Detecting a single atom in a cavity using the $χ^{(2)}$ nonlinear medium

Abstract

We propose a protocol for detecting a single atom in a cavity with the help of the χ (2) nonlinear medium. When the χ (2) nonlinear medium is driven by an external laser field, the cavity mode will be squeezed, and thus one can obtain an exponentially enhanced light-matter coupling. Such a strong coupling between the atom and the cavity field can significantly change the output photon flux, the quantum fluctuations, the quantum statistical property, and the photon number distributions of the cavity field. This provides practical strategies to determine the presence or absence of an atom in a cavity. The proposed protocol exhibits some advantages, such as controllable squeezing strength and exponential increase of atom-cavity coupling strength, which make the experimental phenomenon more obvious. We hope that this protocol can supplement the existing intracavity single-atom detection protocols and provide a promise for quantum sensing in different quantum systems.