Abstract
We present the effects of resonator birefringence on the cavity-enhanced interfacing of quantum states of light and matter, including the first observation of single photons with a time-dependent polarization state that evolves within their coherence time. A theoretical model is introduced and experimentally verified by the modified polarization of temporally long single photons emitted from a ^{87}Rb atom coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity by a vacuum-stimulated Raman adiabatic passage process. Further theoretical investigation shows how a change in cavity birefringence can both impact the atom-cavity coupling and engender starkly different polarization behavior in the emitted photons. With polarization a key resource for encoding quantum states of light and modern micron-scale cavities particularly prone to birefringence, the consideration of these effects is vital to the faithful realization of efficient and coherent emitter-photon interfaces for distributed quantum networking and communications.
Highlights
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) allows for the nature of light and matter to be interrogated through the enhanced interaction of an emitter with the resonant modes of a cavity [1,2,3]
The coherent interfacing of light and matter qubits lies at the heart of many quantum networking proposals [4,5,6,7,8], and the interaction of atomlike emitters with a single photonic mode of a resonator provides a platform for realizing this control
Micron-scale Fabry-Perot cavities, such as those formed between laser-ablated mirrors on the tips of optical fibers [22,23,24], provide open access to the mode for ease of coupling and the trapping of single atoms [25] or ions [26,27,28]
Summary
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) allows for the nature of light and matter to be interrogated through the enhanced interaction of an emitter with the resonant modes of a cavity [1,2,3]. Deterministic emission of single photons into well-defined quantum states has been realized in both atom-cavity [11,13,14,15,16] and ion-cavity systems [17]. Viewed in the atomic basis [Fig. 1(b)], the photon is emitted into only one of the considered polarization states, with this oscillation coupling the emitted state to its orthogonal counterpart.
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