Efficient excitation of a two-level atom by a single photon in a propagating mode

Wang, Yimin; Minář, Jiří; Sheridan, Lana; Scarani, Valerio

doi:10.1103/physreva.83.063842

Cited by 129 publications

(232 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In order to match their (c in and c s ) amplitudes for a complete destructive interference, it is required that the incident photon takes an exponential growth waveform. A number of theoretical papers have suggested that a single photon with the exponential growth waveform, which has a time constant equal to the excited-state lifetime, can be maximally absorbed and interacted with a single atom [13][14][15][16][17]. Following this, we take the incident single-photon field operator aŝ…”

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confidence: 99%

Coherent Control of Single-Photon Absorption and Reemission in a Two-Level Atomic Ensemble

et al. 2012

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We demonstrate coherent control of single-photon absorption and reemission in a two-level cold atomic ensemble. This is achieved by interfering the incident single-photon wave packet with the emission (or scattering) wave. For a photon with an exponential growth waveform with a time constant equal to the excited-state lifetime, we observe that the single-photon emission probability during the absorption can be suppressed due to the perfect destructive interference. After the incident photon waveform is switched off, the absorbed photon is then reemitted to the same spatial mode as that of the incident photon with an efficiency of 20%. For a photon with an exponential decay waveform with the same time constant, both the absorption and reemission occur within the waveform duration. Our experimental results suggest that the absorption and emission of a single photon in a two-level atomic ensemble may possibly be manipulated by shaping its waveform in the time domain. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.263601 PACS numbers: 42.50.Nn, 03.65.Ta, 32.80.Qk, 42.50.Ct Photon absorption and emission are two key probes to study the light-matter quantum interaction, which lays down the foundations for atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1][2][3]. When a coherent optical pulse propagates through a medium, the absorption and emission can coherently modify its spectral components and lead to many interesting and important optical phenomena, such as attenuation, amplification, distortion, and slow and fast light effects [4][5][6][7][8]. For a single photon, causality requires that the absorption and reemission follow the right time order: the reemission can only occur following the absorption. Although this quantum time order has been observed as the antibunching effect in resonance fluorescence measured by two-photon correlations [9,10], it is not controllable on demand in these experiments. When a single photon enters a two-level atomic medium, the absorption and emission usually both occur within the photon pulse duration. Recently, Scully et al. proposed a scheme for observing directed ''spontaneous'' emission excited by a single photon [11].In this Letter, we demonstrate coherent control of singlephoton absorption and reemission in a two-level cold atomic ensemble in free space by shaping the singlephoton waveform. Making use of the destructive interference between the emission (or scattering) and the incident photon wave packet, we show that the probability of reemitting the photon during the absorption can be completely suppressed when the incident photon has an exponential growth waveform with a time constant equal to the excitedstate lifetime. The reemission process only starts after the incident photon waveform is switched off and thus can be controlled on demand. This technique can be used to efficiently excite atoms with a given single atom. Our result may have potential applications in the quantum networks that require efficient conversion between flying single-photon states and local atomic states [12]. Figure 1 i...

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confidence: 99%

Coherent Control of Single-Photon Absorption and Reemission in a Two-Level Atomic Ensemble

et al. 2012

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“…In this interpretation we see in (20) that when the result of the outcome is 0 then we deal with two possibilities-the system S did not emit photon or photon from the environment was absorbed by S. When the photon was detected we see that it was emitted by S or we measured the photon of the external field directly. The form of (13) depends on the results of all past measurements, thus it is clear that if all photons achievable for the considered composed system were observed then only the second term gives non-zero contribution to (13) and there is no longer entanglement between S and the future environment.…”

Section: Conditional Evolution For the Counting Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…is the a priori probability of excitation at time t. The problem of the most efficient excitation of the two-level system by a single photon in a propagating mode was studied for instance in [17,18,20]. But instead of the numerical treatment of the problem, our approach offers the analogical formulas for the probabilities of particular trajectories.…”

Section: Continuous Limit For the Counting Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantum trajectories for a system interacting with environment in a single-photon state: Counting and diffusive processes

2017

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We derived quantum trajectories for a system interacting with the environment prepared in a continuous mode single photon state as the limit of discrete filtering model with an environment defined as series of independent qubits prepared initially in the entangled state being an analogue of a continuous mode state. The environment qubits interact with the quantum system and they are subsequently measured. The initial correlation between the bath qubits is the source of the non-Markovianity. The conditional evolutions of the quantum system for limit of the continuous in time observations together with the formulas for the photon counting probabilities are given.

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“…4, but in a domain of ultra-strong coupling. This question was investigated by many authors in a regime of weaker coupling, α 1, using for instance the RWA [53][54][55] or extensions to scattering of the Wigner-Weisskopf theory [56] (based on Fock state truncation). In order to tackle the case of large α, we first develop a numerically exact approach to the photon scattering properties in the weak intensity limit.…”

Section: Scattering Properties: Numerical Renormalization Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of a qubit in a high-impedance transmission line from a bath perspective

2016

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We investigate the quantum dynamics of a generic model of light-matter interaction in the context of high impedance waveguides, focusing on the behavior of the photonic states generated in the waveguide. The model treated consists simply of a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath (the ohmic spin-boson model). Quantum quenches as well as scattering of an incident coherent pulse are studied using two complementary methods. First, we develop an approximate ansatz for the electromagnetic waves based on a single multimode coherent state wavefunction; formally, this approach combines in a single framework ideas from adiabatic renormalization, the Born-Markov approximation, and input-output theory. Second, we present numerically exact results for scattering of a weak intensity pulse by using Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) calculations. NRG provides a benchmark for any linear response property throughout the ultra-strong coupling regime. We find that in a sudden quantum quench, the coherent state approach produces physical artifacts, such as improper relaxation to the steady state. These previously unnoticed problems are related to the simplified form of the ansatz that generates spurious correlations within the bath. In the scattering problem, NRG is used to find the transmission and reflection of a single photon, as well as the inelastic scattering of that single photon. Simple analytical formulas are established and tested against the NRG data that predict quantitatively the transport coefficients for up to moderate environmental impedance. These formulas resolve pending issues regarding the presence of inelastic losses in the spin-boson model near absorption resonances, and could be used for comparison to experiments in Josephson waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED). Finally, the scattering results using the coherent state wavefunction approach are compared favorably to the NRG results for very weak incident intensity. We end our study by presenting results at higher power where the response of the system is nonlinear.

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Efficient excitation of a two-level atom by a single photon in a propagating mode

Cited by 129 publications

References 23 publications

Coherent Control of Single-Photon Absorption and Reemission in a Two-Level Atomic Ensemble

Coherent Control of Single-Photon Absorption and Reemission in a Two-Level Atomic Ensemble

Quantum trajectories for a system interacting with environment in a single-photon state: Counting and diffusive processes

Dynamics of a qubit in a high-impedance transmission line from a bath perspective

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