Linear and nonlinear quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in a nonlinear optical coupler

Abstract

Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects are studied in a symmetric nonlinear optical coupler, which is composed of two nonlinear ($\chi^{\left(2\right)}$) waveguides that are interacting with each other via the evanescent waves. Both the waveguides operate under second harmonic generation. However, to study quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects one of them is considered as the system and the other one is considered as the probe. Considering all the fields involved as weak, a completely quantum mechanical description is provided, and the analytic solutions of Heisenberg's equations of motion for all the field modes are obtained using a perturbative technique. Photon number statistics of the second harmonic mode of the system is shown to depend on the presence of the probe, and this dependence is considered as quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects. Further, it is established that as a special case of the momentum operator for $\chi^{\left(2\right)}-\chi^{\left(2\right)}$ symmetric coupler we can obtain momentum operator of $\chi^{\left(2\right)}-\chi^{\left(1\right)}$ asymmetric coupler with linear ($\chi^{\left(1\right)}$) waveguide as the probe, and in such a particular case, the expressions obtained for Zeno and anti-Zeno effects with nonlinear probe (which we referred to as nonlinear quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects) may be reduced to the corresponding expressions with linear probe (which we referred to as the linear quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects). Linear and nonlinear quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects are rigorously investigated, and it is established that in the stimulated case, we may switch between quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects just by controlling the phase of the second harmonic mode of the system or probe.