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arXiv:quant-ph/0606184 · Physical Review A

Beam splitting and Hong-Ou-Mandel interference for stored light

Andrzej Raczyński, Jarosław Zaremba, S. Zielińska-Kaniasty

Published Jan 22, 2007• 55 citations
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Abstract

Storing and release of a quantum light pulse in a medium of atoms in the tripod configuration are studied. Each of these operations is realized by switching on and off two sets of properly chosen control fields. The system constitutes a kind of a flexible beam splitter in which the input and output ports concern photons of the same direction but well separated in time. A version of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is discussed. It is also shown that a stored nonclassical light is split into two nonclassical beams, with their statistical properties being steered by a choice of the control fields.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.75.013810

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Storing and release of a quantum light pulse in a medium of atoms in the tripod configuration are studied. Each of these operations is realized by switching on and off two sets of properly chosen control fields. The system constitutes a kind of a flexible beam splitter in which the input and output ports concern photons of the same direction but well separated in time. A version of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is discussed. It is also shown that a stored nonclassical light is split into two nonclassical beams, with their statistical properties being steered by a choice of the control fields.
We present the concept of a realization of three-photon interference based on the procedure of light storage and release. Three probe photons are stored in an atomic medium in the tetrapod configuration. The medium irradiated by three control fields is shown to act as a flexible tritter. By changing the control fields applied at three stages of the photons' release, one can regulate the probabilities of obtaining various numbers of photons at each stage. Some of the signal coincidence probabilities can be made equal to zero, which is a generalization of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. The interference is demonstrated to gradually disappear for an increasing degree of the photons' distinguishability.
We demonstrate a coherent and dynamic beam splitter based on light storage in cold atoms. An input weak laser pulse is first stored in a cold atom ensemble via electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). A set of counter-propagating control fields, applied at a later time, retrieves the stored pulse into two output spatial modes. The high visibility interference between the two output pulses clearly demonstrates that the beam splitting process is coherent. Furthermore, by manipulating the control lasers, it is possible to dynamically control the storage time, the power splitting ratio, the relative phase, and the optical frequencies of the output pulses. With further improvements, the active beam splitter demonstrated in this work might have applications in photonic photonic quantum information and in all-optical information processing.
Light propagation and storing in a medium of atoms in the tripod configuration driven by two control pulses are investigated theoretically in terms of two polaritons and numerically. It is shown that a magnetic field switched on at the pulse storage stage changes the phase relations between the atomic coherences due to the stored pulse, which leads to an essential modification of the released pulse. Quantitative relations concerning the released pulse and the coherences are given. A general situation when the two control fields are not proportional at the pulse release stage is also examined. It is shown that in both cases a single dark state polariton is not sufficient to account for the pulse evolution, which is connected with the fact that a part of the signal remains in the medium after the release stage.
The propagation, storage, and release of two quantized light fields in an optically dressed atomic medium in the tripod configuration are studied. Using the formalism of spinor dark-state polaritons, the probabilities are obtained of finding outgoing photons of two possible localizations and two possible types, i.e., having different frequencies or polarizations. An additional interaction at the storage stage is applied which modifies the atomic coherences due to the stored photons; this results in a modification of the states of the outgoing photons. The conditions are examined for the photons' spatial and type coalescence typical of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, i.e., a zero probability of finding the outgoing photons having not only different localizations but also types. These results can possibly be observed in rubidium vapors.
Two-photon interference effects arise because photons are indistinguishable particles. In the wellknown Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, the transmission of two photons at a beam splitter interferes destructively with the reflection of both photons, requiring both photons to "bunch up" by leaving the beam splitter on the same side. Here, we show that the interference between locally propagating photons and photons exchanged by a mode swap can be implemented by post-selecting spatially separated photon outputs of a four-path interferometer. Even though the photons detected at spatially separated locations must have travelled along paths that never met up at the same beam splitter, the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect can be observed in correlations between the output ports that originate from the association of detection events with non-local output modes defined by the two single photon inputs. Local phase shifts can be used to map out non-classical correlations between the photons detected at different output locations, clarifying the role of linear optics in generating entanglement between spatially separated photons. Our work thus establishes a fundamental relation between multiphoton interference and entanglement, opening the door to new possibilities in optical quantum technologies.
We propose a quantum beam splitter (QBS) with tunable reflection and transmission coefficients. More importantly, our device based on a Hermitian parity-time (PT\mathcal{PT}PT) symmetric system enables the generation and manipulation of asymmetric quantum coherence of the output photons. For the interference of two weak coherent-state inputs, our QBS can produce anti-bunched photons from one output port and bunched photons from the other, showcasing high parity asymmetry and strong coherence control capabilities. Beyond the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, perfect photon blockade with vanishing g(2)(0)g^{(2)}(0)g(2)(0) is achievable in two-photon interference. These striking effects of the QBS fundamentally arise from the parity-symmetry-breaking interaction and the quantum interference between the photon scattering channels. Our results could inspire novel applications and the development of innovative photonic devices for the manipulation of weak quantum light.