Tunable single-photon multi-channel quantum router based on an optomechanical system

Abstract

Routing of photon play a key role in optical communication and quantum networks. Although the quantum routing of signals has been investigated in various systems both in theory and experiment. However, no current theory can route quantum signals between microwave and optical light. Here, we propose an experimentally accessible tunable multi-channel quantum routing proposal using photonphonon translation in a hybrid opto-electromechanical system. It is the first demonstration that the single-photon of optical frequency can be routed into three different output ports by adjusting microwave power. More important, the two output signals can be selected according to microwave power. Meanwhile, we also demonstrate the vacuum and thermal noise will be insignificant for the optical performance of the single-photon router at temperature of the order of 20 mK. Our proposal may have paved a new avenue towards multi-channel router and quantum network. PACS numbers: 42.50.Ex, 03.67.Hk, 41.20.Cv Quantum information science has been developed rapidly due to the substitution of photons as signal carriers rather than the limited electrons [1]. Single photons are suitable candidates as the carrier of quantum information due to the fact that they propagate fast and interact rarely with the environment. Meanwhile, a quantum single-photons router is challenging because the interaction between individual photons is generally very weak. Quantum router or quantum switch plays a key role in optical communication networks and quantum information processing. It is important for controlling the path of the quantum signal with fixed Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or quantum switch without fixed IP addresses.Designing a quantum router or an optical switch operated at a single photon level enables a selective quantum channel in quantum information and quantum networks [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], such as in different systems, cavity QED system [10], circuit QED system [3], optomechanical system [4], a pure linear optical system [11,12], ∧-type three-level system [13][14][15]. The essence lying at the core is the realization of the strong coupling between the photons and photons or photons and phonons [17][18][19][20], but these methods require high-pump-laser powers due to the very weak optical nonlinearity. To the best of our knowledge, the quantum router demonstrated in most experiments and theoretical proposals has only one output terminal, except for only a few theoretical method in Ref. [13][14][15][16] and the experiments in Ref. [12]. However, until now, the * Electronic address: changjianqi@gamail.com † Electronic address: mangfeng@wipm.ac.cn ‡ Electronic address: zmzhang@scnu.edu.cn above all of routers are applied only in optical light or only in microwave separately.On the other hand, with the technological advancements in the fields of optical nanocavity and microwave circuit, it is now possible to engineer interactions between optical and microwave using photon-phonon translation. Both microwave and optical light have been sepa...

A tunable single-photon multi-channel quantum router in a hybrid BEC-optomechanical system

“…Clearly to beat the effects of the vacuum noise and the thermal noise, the number of photons in the probe pulse has to be much bigger than the vacuum noise and the thermal noise photons. However, if we work with mirror temperatures like 20 mK, then the thermal noise term is insignificant, as shown in figures 6 and 7 [8,49].…”

“…Then, we can describe the working process of the single-photon multi-output router [49,50]. In the presence the effective coupling strength of the optical field with the mirror, the single photons are completely reflected through the cavity to the left output port at frequency ω (T(ω) ≈ 0 and R(ω) ≈ 1).…”

Controllable Four-Wave Mixing Based on Hybrid BEC-Optomechanical Systems

“…However, if we work with mirror temperatures like 20 mK, then the thermal noise term is insignificant as shown in Fig. 9 [18,33].…”

Controllable fast light in quantum dot molecules assisted hybrid optomechanical system

“…Similarly, studies related to quantum entanglement [19], nonlinear quantum optomechanics via individual intrinsic two-level defects [20], optomechanically induced absorption [21] and switching between slow and fast light [10,22] are notable. These researches have applications in quantum information [23,24] and precision measurements [25,26].…”