Efficient All-Optical Switching Using Slow Light within a Hollow Fiber

Bajcsy, Michal; Hofferberth, Sebastian; Balić, Vlatko; Peyronel, Thibault; Hafezi, Mohammad; Zibrov, A. S.; Vuletić, Vladan; Lukin, Mikhail D.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.203902

Cited by 450 publications

(404 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

398

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…3a) destroys the quantum interference associated with EIT and blocks transmission of the probe field. Such EIT cross-coupling nonlinearities 54 and similar effects 55 at the few-photon level have been observed by means of strong transverse confinement of the light inside optical fibres (Fig. 3b,c).…”

Section: Quantum Nonlinear Optics Using Atomic Ensemblesmentioning

confidence: 79%

Quantum nonlinear optics — photon by photon

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

other. This linearity in light propagation, in combination with the high frequency and hence large bandwidth provided by waves at optical frequencies, has made optical signals the preferred method for communicating information over long distances. In contrast, the processing of information requires some form of interaction between signals. In the case of light, such interactions can be enabled by nonlinear optical processes. These processes, which are now found ubiquitously throughout science and technology, include optical modulation and switching, nonlinear spectroscopy and frequency conversion 1 , and have applications across both the physical 2 and biological 3,4 sciences.A long-standing goal in optical science has been the implementation of nonlinear effects at progressively lower light powers or pulse energies. The ultimate limit may be termed 'quantum nonlinear optics' (Box 1) -the regime where individual photons interact so strongly with one another that the propagation of light pulses containing one, two or more photons varies substantially with photon number. Although this domain is difficult to reach owing to the small nonlinear coefficients of bulk optical materials, the potential payoff is significant. The realization of quantum nonlinear optics could improve the performance of classical nonlinear devices, enabling, for example, fast energy-efficient optical transistors that avoid Ohmic heating 5 . Furthermore, nonlinear switches activated by single photons could enable optical quantum information processing and communication 6 , as well as other applications that rely on the generation and manipulation of non-classical light fields 7,8 . The challenge of making photons interactAt low optical powers, most optical materials exhibit only linear optical phenomena, such as refraction and absorption, which can be described by a complex index of refraction. However, a sufficiently intense light beam can modify a material's index of refraction, such that the light propagation becomes power-dependent. This is the essence of classical nonlinear optics (Box 1). Large optical fields are required to alter the index of refraction of conventional bulk materials because a strong nonlinear response can only be induced if the electric field of the light beam acting on the electrons is comparable to the field of the nucleus. As a result, early experimental observations of nonlinear optical phenomena, such as frequencydoubling or sum-frequency generation 9 , were achievable only after the development of powerful lasers. Advances in nonlinear optics over the past four decades have resulted in progressively more efficient nonlinear processes 10 , thus enabling the observation of nonlinear processes at lower and lower light levels. It is natural to inquire if and how these nonlinear interactions can be made so strong that they become important even at the level of individual quanta of radiation. Although this question was addressed in early theoretical studies [11][12][13] , it has become more pressing with the advent of...

show abstract

Section: Quantum Nonlinear Optics Using Atomic Ensemblesmentioning

confidence: 79%

Quantum nonlinear optics — photon by photon

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Knowing that a single atom of silicon is about 0.25 nm in diameter, it seems still a long way before that size becomes a problem, but already now other materials like 'graphene' [15] and photon switches [16] start to open up new options for further miniaturization and increased performance of electronics. One of those related interesting questions is whether we will ever be capable of using the full three-dimensional space of a silicon wafer.…”

Section: Future Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra-precision engineering in lithographic exposure equipment for the semiconductor industry

Schmidt

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The developments in lithographic tools for the production of an integrated circuit (IC) are ruled by 'Moore's Law': the density of components on an IC doubles in about every two years. The corresponding size reduction of the smallest detail in an IC entails several technological breakthroughs. The wafer scanner, the exposure system that defines those details, is the determining factor in these developments. This review deals with those aspects of the positioning systems inside these wafer scanners that enable the extension of Moore's Law into the future. The design of these systems is increasingly difficult because of the accuracy levels in the sub-nanometre range coupled with motion velocities of several metres per second. In addition to the use of feedback control for the reduction of errors, high-precision model-based feed-forward control is required with an almost ideally reproducible motion-system behaviour and a strict limitation of random disturbing events. The full mastering of this behaviour even includes material drift on an atomic scale and is decisive for the future success of these machines.

show abstract

“…Since its first experimental observation in strontium vapors [2], it has been thoroughly investigated in different material systems including quantum dots [3], quantum wells [4], nanoplasmonics [5], metamaterials [6], and optomechanical systems [7]. Many applications of EIT, ranging from reversible mapping of light-matter states in quantum memory [8][9][10] to all-optical switching of one beam by another [11][12][13] and cross-coupling nonlinearities at the few-photon level [14,15], reveal its ability as a basic tool for implementation of quantum information processing. However, to date, only classical fields are employed in usual EIT schemes to yield transparency in probe light absorption, while, despite the fundamental importance, the transparency induced in atomic ensembles by quantum fields has not been explored yet, except for the cavity-based EIT, where the classical control beam is replaced by a cavity vacuum field [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coherent-state-induced transparency

Gogyan¹,

Malakyan²

2016

Phys. Rev. A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We examine electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an ensemble of cold Λ−type atoms induced by a quantum control field in multi-mode coherent states and compare it with the transparency created by the classical light of the same intensity. We show that the perfect coincidence is achieved only in the case of a single-mode coherent state, whereas the transparency sharply decreases, when the number of the modes exceeds the mean number of control photons in the medium. The origin of the effect is the modification of photon statistics in the control field with increasing the number of the modes that weakens its interaction with atoms resulting in a strong probe absorption. For the same reason, the probe pulse transforms from EIT-based slow-light into superluminal propagation caused by the absorption.

show abstract

Efficient All-Optical Switching Using Slow Light within a Hollow Fiber

Cited by 450 publications

References 30 publications

Quantum nonlinear optics — photon by photon

Quantum nonlinear optics — photon by photon

Ultra-precision engineering in lithographic exposure equipment for the semiconductor industry

Coherent-state-induced transparency

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About