Photon Antibunching and Squeezing for a Single Atom in a Resonant Cavity

Pepijn W. H. Pinkse, Thomas H. Fischer, Peter Maunz +1 more

H. J. Carmichael

The transmitted light from an optical cavity containing a single two-level atom may show photon antibunching and squeezing. The two effects are closely related and simply understood in terms of the theory of single-atom resonance fluorescence. It follows that corresponding nonclassical effects in optical bistability do not originate in atomic collectivity.

Ye Liu, Guo Guang-Can

We consider the case that one of entangled atoms interacts with a single-mode cavity field. The atom is selectively detected after exiting the cavity, and it is found that the nonclassical properties of field states depend strongly on the entanglement degree between the two atoms. Meanwhile it is proven that squeezing of field and photon antibunching can be greatly enhanced via selective atomic measurements.

Kevin M. Birnbaum, Andreea Boca, Ryan Miller +3 more

Houcem Jabri, Hichem Eleuch

The antibunching effect generated in a cavity containing first a single two-level atomic system and then two identical atoms is explored for off-resonant interactions, in strong- and weak-coupling regimes. The cavity is driven by coherent and squeezed sources. Using the second-order correlation function analytically derived in the weak-excitation regime, we show that squeezed light achieves and improves strong antibunching, leading to a photon blockade. This enhancement is due to a destructive quantum interference mechanism induced by the nonclassical light, creating a supplementary transition pathway. The best effect is obtained for equal frequency detunings in the strong-coupling regime. More interestingly, our investigation reveals that the two-atom-cavity system can further improve the antibunching effect compared to the single-atom cavity. It turns out that the additional couplings appearing in the cavity due to the implementation of the two atoms, combined with the squeezed light, could substantially enhance the photon-blockade effect.

Shengwang Du, Chang Liu, Yuan Sun +3 more