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Quantum optics

Strongly interacting photons

Nature volume 488, pages 39–40 (2012)Cite this article

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A fine marriage between atomic and optical physics has produced a medium that is transparent to single photons but opaque to multiple photons. The finding heralds the development of devices such as single-photon switches. See Letter p.57

Can photons be made to interact strongly with each other? Until recently, materials with nonlinear optical properties could mediate photon–photon interactions that were weak at best. These weak interactions have previously been artificially enhanced using devices known as optical cavities1, which make the photons repeat their encounters thousands to millions of times. On page 57 of this issue, Peyronel et al.2 demonstrate a new material in which single photons propagate freely, but interact so strongly with each other that when just two photons are present one is quickly absorbed. The result opens up the possibility of realizing concepts such as single-photon switches, deterministic photon-based quantum logic, and quantum gases of strongly interacting photonsFootnote 1.

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Figure 1: A stream of single photons.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion2 were published online on 25 July 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thad G. Walker is in the Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.,

    Thad G. Walker

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  1. Thad G. Walker
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Correspondence to Thad G. Walker.

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Walker, T. Strongly interacting photons. Nature 488, 39–40 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11384

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