Abstract
We study the interplay of photons interacting with an artificial atom in the presence of a controlled dephasing. Such artificial atoms consisting of several independent scatterers can exhibit remarkable properties superior to single atoms with a prominent example being a superatom based on Rydberg blockade. We demonstrate that the induced dephasing allows for the controlled absorption of a single photon from an arbitrary incoming probe field. This unique tool in photon-matter interaction opens a way for building novel quantum devices, and several potential applications such as a single photon transistor, high fidelity -photon counters, or the creation of nonclassical states of light by photon subtraction are presented.
- Received 7 March 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.093601
© 2011 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Out of many atoms, one photon
Published 25 August 2011
A gas of excited-state atoms could perform as a single-photon detector.
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