Few-photon all-optical phase rotation in a quantum-well micropillar cavity

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Kuriakose, Tintu, Walker, Paul M, Dowling, Toby, Kyriienko, Oleksandr, Shelykh, Ivan A, St-Jean, Phillipe, Nicola Carlon Zambon, Lemaître, Aristide, Sagnes, Isabelle, Legratiet, Luc, Harouri, Abdelmounaim, Ravets, Sylvain, Skolnick, Maurice S, Amo, Alberto, Bloch, Jacqueline, Krizhanovskii, Dmitry N
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 25.06.2021
• Subjects: Data processing; Emitters; Excitons; Information processing; Laser beams; Lattices; Nonlinearity; Particle beams; Photonics; Photons; Physics - Optics; Physics - Other Condensed Matter; Polaritons; Quantum optics; Quantum phenomena; Quantum wells; Strong interactions (field theory)
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2106.13650

Photonic platforms are an excellent setting for quantum technologies because weak photon-environment coupling ensures long coherence times. The second key ingredient for quantum photonics is interactions between photons, which can be provided by optical nonlinearities in the form of cross-phase-modulation (XPM). This approach underpins many proposed applications in quantum optics and information processing, but achieving its potential requires strong single-photon-level nonlinear phase shifts and also scalable nonlinear elements. In this work we show that the required nonlinearity can be provided by exciton-polaritons in micropillars with embedded quantum wells. These combine the strong interactions of excitons with the scalability of micrometer-sized emitters. We observe XPM up to \(3 \pm 1\) mrad per particle using laser beams attenuated to below single photon average intensity. With our work serving as a first stepping stone, we lay down a route for quantum information processing in polaritonic lattices.