Photonic Counterparts of Cooper Pairs

Abstract

The microscopic theory of superconductivity raised the disruptive idea that electrons couple through the elusive exchange of virtual phonons, overcoming the strong Coulomb repulsion to form Cooper pairs. Light is also known to interact with atomic vibrations, as for example in the Raman effect. We show that photon pairs exchange virtual vibrations in transparent media, leading to an effective photon-photon interaction identical to that for electrons in BCS theory of supercondutivity, in spite of the fact that photons are bosons. In this scenario, photons may exchange energy without matching a quantum of vibration of the medium. As a result, pair correlations for photons scattered away from the Raman resonances are expected to be enhanced. Experimental demonstration of this effect is provided here by time correlated Raman measurements in different media. The experimental data confirm our theoretical interpretation of a photonic Cooper pairing, without the need for any fitting parameters.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures, contact authors for supplemental material. Selected for "The Best of the Physics arXiv" from MIT Technology Review, week ending Sept. 23rd 2017

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• Lifetime and Polarization for Real and Virtual Correlated Stokes-anti-Stokes Raman Scattering in Diamond
• Measurement-Induced Collective Vibrational Quantum Coherence under Spontaneous Raman Scattering in a Liquid
• Stokes-anti-Stokes correlated photon properties akin to photonic Cooper pairs
• Nonclassicality in off-resonant Raman process
• Ideal pairing of the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons in the Raman process
• Stokes--anti-Stokes light scattering process: -- A photon-wave-function approach
• Effective Hamiltonian for Stokes--anti-Stokes pair generation with pump and probe polarized modes
• Resonant squeezed light from photonic Cooper pairs
• Heralded single-photon source based on ensemble of Raman active molecules
• Emergent broadband polarization entanglement from electronic and phononic Stokes-anti-Stokes indistinguishability
• Frequency-resolved photon correlations in cavity optomechanics
• Fully quantum perturbative description of correlated Stokes--anti-Stokes scattering