On the origin of strong photon antibunching in weakly nonlinear photonic molecules

Motoaki Bamba (1) , Atac Imamoglu (2) , Iacopo Carusotto (3) , Cristiano Ciuti (1)

1 MPQ (UMR_7162) - Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques
2 ETHZ - Institute of Quantum Electronics
3 UNITN - Università degli Studi di Trento = University of Trento

In a recent work [T.~C.~H.~Liew and V.~Savona, Phys.~Rev.~Lett.~{\bf104}, 183601 (2010)] it was numerically shown that in a photonic 'molecule' consisting of two coupled cavities, near-resonant coherent excitation could give rise to strong photon antibunching with a surprisingly weak nonlinearity. Here, we show that a subtle quantum interference effect is responsible for the predicted efficient photon blockade effect. We analytically determine the optimal on-site nonlinearity and frequency detuning between the pump field and the cavity mode. We also highlight the limitations of the proposal and its potential applications in demonstration of strongly correlated photonic systems in arrays of weakly nonlinear cavities.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]; Autre [cond-mat.other]

Motoaki Bamba, Atac Imamoglu, Iacopo Carusotto, Cristiano Ciuti. On the origin of strong photon antibunching in weakly nonlinear photonic molecules. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2011, 83, pp.021802. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.83.021802⟩. ⟨hal-00499490⟩