Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 55: Quantum Effects

Q 55.5: Talk

Thursday, March 8, 2018, 11:45–12:00, K 1.013

Localization control of few-photon states in parity-symmetric photonic molecules — •Christopher D B Bentley¹, Alan Celestino¹, Alejandro M Yacomotti², Ramy El-Ganainy³, and Alexander Eisfeld¹ — ¹Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany — ²Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures (CNRS UPR 20), Route de Nozay, Marcoussis 91460, France — ³Department of Physics and Henes Center for Quantum Phenomena, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA

Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) has been demonstrated approaching the quantum regime (with around 150 photons) using optically pumped, parity-symmetric photonic molecules [1]. The occurrence of SSB in the few-photon regime is a topic of active investigation. In this regime there are significant quantum fluctuations due to environmental couplings. We consider a system of two coupled, identical, optically-driven cavities, as in [1]. In this system, quantum fluctuations lead to transient population imbalance between the cavities, i.e. one cavity has higher population (mean photon number) than the other. No cavity is preferred: on average, there is no population imbalance. However, we demonstrate using feedback that one can control the population imbalance in this system without breaking the mirror-symmetry of the cavity driving. By time-dependent modulation of the amplitude of the mirror-symmetric driving, we select a cavity to have higher population on average.

[1] P. Hamel et al. 2015, Nature Photonics 9 (311)