Tailoring Photon Statistics with an Atom-Based Two-Photon Interferometer

Year: 2023

Authors: Cordier M., Schemmer M., Schneeweiss P., Volz J., Rauschenbeutel A.

Autors Affiliation: Humboldt Univ, Dept Phys, D-10099 Berlin, Germany; Ist Nazl Ottica, Consiglio Nazl Ric, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.

Abstract: Controlling the photon statistics of light is paramount for quantum science and technologies. Recently, we demonstrated that transmitting resonant laser light past an ensemble of two-level emitters can result in a stream of single photons or excess photon pairs. This transformation is due to quantum interference between the transmitted laser light and the incoherently scattered photon pairs [Prasad et al., Nat. Photonics 14, 719 (2020)]. Here, using the dispersion of the atomic medium, we actively control the relative quantum phase between these two components. We thereby realize a tunable two-photon interferometer and observe interference fringes in the normalized photon coincidence rate. When tuning the relative phase, the coincidence rate varies periodically, giving rise to a continuous modification of the photon statistics from antibunching to bunching. Beyond the fundamental insight that there exists a tunable quantum phase between incoherent and coherent light that dictates the photon statistics, our results lend themselves to the development of novel quantum light sources.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 131 (18)      Pages from: 183601-1  to: 183601-5

More Information: We are grateful to J. Dalibard for his feedback and careful reading of the manuscript. M. C. and M. S. acknowledge support from the European Commission (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Grants No. 101029304 and No. 896957). We acknowledge funding by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, as well as funding by the European Commission under the project DAALI (No. 899275) .
KeyWords: Resonance Fluorescence; Side-band; Quantum; Emission
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.183601

Citations: 2
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