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We present a mechanism that harnesses extremely weak Kerr-type nonlinearities in a single driven cavity to deterministically generate single-photon Fock states and more general photon-blockaded states. Our method is effective even for nonlinearities that are orders-of-magnitude smaller than photonic loss. It is also completely distinct from so-called unconventional photon blockade mechanisms, as the generated states are non-Gaussian, exhibit a sharp cutoff in their photon number distribution, and can be arbitrarily close to a single-photon Fock state. Our ideas require only standard linear and parametric drives and are hence compatible with a variety of different photonic platforms.
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Photonic Fock state generation using superradiance
Photonic Fock states are the most basic quantum states of a radiation field, but arbitrary number states are still difficult to produce. Here we propose to use superradiant atoms in a chiral waveguide to generate multi-photon Fock states deterministically. We calculate the explicit forms of the output quantum photonic states and their correlation functions. We further establish the conditions for the output optical fields to approach the Fock states asymptotically.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1838996
- PAR ID:
- 10370381
- Publisher / Repository:
- Optical Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optics Letters
- Volume:
- 47
- Issue:
- 17
- ISSN:
- 0146-9592; OPLEDP
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 4576
- Size(s):
- Article No. 4576
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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