reveals the physical mechanism of UPB, showing that the Kerr medium is not the dominant factor for UPB generation in this system. Thus, our work offers valuable theoretical guidance for precisely controlling UPB and optimizing single-photon source performance.

Chinese Physics B•Aug 28, 2026•0 citations

Photon blockade effect from synergistic optical parametric amplification and driving force in Kerr-medium single-mode cavity

Zhang Zhiqiang

This work investigates photon blockade control in a hybrid quantum system containing a Kerr-nonlinear cavity coupled to an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The dynamics are governed by a master equation derived from an effective Hamiltonian that includes cavity decay. To obtain analytical solutions, the system's quantum state is expanded in the Fock basis up to the two-photon level. Solving the steady-state Schrodinger equation yields probability amplitudes and the analytical conditions for optimal photon blockade. Results confirm that photon blockade is achievable with suitable parameters. Excellent agreement is found between the analytical solutions and numerical simulations for the steady-state, equal-time second-order correlation function, validating both the analytical method and the blockade effect. Numerically, the average intracavity photon number increases significantly under resonance, providing a theoretical pathway for enhancing single-photon source brightness. Furthermore, the driving phase is shown to regulate the optimal blockade region: it shifts the parabolic region within the two-dimensional parameter space of driving strength and OPA nonlinearity and can even reverse its opening direction. The influence of Kerr nonlinearity is also examined. Photon blockade remains robust across a wide range of Kerr strengths. Physical analysis attributes the effect to destructive quantum interference between two distinct excitation pathways that suppress two-photon states. While Kerr nonlinearity shifts the system's energy levels, it does not disrupt this interference mechanism, explaining the effect's stability over a broad parameter range.

quant-pharXiv:2601.01819•Acta Physica Sinica•Jan 6, 2026•1 citation

Simultaneous nonreciprocal photon blockade via directional parametric amplification

Wei Zhang, Rui Hou, Tie Wang +3 more

We propose a scheme to achieve the simultaneous nonreciprocal photon blockade of two microring resonators in an all-optical system without any rotating parts. By unidirectionally parametrically pumping a ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(2)}$-nonlinear resonator with a classical coherent field, the counterclockwise mode in the resonator is exposed to the parametric amplification process when a forward signal field is input in another resonator, but not the case for a backward signal field. This leads to different quantum interference effects among distinct excitation paths for two optical modes, which is the essential reason for simultaneous nonreciprocal photon blockade. We analytically give the optimal parameter conditions to achieve simultaneous strong photon blockade with the parametric amplification. Furthermore, the nonreciprocity is simultaneously enhanced through tuning the amplitude of input signal. Our work provides an avenue to realize simultaneous nonreciprocal single-photon devices without moving parts and may have potential applications in many-body quantum information processing and quantum communication.

Physical Review A•Aug 22, 2024•22 citations

Phase-sensitive manipulations of the two-mode entangled state by a type-II nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier inside an optical cavity

Haixia Chen, Jing Zhang

The quantum fluctuations and correlations of the output signal and idler beams from a type-II polarization nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) inside an optical cavity are investigated theoretically, which is driven by the different kinds of quantized fields such as the two-mode thermal field, the phase-conjugate state, and a pair of EPR beams at the signal and idler frequency. Spectral line shapes due to quantum interferences between the input quantum fields and the generated down-converted subharmonic fields of NOPA are studied by scanning the length of the NOPA cavity. The entanglement degree of the EPR entangled beams injected into the NOPA as signal and idler beams can be increased or decreased, which are realized by controlling the relative phase between the pump beam and the injected beams for the NOPA. The results demonstrate coherent phenomena of NOPA in the quantum regime and show phase-sensitive manipulations of quantum entanglement for quantum information processing.

Physical Review A•Jun 18, 2009•35 citations

Four Wave Mixing control in a photonic molecule made by silicon microring resonators

Massimo Borghi, Alessandro Trenti, Lorenzo Pavesi

Four Wave Mixing (FWM) is the main nonlinear interaction in integrated silicon devices, which finds diffuse use in all-optical signal processing and wavelength conversion. Despite the numerous works on coupled resonator devices, which showed record conversion efficiencies and broadband operation, the possibility to coherently control the strength of the stimulated FWM interaction on a chip has received very limited attention. Here, we demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally, the manipulation of FWM in a photonic molecule based on two side coupled silicon microring resonators. The active tuning of the inter-resonator phase and of their eigenfrequencies allows setting the molecule in a sub-radiant state, where FWM is enhanced with respect to the isolated resonators. On the other hand, we can reconfigure the state of the photonic molecule to have energy equipartition among the resonators, and suppress FWM by making the two Signal waves to interfere destructively in the side coupled waveguides. This work constitutes an experimental demonstration of the control of a nonlinear parametric interaction via coherent oscillation phenomena in an integrated optical device.

Scientific Reports•Jan 23, 2019•25 citations
Dissipations in the waveguide-cavity systems destroy quantum interference between the incident signal photons and the cavity photons linearly and, thus, usually limit the manipulation of the photon transport. Here, we adopt a four-mode microring cavity including both second-order (\ensuremathχ(2){\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(2)}\ensuremathχ(2)) and third-order (\ensuremathχ(3){\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}\ensuremathχ(3)) nonlinearities side coupled to two different waveguides to manipulate photon transport against dissipative effects. The results show that the incident signal photons can be amplified due to the optical parametric amplification (OPA) originated from \ensuremathχ(3){\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}\ensuremathχ(3) nonlinearities. Owing to the coherent interference between cavity photons with different frequencies, the transmission spectra of the signal field are split into two amplified peaks. The transmission intensities are not always linearly reduced by increasing the dissipations but determined by the competition between the OPA and the dissipations. It means that we can utilize the OPA process to overcome the dissipative effects to manipulate photon transport and, thus, control the transmission intensities of the incident signal photon from Tc=0{T}_{c}=0Tc​=0 to Tc>100{T}_{c}>100%Tc​>100. This competition can also be used to convert the signal field to the idler field with amplified efficiencies.
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) serves as a fundamental platform for studying light-matter interactions at a single-particle level and has been extensively investigated in fundamental physics and quantum information. Recent development of parametrically squeezed techniques has demonstrated that they have the remarkable ability to exponentially enhance coherent atom-cavity coupling. However, the full extent to which these techniques can manipulate quantum optical phenomena requires further exploration. This work systematically investigates the influence of optical parametric amplification on single-photon excited atom-cavity systems within a parametrically driven cavity. In the proposed model, optical parametric amplification converts the driving photons into a squeezed cavity mode, which enhances the atom-cavity interaction into the strong coupling region. Through analytical derivation of atomic and cavity radiation spectra, we demonstrate that the optical parametric amplification induces splitting of atomic radiation spectra while exerting negligible effects on spectral intensity. Conversely, the cavity transmission spectrum exhibits both pronounced splitting and nonlinear intensity amplification. Notably, as driving field intensity approaches a critical intensity regime, the cavity radiation spectrum intensity is significantly enhanced. The underlying mechanism is parametric driving amplification, which converts the driving light into a squeezed cavity mode. When this squeezed mode is mapped back to the fundamental mode of the cavity through Bogoliubov squeezing transformation, the pump photons within the squeezed cavity mode are converted into the photons that contribute to the radiation spectrum of the cavity, thereby amplifying its intensity. This parametric enhancement method not only deepens the basic understanding of light-matter interactions, but also establishes a practical framework for improving the single-photon detection sensitivity in cavity-based quantum systems. These findings have broad prospects for quantum sensing and information processing applications.
Abstract Unconventional photon blockade (UPB) is an important quantum phenomenon that relies on the quantum interference effect. Here, we propose coupling an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) to a Kerr nonlinear single-mode cavity in a two-photon dissipation environment, enabling strong photon antibunching based on the UPB mechanism. The optimal conditions for achieving UPB are first derived analytically. The results are subsequently compared with the second-order correlation function derived from numerical simulations, and excellent agreement is observed. The findings show that UPB is enhanced without significantly reducing the mean photon number. This further demonstrates that the width of the UPB occurrence window increases with increasing OPA coefficient and driving laser intensity. Finally, theoretical analysis reveals the physical mechanism of UPB, showing that the Kerr medium is not the dominant factor for UPB generation in this system. Thus, our work offers valuable theoretical guidance for precisely controlling UPB and optimizing single-photon source performance.
This work investigates photon blockade control in a hybrid quantum system containing a Kerr-nonlinear cavity coupled to an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). The dynamics are governed by a master equation derived from an effective Hamiltonian that includes cavity decay. To obtain analytical solutions, the system's quantum state is expanded in the Fock basis up to the two-photon level. Solving the steady-state Schrodinger equation yields probability amplitudes and the analytical conditions for optimal photon blockade. Results confirm that photon blockade is achievable with suitable parameters. Excellent agreement is found between the analytical solutions and numerical simulations for the steady-state, equal-time second-order correlation function, validating both the analytical method and the blockade effect. Numerically, the average intracavity photon number increases significantly under resonance, providing a theoretical pathway for enhancing single-photon source brightness. Furthermore, the driving phase is shown to regulate the optimal blockade region: it shifts the parabolic region within the two-dimensional parameter space of driving strength and OPA nonlinearity and can even reverse its opening direction. The influence of Kerr nonlinearity is also examined. Photon blockade remains robust across a wide range of Kerr strengths. Physical analysis attributes the effect to destructive quantum interference between two distinct excitation pathways that suppress two-photon states. While Kerr nonlinearity shifts the system's energy levels, it does not disrupt this interference mechanism, explaining the effect's stability over a broad parameter range.
We propose a scheme to achieve the simultaneous nonreciprocal photon blockade of two microring resonators in an all-optical system without any rotating parts. By unidirectionally parametrically pumping a ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(2)}$-nonlinear resonator with a classical coherent field, the counterclockwise mode in the resonator is exposed to the parametric amplification process when a forward signal field is input in another resonator, but not the case for a backward signal field. This leads to different quantum interference effects among distinct excitation paths for two optical modes, which is the essential reason for simultaneous nonreciprocal photon blockade. We analytically give the optimal parameter conditions to achieve simultaneous strong photon blockade with the parametric amplification. Furthermore, the nonreciprocity is simultaneously enhanced through tuning the amplitude of input signal. Our work provides an avenue to realize simultaneous nonreciprocal single-photon devices without moving parts and may have potential applications in many-body quantum information processing and quantum communication.
The quantum fluctuations and correlations of the output signal and idler beams from a type-II polarization nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) inside an optical cavity are investigated theoretically, which is driven by the different kinds of quantized fields such as the two-mode thermal field, the phase-conjugate state, and a pair of EPR beams at the signal and idler frequency. Spectral line shapes due to quantum interferences between the input quantum fields and the generated down-converted subharmonic fields of NOPA are studied by scanning the length of the NOPA cavity. The entanglement degree of the EPR entangled beams injected into the NOPA as signal and idler beams can be increased or decreased, which are realized by controlling the relative phase between the pump beam and the injected beams for the NOPA. The results demonstrate coherent phenomena of NOPA in the quantum regime and show phase-sensitive manipulations of quantum entanglement for quantum information processing.
Four Wave Mixing (FWM) is the main nonlinear interaction in integrated silicon devices, which finds diffuse use in all-optical signal processing and wavelength conversion. Despite the numerous works on coupled resonator devices, which showed record conversion efficiencies and broadband operation, the possibility to coherently control the strength of the stimulated FWM interaction on a chip has received very limited attention. Here, we demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally, the manipulation of FWM in a photonic molecule based on two side coupled silicon microring resonators. The active tuning of the inter-resonator phase and of their eigenfrequencies allows setting the molecule in a sub-radiant state, where FWM is enhanced with respect to the isolated resonators. On the other hand, we can reconfigure the state of the photonic molecule to have energy equipartition among the resonators, and suppress FWM by making the two Signal waves to interfere destructively in the side coupled waveguides. This work constitutes an experimental demonstration of the control of a nonlinear parametric interaction via coherent oscillation phenomena in an integrated optical device.