Multifunctional frequency manipulations on single photon in an atom-waveguide system

Abstract

Based on the rapid developments of quantum technology, effectively manipulating single-photon quantum state transport along the frequency domain plays an important role in the field of quantum communications. Here, we propose an atom waveguide system, which can realize controllable light-atom interaction in the single-photon level. The system is composed of a 1D-waveguide coupling to a V-type three-level atom ultrastrongly driven by an external field. Under the ultrastrong driving, the rotating-wave approximation is no longer valid between the transition of the two atomic excited states, which induces the atomic virtual transitions and quantum interferences of the output photon. We perform both theoretical calculations and simulations to study the reflection and transmission spectra of the single-photon quantum transport. By properly choosing the frequency of the incident photon and the Rabi frequency of the driven field, one can generate different frequency-correlated single-photon states and achieve unidirectional single-photon frequency conversions [ACS Photonics. 7, 2010 (2020)]. Our work demonstrates the feasibility for all-optically manipulating single-photon quantum state in an atom-waveguide experimental platform, which may promote the fundamental research on the photon-photon interaction and development of the quantum information processing.