Correlating photons using the collective nonlinear response of atoms weakly coupled to an optical mode

authored by
Adarsh S. Prasad, Jakob Hinney, Sahand Mahmoodian, Klemens Hammerer, Samuel Rind, Philipp Schneeweiss, Anders S. Sørensen, Jürgen Volz, Arno Rauschenbeutel
Abstract

Photons in a nonlinear medium can repel or attract each other, resulting in strongly correlated quantum many-body states

1,2. Typically, such correlated states of light arise from the extreme nonlinearity granted by quantum emitters that are strongly coupled to a photonic mode

2,3. However, unavoidable dissipation (such as photon loss) blurs nonlinear quantum effects when such approaches are used. Here, we generate strongly correlated photon states using only weak coupling and taking advantage of dissipation. An ensemble of non-interacting waveguide-coupled atoms induces correlations between simultaneously arriving photons through collectively enhanced nonlinear interactions. These correlated photons experience less dissipation than the uncorrelated ones. Depending on the number of atoms, we experimentally observe strong photon bunching or antibunching of the transmitted light. This realization of a collectively enhanced nonlinearity may turn out to be transformational for quantum information science and opens new avenues for generating non-classical light, covering frequencies from the microwave to the X-ray regime.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Theoretical Physics
Institute of Gravitation Physics
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)
External Organisation(s)
TU Wien (TUW)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin)
University of Copenhagen
Type
Article
Journal
Nature Photonics
Volume
14
Pages
719–722
No. of pages
4
ISSN
1749-4885
Publication date
12.2020
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic version(s)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1911.09701v1 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-0692-z (Access: Closed)