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Frontiers of Physics

Spinning microresonator-induced chiral optical transmission

Bo Lü, Xiaofei Liu, Chuan Xi Wang, Tie-Jun Wang

Published Nov 29, 2022• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Chiral quantum optics is a new research area in light-matter interaction that depends on the direction of light propagation and offers a new path for the quantum regulation of light-matter interactions. In this paper, we study a spinning Kerr-type microresonator coupled with Λ-type atom ensembles, which are driven in opposite directions to generate asymmetric photon statistics. We find that a photon blockade can only be generated by driving the spinning resonator on right side without driving the spinning microresonator from the left side, resulting in chirality. The coupling strength between system modes can be precisely controlled by adjusting the detuning amount of the atomic pump field. Because of the splitting of the resonant frequency generated by the Fizeau drag, the destructive quantum interference generated in right side drive prevents the nonresonant transition path of state ∣1,0〉 to state ∣2,0〉. This direction-dependent chiral quantum optics is expected to be applied to chiral optical devices, single-photon sources and nonreciprocal quantum communications.

DOI
10.1007/s11467-022-1212-z

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Chiral quantum optics is a new research area in light-matter interaction that depends on the direction of light propagation and offers a new path for the quantum regulation of light-matter interactions. In this paper, we study a spinning Kerr-type microresonator coupled with Λ-type atom ensembles, which are driven in opposite directions to generate asymmetric photon statistics. We find that a photon blockade can only be generated by driving the spinning resonator on right side without driving the spinning microresonator from the left side, resulting in chirality. The coupling strength between system modes can be precisely controlled by adjusting the detuning amount of the atomic pump field. Because of the splitting of the resonant frequency generated by the Fizeau drag, the destructive quantum interference generated in right side drive prevents the nonresonant transition path of state ∣1,0〉 to state ∣2,0〉. This direction-dependent chiral quantum optics is expected to be applied to chiral optical devices, single-photon sources and nonreciprocal quantum communications.
We propose how to create and manipulate one-way nonclassical light via photon blockade in rotating nonlinear devices. We refer to this effect as nonreciprocal photon blockade (PB). Specifically, we show that in a spinning Kerr resonator, PB happens when the resonator is driven in one direction but not the other. This occurs because of the Fizeau drag, leading to a full split of the resonance frequencies of the countercirculating modes. Different types of purely quantum correlations, such as single- and two-photon blockades, can emerge in different directions in a well-controlled manner, and the transition from PB to photon-induced tunneling is revealed as well. Our work opens up a new route to achieve quantum nonreciprocal devices, which are crucial elements in chiral quantum technologies or topological photonics.
We investigate the generation of nonreciprocal single photons in the chiral waveguide-cavity-emitter system. Due to the chirality of light-emitter interactions, photons in the left direction couple to a cavity which induces only linear optical effects, while photons in the right direction couple to a cavity-emitter system which can generate optical nonlinearity. In the regime of single-photon transmission, photons in the left direction are absorbed by the cavity at the resonance frequency, while photons in the right direction are transmitted due to the Rabi splitting. In the regime of two-photon transmission, optical linearity in the left direction cannot produce photon-photon interactions and does not change the statistics of photons. However, the effective repulsive interaction between photons can be produced by the optical nonlinearity in the right direction, suppressing two-photon transmission (photon blockade). Physically, the photon-photon bound state, which emerges due to the strong-photon-photon correlation mediated by the cavity-emitter system, plays a key role in generation of photon blockade at the resonance frequency. As a result, nonreciprocal single photons can be realized in the combination of single-photon transmission and photon blockade at the resonance frequency. Additionally, photon-photon interactions are sensitive to the width of the wave packet since photons should coincide at the interaction site.
The chiral light-matter interaction, which shows great potential in applications ranging from photonic devices to quantum information processing, can be achieved with the development of recent experimental advances of the fabrication technologies on nanoscales. Traditionally, the chiral optics based on spin-momentum locking in micro- and nanophotonics could be observed only for specific optical modes, such as the transverse magnetic mode. Here in this study, we investigate that the chirality of a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonator can be well controlled with assistance from coupled Rydberg-atom ensembles. The presented asymmetric backscattering also originates from interferences between scattered optical modes in the WGM microresonator, which is proposed by Wiersig [Phys. Rev. A 84, 063828 (2011)]. Therefore the flow of light can be well controlled, and the statistical properties of photons could be changed by regulating this asymmetric coupling. Most importantly, its universal chiral property is not limited by specific optical modes which may also be used as optical diodes and routers.
Nanophotonic components allow the control of the flow of light in integrated optical environments. Thereby, the light’s strong confinement leads to an inherent link between its local polarization and propagation direction which fundamentally alters the physics of light-matter interaction and gives rise to phenomena such as directional emission and direction-dependent coupling strengths [1]. I will present the underlying principles of this chiral light-matter interaction and its consequences for integrated applications [1]. In particular, I will show how we employ this effect to control the direction of spontaneous emission [2] and to realize low-loss nonreciprocal transmission at the single-photon level through a silica nanofiber [3]. We use two different approaches where either an ensemble of spin-polarized atoms is weakly coupled to a nanofiber or a single atom is strongly coupled to the nanofiber via a whispering-gallery-mode resonator. The resulting optical isolators show a strong imbalance between the transmissions in forward and reverse direction and, at the same time, a forward transmissions exceeding 70%. We extended this system to a 4-port device, where a single atom routes photons nonreciprocally from one fiber port to the next. This realizes a quantum optical circulator [4] which can even be prepared in a superposition of its operational modes. The demonstrated systems exemplify a new class of (quantum) nanophotonic devices that are ideally suited for photonic quantum information processing and quantum simulation. [1] Nature 541, 473, (2017). [2] Science 346, 67 (2014). [3] Phys. Rev. X 5, 041036 (2015). [4] Science 354, 1577 (2016).
In this work, we propose to manipulate the statistical properties of the photons transport nonreciprocally via rotating nonlinear devices consisting of an atom coupled to a spinning cavity. This nonreciprocal effect allows the flow of light from one side but blocks it from the other with the same driving strength. We show that the nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade can happen when the cavity is driven by the laser field. Under the weak driving condition, we discuss the physical origins of the nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade, which originates from the destructive quantum interference between different paths from the ground state to the two-photon state by driving the device from the left side, while the quantum interference paths are broken when the device is driven from the right side, which leads to the occurring of the photon bunching. The optimal conditions for strong photon antibunching are analytically derived, which are in good agreement with those obtained by numerical simulations. Our proposal has potential applications for the on-chip nonreciprocal single-photon devices and provides an effective way for potential applications in solid state quantum computation and quantum information process.
We propose a scheme to realize nonreciprocal photon blockade and directional amplification in a spinning resonator with clockwise and counterclockwise traveling modes coupled to a stationary two-level atom. By manipulating the rotational frequency of the resonator, the two-level atom can be resonant with one of the traveling modes and largely detuned from the other one. Nonreciprocal conventional photon blockade is induced by the difference of the detunings between the two-level atom and the optical modes traveling in different directions. Besides that, nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade (UPB) based on the quantum interference can also be observed in the system. Based on the mechanism for nonreciprocal UPB, directional amplification of the blockaded photons is predicted by driving the spinning resonator and stationary two-level atom simultaneously. Our proposal will be applicable to achieve highly efficient nonreciprocal single-photon devices for applications in chiral quantum information processing.