Quantum Zeno effect in two coupled nonlinear optical processes

Abstract

Consecutive nonlinear optical interactions consisting of two coupled parametric processes, namely, the nondegenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion and up-conversion, are analyzed. The vacuum state of the input light is considered to be an unstable state decaying into a reservoir of down-converted modes, with one of the modes generated being continuously measured using the up-conversion process. Mean photon numbers at interacting frequencies are studied. Special attention is paid to the case where the nonlinear coupling coefficient for the up-conversion process is much larger than that for the nondegenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion. It is shown that in this case the result of such consecutive interactions can be interpreted from the viewpoint of the quantum Zeno effect.