Origin of strong photon antibunching in weakly nonlinear photonic molecules

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.021802· OSTI ID:21537104

Bamba, Motoaki; Ciuti, Cristiano ^[1]; Imamoglu, Atac ^[2]; Carusotto, Iacopo ^[3]

---

1. Laboratoire Materiaux et Phenomenes Quantiques, Universite Paris Diderot-Paris 7 et CNRS, Batiment Condorcet, 10 rue Alice Domon et Leonie Duquet, F-75205 Paris Cedex 13 (France)
2. Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zuerich, CH-8093 Zuerich (Switzerland)
3. INO-CNR BEC Center and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento, I-38123 Povo (Italy)

In a recent work [Liew and Savona, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 183601 (2010)] it was numerically shown that a resonantly driven photonic ''molecule'' consisting of two coupled cavities can exhibit strong photon antibunching with a surprisingly weak Kerr nonlinearity. Here, we analytically identify the subtle quantum interference effect that is responsible for the predicted efficient photon blockade effect. We then extend the theory to the experimentally relevant Jaynes-Cummings system consisting of a single quantum emitter in a coupled-cavity structure and predict the strong antibunching even for single-atom cooperativity on the order of or smaller than unity. The potential of this quantum interference effect in the realization of strongly correlated photonic systems with only weak material nonlinearities is assessed by comparing on-site and inter-site correlations in a ring of three coupled photonic molecules.

• OSTI ID: 21537104
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 83; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ATOMS
BOSONS
CAVITIES
CAVITY RESONATORS
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
INTERFERENCE
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MECHANICS
MOLECULES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PHOTONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RESONATORS