Generation Engineering of Heralded Narrowband Colour Entangled States

Efficient heralded generation of entanglement together with its manipulation is of great importance for quantum communications. In addition, states generated with bandwidths naturally compatible with atomic transitions allow a more efficient mapping of light into matter which is an essential requirement for long distance quantum communications. Here we propose a scheme where the indistinguishability between two spontaneous four-wave mixing processes is engineered to herald generation of single-photon frequency-bin entangled states, i.e., single-photons shared by two distinct frequency modes. We show that entanglement can be optimised together with the generation probability, while maintaining absorption negligible. Besides, the scheme illustrated for cold rubidium atoms is versatile and can be implemented in several other physical systems

Radiation 'damping' in atomic photonic crystals

The force exerted on a material by an incident beam of light is dependent upon the material's velocity in the laboratory frame of reference. This velocity dependence is known to be diffcult to measure, as it is proportional to the incident optical power multiplied by the ratio of the material velocity to the speed of light. Here we show that this typically tiny effect is greatly amplified in multilayer systems composed of resonantly absorbing atoms (e.g. optically trapped 87Rb), which may exhibit ultra-narrow photonic band gaps. The amplification of the effect is shown to be three orders of magnitude greater than previous estimates for conventional photonic-band-gap materials, and significant for material velocities of a few ms/s.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Propagation of nonclassical light through an absorbing and dispersive slab

We calculate the effects of perpendicular propagation through a dispersive and absorbing dielectric slab at arbitrary temperatures on specific nonclassical properties of an incident light field. The transmitted signal is assumed to be measured by a detector that receives radiation only from the direction normal to thr slab surfaces. Squeezing and nonclassical counting statistics of the transmitted light are evaluated for continuous-wave squeezed states incident on both sides of the slab. The degree of second-order coherence is instead evaluated for an N-photon incident pulse, and the effects of transmission through the slab on its antibunching are calculated. [S1050-2947(99)06701-3]

Large Phase-by-Phase Modulations in Atomic Interfaces

Phase-resonant closed-loop optical transitions can be engineered to achieve broadly tunable light phase shifts. Such a novel phase-by-phase control mechanism does not require a cavity and is illustrated here for an atomic interface where a classical light pulse undergoes radian level phase modulations all-optically controllable over a few micron scale. It works even at low intensities and hence may be relevant to new applications of all-optical weak-light signal processing

Quantum optical properties of polariton waves

We develop a quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian formulation to treat the polariton in the frame- work of quantum optics. We exploit two specific Hamiltonians: the conventional Hopfield model, and a more general Hamiltonian. For both of these, exciton-polariton quantum states are found to be squeezed (intrinsic polariton squeezing) with respect to states of an intrinsic, nonpolaritonic, mixed photon-exciton boson. The amount and duration of intrinsic squeezing during the polariton period are calculated for exciton polaritons in typical I-VII and III-V semiconductors. Among the noteworthy features is the possibility of tuning the amount of intrinsic squeezing by varying the frequency —wave-vector dispersion of the polariton mode. We further analyze the photon statistics of the electromagnetic component of the polariton. Tunable non-Poissonian photon statistics and squeezing (optical polariton squeezing) are found in the radiative component of the exciton polari- ton. This entails the reduction of the Auctuations of the polariton electromagnetic field component below the limit set by the vacuum Iluctuations. The Mandel Q factor for the number distribution of photons in a polariton coherent state has been evaluated. Although small, for I-VII and III-V ma- terials in the range of modes analyzed, the Q factor could be enhanced for phonon polaritons as well as for other materials. Interpretations of the origin of squeezing in polariton states are presented

Quantum theory of a polarization phase-gate in an atomic tripod configuration

We present the quantum theory of a polarization phase-gate that can be realized in a sample of ultracold rubidium atoms driven into a tripod configuration. The main advantages of this scheme are in its relative simplicity and inherent symmetry. It is shown that the conditional phase shifts of order $\pi$ can be attained.Comment: X International Conference on Quantum Optics, Minsk, Belaru

Transverse Fresnel-Fizeau drag effects in strongly dispersive media

A light beam normally incident upon an uniformly moving dielectric medium is in general subject to bendings due to a transverse Fresnel-Fizeau light drag effect. In conventional dielectrics, the magnitude of this bending effect is very small and hard to detect. Yet, it can be dramatically enhanced in strongly dispersive media where slow group velocities in the m/s range have been recently observed taking advantage of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect. In addition to the usual downstream drag that takes place for positive group velocities, we predict a significant anomalous upstream drag to occur for small and negative group velocities. Furthermore, for sufficiently fast speeds of the medium, higher order dispersion terms are found to play an important role and to be responsible for peculiar effects such as light propagation along curved paths and the restoration of the spatial coherence of an incident noisy beam. The physics underlying this new class of slow-light effects is thoroughly discussed