Two-photon gateway in one-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics

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 fi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 101; no. 20; p. 203602
Main Authors Kubanek, A, Ourjoumtsev, A, Schuster, I, Koch, M, Pinkse, P W H, Murr, K, Rempe, G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 14.11.2008
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.101.203602