Direct observation of dynamics of photonic bound states

ORAL

Abstract

Cavity-QED provides an effective route to modifying photon statistics and forming exotic quantum states of photons. The prerequisite to this is a very efficient coupling between photons and a quantum emitter. In this contribution, we use a quantum dot in a tunable microcavity to achieve pronounced interaction between optical photons [1]. We observe a strong nonlinearity in the transmission of the cavity with an on-set at an average of 0.25 photons per lifetime of the emitter. The nonlinearity means that the light-matter interaction depends strongly on the number of photons impinging on the two-level system [2]. We report the direct observation of a photon-number-dependent time delay in the transmission of the system. We observe that single photons, and two- and three-photon bound states incur different time delays of 144 ps, 66 ps and 45 ps, respectively. The reduced time delay of the two-photon bound state is a fingerprint of stimulated emission happening at the quantum level; the arrival of two photons within the lifetime of an emitter causes one photon to stimulate the emission of the other from the atom. We also determine the wave function of the two-photon bound state, which matches the theoretical predictions.



[1] N. Tomm, et al., arXiv:2205.03309 (2022).

[2] S. Mahmoodian, et al., Phys. Rev. X 10, 031011 (2020).

*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 Unions Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No.840453 (HiFig). S.R.V., R.S., A.L. and A.D.W. acknowledge gratefully 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, ``Emergent many-body phenomena in engineered quantum optical systems'', 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 ``Niedersachsisches Vorab" through the ``Quantum- and Nano-Metrology (QUANOMET)

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Publication: N. Tomm, et al., arXiv:2205.03309 (2022).

Presenters

  • Alisa Javadi

    • Uiversity of Basel

Authors

  • Alisa Javadi

    • Uiversity of Basel

  • Natasha Tomm

    • University of Basel

  • Sahand Mahmoodian

    • University of Sydney

  • Nadia O Antoniadis

    • University of Basel

  • Rüdiger Schott

    • Ruhr-Universität Bochum

  • Sasha Valentin

    • Ruhr-Universität Bochum

  • Andreas D Wieck

    • Ruhr-Universität Bochum
    • Ruhr Universität Bochum
    • Lehrstuhl fül Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Rhur-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

  • Arne Ludwig

    • Ruhr-Universität Bochum
    • Ruhr Universität Bochum
    • Lehrstuhl fül Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Rhur-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

  • Richard J Warburton

    • University of Basel