Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 26: SYRA: Ultracold Rydberg Atoms and Molecules 2

Q 26.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 15:45–16:00, V47.01

Strongly interacting single photons in an ultra-cold Rydberg gas — Stephan Jennewein, Huan Nguyen, Michael Schlagmüller, Christoph Tresp, and •Sebastian Hofferberth — 5. Phys. Institut, Universität Stuttgart

Strong photon-photon coupling can in principle be achieved inside extremely nonlinear media. The search for few-photon nonlinearities is a highly active field, including such diverse systems as quantum dots, NV centers in diamond, atomic ensembles, and single atoms in optical resonators. However, no robust and scalable realization of, for example, a single-photon switch has been achieved so far. Here, we present a new approach that aims to realize dramatically enhanced photon-photon interactions by mapping quantum correlations between strongly interacting atoms inside an ultra-cold gas onto single photons. We show that this technique can be used to implement building blocks for photonic quantum information processing, such as a deterministic single-photon source and a quantum phase gate.