Two-photon gateway in one-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics
Quantum Physics
2009-11-13 v1 Other Condensed Matter
Abstract
Single atoms absorb and emit light from a resonant laser beam photon by photon. We show that a single atom strongly coupled to an optical cavity can absorb and emit resonant photons in pairs. The effect is observed in a photon correlation experiment on the light transmitted through the cavity. We find that the atom-cavity system transforms a random stream of input photons into a correlated stream of output photons, thereby acting as a two-photon gateway. The phenomenon has its origin in the quantum anharmonicity of the energy structure of the atom-cavity system. Future applications could include the controlled interaction of two photons by means of one atom.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0811.0264,
title = {Two-photon gateway in one-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics},
author = {A. Kubanek and A. Ourjoumtsev and I. Schuster and M. Koch and P. W. H. Pinkse and K. Murr and G. Rempe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.0264},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
PRL, 4 figures