Antibunching and unconventional photon blockade with Gaussian squeezed states

Abstract

Photon antibunching is a quantum phenomenon typically observed in strongly nonlinear systems where photon blockade suppresses the probability for detecting two photons at the same time. Antibunching has also been reported with Gaussian states, where optimized amplitude squeezing yields classically forbidden values of the intensity correlation, $g^{(2)}(0)<1$. As a consequence, observing antibunching is not necessarily a signature of photon-photon interactions. To clarify the significance of the intensity correlations, we derive a sufficient condition for deducing if a field is non-Gaussian based on a $g^{(2)}(0)$ measurement. We then show that the Gaussian antibunching obtained with a degenerate parametric amplifier is close to the ideal case reached using dissipative squeezing protocols. We finally shed light on the so-called unconventional photon blockade effect predicted in a driven two-cavity setup with surprisingly weak Kerr nonlinearities, stressing that it is a particular realization of optimized Gaussian amplitude squeezing.

12 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Single photons from coupled quantum modes
• On the origin of strong photon antibunching in weakly nonlinear photonic molecules
• Measurements of the Correlation Function of a Microwave Frequency Single Photon Source
• Dissipative Preparation of Spin Squeezed Atomic Ensembles in a Steady State
• Antibunching photons in a cavity coupled to an optomechanical system
• Photon correlations in a two-site non-linear cavity system under coherent drive and dissipation
• Detecting phonon blockade with photons
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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Microwave photonics with superconducting quantum circuits
• The Unconventional Photon Blockade
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• Phonon blockade in a nanomechanical resonator resonantly coupled to a qubit
• Dynamical blockade in a single mode bosonic system
• Multi-output microwave single-photon source using superconducting circuits with longitudinal and transverse couplings
• Design of a quasi-2D photonic crystal optomechanical cavity with tunable, large $x^2$-coupling
• $n$-photon blockade with an $n$-photon parametric drive
• Photon blockade in non-Hermitian optomechanical systems with nonreciprocal couplings
• Two coupled nonlinear cavities in a driven-dissipative environment
• Dynamical blockade in a bosonic Josephson junction using optimal coupling
• Optomechanical second-order sidebands and group delays in a spinning resonator with parametric amplifier and non-Markovian effects
• Criterion for Single Photon Sources
• Measuring High-Order Phonon Correlations in an Optomechanical Resonator