Photon bound state dynamics from a single artificial atom

authored by: Natasha Tomm, Sahand Mahmoodian, Nadia O. Antoniadis, Rüdiger Schott, Sascha R. Valentin, Andreas D. Wieck, Arne Ludwig, Alisa Javadi, Richard J. Warburton
Abstract: The interaction between photons and a single two-level atom constitutes a fundamental paradigm in quantum physics. The nonlinearity provided by the atom leads to a strong dependence of the light–matter interface on the number of photons interacting with the two-level system within its emission lifetime. This nonlinearity unveils strongly correlated quasiparticles known as photon bound states, giving rise to key physical processes such as stimulated emission and soliton propagation. Although signatures consistent with the existence of photon bound states have been measured in strongly interacting Rydberg gases, their hallmark excitation-number-dependent dispersion and propagation velocity have not yet been observed. Here we report the direct observation of a photon-number-dependent time delay in the scattering off a single artificial atom—a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to an optical cavity. By scattering a weak coherent pulse off the cavity–quantum electrodynamics system and measuring the time-dependent output power and correlation functions, we show that single photons and two- and three-photon bound states incur different time delays, becoming shorter for higher photon numbers. This reduced time delay is a fingerprint of stimulated emission, where the arrival of two photons within the lifetime of an emitter causes one photon to stimulate the emission of another.
Organisation(s): Institute of Theoretical Physics
External Organisation(s): University of Basel
University of Sydney
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Type: Article
Journal: Nature physics
Volume: 19
Pages: 857-862
No. of pages: 6
ISSN: 1745-2473
Publication date: 06.2023
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy(all)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.03309 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-01997-6 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{2781e8ad3aa14a7faffc42bdfe9c319b,
title = "Photon bound state dynamics from a single artificial atom",
abstract = "The interaction between photons and a single two-level atom constitutes a fundamental paradigm in quantum physics. The nonlinearity provided by the atom leads to a strong dependence of the light–matter interface on the number of photons interacting with the two-level system within its emission lifetime. This nonlinearity unveils strongly correlated quasiparticles known as photon bound states, giving rise to key physical processes such as stimulated emission and soliton propagation. Although signatures consistent with the existence of photon bound states have been measured in strongly interacting Rydberg gases, their hallmark excitation-number-dependent dispersion and propagation velocity have not yet been observed. Here we report the direct observation of a photon-number-dependent time delay in the scattering off a single artificial atom—a semiconductor quantum dot coupled to an optical cavity. By scattering a weak coherent pulse off the cavity–quantum electrodynamics system and measuring the time-dependent output power and correlation functions, we show that single photons and two- and three-photon bound states incur different time delays, becoming shorter for higher photon numbers. This reduced time delay is a fingerprint of stimulated emission, where the arrival of two photons within the lifetime of an emitter causes one photon to stimulate the emission of another.",
author = "Natasha Tomm and Sahand Mahmoodian and Antoniadis, {Nadia O.} and R{\"u}diger Schott and Valentin, {Sascha R.} and Wieck, {Andreas D.} and Arne Ludwig and Alisa Javadi and Warburton, {Richard J.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank K. Hammerer for fruitful discussions. N.T., N.O.A., A.J. and R.J.W. acknowledge financial support from SNF project 200020_204069 and NCCR QSIT. A.J. acknowledges support from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement no. 840453 (HiFig), and the Research Fund of the University of Basel. S.R.V., R.S., A.L. and A.D.W. gratefully acknowledge support from DFH/UFA CDFA05-06, DFG TRR160, DFG project 383065199 and BMBF Q.Link.X project 16KISQ009. S.M. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) via the Future Fellowship, {\textquoteleft}Emergent many-body phenomena in engineered quantum optical systems{\textquoteright}, project no. FT200100844, as well as the ARC Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS), project no. CE17010000. S.M. also acknowledges funding from DFG through CRC 1227 DQ-mat, projects A05 and A06, and {\textquoteleft}Nieders{\"a}chsisches Vorab{\textquoteright} through the {\textquoteleft}Quantum- and Nano-Metrology (QUANOMET){\textquoteright}. ",
year = "2023",
month = jun,
doi = "10.48550/arXiv.2205.03309",
language = "English",
volume = "19",
pages = "857--862",
journal = "Nature physics",
issn = "1745-2473",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "6",
}