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Emitters of N-photon bundles

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 550–555 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Controlling the output of a light emitter is one of the basic tasks in photonics, with landmarks such as the development of the laser and single-photon sources. The ever growing range of quantum applications is making it increasingly important to diversify the available quantum sources. Here, we propose a cavity quantum electrodynamics scheme to realize emitters that release their energy in groups (or ‘bundles’) of N photons (where N is an integer). Close to 100% of two-photon emission and 90% of three-photon emission is shown to be within reach of state-of-the-art samples. The emission can be tuned with the system parameters so that the device behaves as a laser or as an N-photon gun. Here, we develop the theoretical formalism to characterize such emitters, with the bundle statistics arising as an extension of the fundamental correlation functions of quantum optics. These emitters will be useful for quantum information processing and for medical applications.

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Figure 1: Hamiltonian and dissipative cavity QED.
Figure 2: Energy levels of the two limiting cases of excitation.
Figure 3: Resonances in the photon-correlation functions.
Figure 4: Dynamics of the emission when probing the two-photon resonance in various regimes of excitation.
Figure 5: Efficiency and characterization of N-photon emission for 2 ≤ N ≤ 5

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. Sánchez Wolff for assistance with Fig. 1. This work was supported by the POLAFLOW European Research Council starting grant, the Marie-Curie project Sensing Quantum Information Correlations and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MAT2011-22997). C.S.M. acknowledges a Formación de Personal Investigador grant. A.G.T and K.M. acknowledge support from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation and F.P.L. acknowledges support from a Ramón y Cajal contract.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 28049, Spain

    C. Sánchez Muñoz, E. del Valle, C. Tejedor & F. P. Laussy

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    A. González Tudela

  3. Walter Schottky Institut, Technische Universität München, Am Coulombwall 4, Garching, 85748, Germany

    K. Müller, S. Lichtmannecker, M. Kaniber & J. J. Finley

  4. E. L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

    K. Müller

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  1. C. Sánchez Muñoz
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Contributions

F.P.L. and E.d.V. proposed the idea. C.S.M., E.d.V. and F.P.L. developed the theoretical formalism and the conceptual tools. C.S.M. implemented the theoretical methods and analysed the data. A.G.T., K.M., S.L., M.K. and J.J.F. contributed material, analysis tools and expertise. F.P.L., C.S.M., E.d.V., C.T. and J.J.F. wrote the main paper. C.S.M., E.d.V., A.G.T. and F.P.L. wrote the Supplementary Information. F.P.L. supervised the research. All authors discussed the results and its implications and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to F. P. Laussy.

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Muñoz, C., del Valle, E., Tudela, A. et al. Emitters of N-photon bundles. Nature Photon 8, 550–555 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.114

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