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.
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.
In this thesis we investigate few-photon non-linearities in all-optical, on-chip circuits, and we discuss their possible applications in devices of interest for quantum information technology, such as conditional two-photon gates and single-photon sources. In order to propose efficient devices, it is crucial to fully understand the non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly interacting photons. Employing both numerical and analytical approaches we map out the full scattering dynamics for two photons scattering on a two-level emitter in a one-dimensional waveguide. The strongest non-linear interaction arise when the emitter is excited the most, which occurs for incoming photon pulses with a spectral bandwidth comparable to the emitter linewidth. For two identical, counter-propagating photons, the emitter works as a non-linear beam splitter, as the emitter induces strong directional correlations between the scattered photons. Even though the non-linearity also alters the pulse spectrum due to a four-wave mixing process, we demonstrate that input pulses with a Gaussian spectrum can be mapped to the output with up to 80 % fidelity. Using two identical two-level emitters, we propose a setup for a deterministic controlled-phase gate, which preserves the properties of the two incoming photons with almost 80 %, limited by spectral changes induced by the non-linearity and phase modulations upon scattering. Another setup for a controlled-phase operation is suggested with two coupled ring resonators exploiting a strong second-order material non-linearity. By dynamically trapping the first of two temporally separated photons in the non-linear resonator, the scattering of the second photon is altered. Due to the trapping, the undesired aforementioned non-linear effects are avoided, but the gate performance is now limited by the capturing process. Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are promising for realizing few-photon non-linearities in solid-state implementations, although coupling to phonon modes in the surrounding lattice have significant influence on the dynamics. By accounting for the commonly neglected asymmetry between the electron and hole wavefunction in the QD, we show how the phonon-assisted transition rate to a slightly detuned optical mode may be suppressed. This is achieved by properly matching the electrical carrier confinement with the deformation potential interaction, where the suppression only occurs in materials where the deformation potential interaction shifts the electron and hole bands in the same direction. We demonstrate also how the phonon-induced effects may be altered by placing the QD inside an infinite slab, where the confinement of the phonons is modified instead. For a slab thickness below ∼ 70 nm, the bulk description of the phonon modes may be insufficient. The QD decay rate may be strongly increased or decreased, depending on how the detuning between the QD and the optical mode matches the phonon modes in the slab.
Engineering photon-photon interactions is fundamentally challenging because photons in vacuum do not interact with each other. While their interactions can be mediated using optical nonlinearities, these effects are negligible for individual photons. This thesis explores two topics related to optical nonlinearities in waveguides. In the first part, we perform a numerical simulation study of hollow core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROWs) fabricated using standard lithographic techniques in the context of their suitability as a platform for on-chip photonic quantum information processing. We investigate the effects of the core size, the number of pairs of antiresonant layers surrounding the hollow core, and the refractive index contrast between cladding materials on propagation losses in the waveguide. Additionally, we explore the feasibility of integrating these waveguides with Bragg gratings and dielectric metasurface mirrors to form on-chip cavities, that when loaded with atomic ensembles could act as nonlinear optical devices controllable with single photons. \n \nThe second part of this thesis studies the application of a 3 level quantum emitter coupled to a directional optical waveguide to deterministically subtract a single photon from a propagating optical pulse. Subtracting a single photon from a light state is one of the most fundamental operations with important applications in quantum information processing. However, current methods to subtract a photon such as using a low reflectivity beam splitter suffer from inherently low success probabilities as well as a strong dependence on the number of photons in the input. We explore implementing this single photon subtraction operation in our proposed system when the optical input is a continuous wave coherent state, coherent pulsed state containing a finite number of photons, or a Fock state.
Few-photon transport via waveguide-coupled local quantum systems has attracted extensive theoretical and experimental studies. Most of the study has focused on atomic or atomic-like local quantum systems due to their strong light-matter interaction useful for quantum applications. Here we study few-photon transport via a waveguide-coupled multimode optical cavity with second-order bulk nonlinearity. We develop a Feynman diagram approach and compute the scattering matrix of the one- and two-photon transport. Based on the calculated scattering matrix, we show highly nonclassical photonic effects, including photon blockade and $\ensuremath{\pi}$-conditional phase shift, are achievable in the waveguide-coupled multimode optical cavity system via quantum interference and linear response engineering. Our results might lead to significant applications of quantum photonic circuits in all-optical quantum information processing and quantum network protocols.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (waveguide QED) describes the interaction between an electromagnetic field confined to a one-dimensional waveguide with atom-like quantum emitters close by. The characteristics of these kinds of systems are the possibility for strong and even ultrastrong interactions between the photonic and atom-like systems, and practically infinite range interactions between the emitters. These properties are valuable for a wide range of quantum optical applications, like quantum communication, quantum networks and quantum metrology. In this thesis we focus on two challenges in quantum optics, namely the generation and scattering of multiphoton states. In the first part of this thesis we demonstrate how waveguide QED systems can be exploited for the generation of multiphoton states, in particular of single-mode Fock states and superpositions thereof as well as multi-mode photonic states with metrological applications. The basic setup for this goal is an ensemble of quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide. In the so-called atomic mirror configuration symmetric Dicke states (or a superposition thereof) decay superradiantly to the ground state and emit the desired multiphoton state, which can be efficiently collected at the ends of the waveguide. We propose various protocols for the preparation of these Dicke states in waveguide QED systems and characterize the emitted photonic state. It turns out that in the low excitation regime, that is, if the number of photons is much lower than the ensemble size, the photonic state is emitted into a single mode. This single-mode structure is fundamental to current proposals for applications in quantum metrology with optical interferometers. Outside the low excitation regime, a multi-mode photonic state is generated, for which the metrological capabilities were unknown. We were able to show that these states still lead to quantum-enhanced optical interferometry. In the second part of this thesis we demonstrate how the scattering of multiphoton states on a single quantum emitter coupled to the waveguide can be used for testing the limits of the light-matter interaction strength. In particular, we investigate systems in the so-called ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength between the photonic and atom-like system is of the order of the emitter's transition energy. In this regime, many methods and approximations used in quantum optics, especially the Rotating Wave Approximation, break down and one needs to develop new analytical and numerical methods to study these systems. One approach is the so-called polaron Transformation. We show how this transformation can be applied for predicting the scattering amplitude of few photons scattering on the emitter. The comparison of these results with numerical simulations using matrix product states shows a good agreement for moderate coupling strengths. Both parts together show that waveguide QED systems are promising candidates for the generation of multiphoton states as well as for the investigation of fundamental limits probed through the scattering of multiphoton states. The latter also finds application in the implementation of photon-photon nonlinearities induced by the interaction with the quantum emitters. Apart from these and many other theoretical predictions, waveguide QED systems are also undergoing rapid progress in experiments. Therefore, we expect these kinds of systems to bring forth several advances in the field of quantum optics.
Strong coupling between light and matter has been demonstrated both in classical cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems and in more recent circuit-QED experiments. This enables the generation of strong nonlinear photon-photon interactions at the single-photon level, which is of great interest for the observation of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena, the control of light quanta in quantum information protocols such as quantum networking, as well as the study of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems using light. Recently, strong coupling has also been realized in a variety of one-dimensional (1D) waveguide- QED experimental systems, which in turn makes them promising candidates for quantum information processing. Compared to cavity-QED systems, there are two new features in waveguide-QED: the existence of a continuum of states and the restricted 1D phase space, which together bring in new physical effects, such as the bound-state effects. This thesis consists of two parts: 1) understanding the fundamental interaction between local quantum objects, such as two-level systems and four-level systems, and photons confined in the waveguide; 2) exploring its implications in quantum information processing, in particular photonic quantum computation and quantum key distribution. First, we demonstrate that by coupling a two-level system (TLS) or three/fourlevel system to a 1D continuum, strongly-correlated photons can be generated inside the waveguide. Photon-photon bound states, which decay exponentially as a function of the relative coordinates of photons, appear in multiphoton scattering processes. As a result, photon bunching and antibunching can be observed in the photon-photon correlation function, and nonclassical light source can be generated on demand. In the case of an N-type four-level system, we show that the effective photon-photon interaction mediated by the four-level system, gives rise to a variety of nonlinear optical phenomena, including photon blockade, photon-induced tunneling, and creation of single-photon states and photon pairs with a high degree of spectral entanglement, all in the absence of a cavity. However, to enable greater quantum networking potential using waveguide- QED, it is important to study systems having more than just one TLS/qubit. We develop a numerical Green function method to study cooperative effects in a system of two qubits coupled to a 1D waveguide. Quantum beats emerge in photon-photon correlations, and persist to much longer time scales because of non-Markovian processes. In addition, this system can be used to generate a high-degree of long-distance entanglement when one of the two qubits is driven by an on-resonance laser, further paving the way toward waveguide-QED-based quantum networks. Furthermore, based on our study of light-matter interactions in waveguide- QED, we investigate its implications in quantum information processing. First, we study quantum key distribution using the sub-Possonian single photon source obtained by scattering a coherent state off a two-level system. The rate for key generation is found to be twice as large as for other sources. Second, we propose a new scheme for scalable quantum computation using flying qubits--propagating photons in a one-dimensional waveguide--interacting with matter qubits. Photonphoton interactions are mediated by the coupling to a three- or four-level system, based on which photon-photon -phase gates (Controlled-NOT) can be implemented for universal quantum computation. We show that high gate fidelity is possible given recent dramatic experimental progress in superconducting circuits and photonic-crystal waveguides. The proposed system can be an important building block for future on-chip quantum networks.
Engineering strong photon–photon interactions at the quantum level have been crucial in various areas of research, notably in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. It is often done by coupling matter strongly to light. A promising way to achieve this is via waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED). Motivated by these advancements, we study few-photon transport in waveguide QED setups. First, we present a diagrammatic technique to systematically study multiphoton scattering based on the scattering formalism and Green’s function approach. We demonstrate our proposal through physically relevant examples involving scattering of few-photon states from two-level emitters as well as from arrays of correlated Kerr nonlinear resonators described by the Bose–Hubbard model. In the second part, we apply the diagrammatic technique that was developed to perform a comprehensive study on a Bose–Hubbard lattice with a quasi-periodic potential. This model exhibits many-body localisation. We compute the two-photon transmission probability and show that it carries signatures of the underlying localisation transition with close agreement to the participation ratio of the eigenstates. The systematic scattering approach provided in this paper provides a foundation for future works at the interface between quantum optics and condensed matter.