paper

Convert laser light into single photons via interference

arXiv:2403.17253 · doi:10.1364/OPTICA.569554

Abstract

Laser light possesses perfect coherence, but cannot be attenuated to single photons via linear optics. An elegant route to convert laser light into single photons is based on photon blockade in a cavity with a single atom in the strong coupling regime. However, the single-photon purity achieved by this method remains relatively low. Here we propose an interference-based approach where laser light can be transformed into single photons by destructively interfering with a weak but super-bunched incoherent field emitted from a cavity coupling to a single quantum emitter. We demonstrate this idea by measuring the reflected light of a laser field which drives a double-sided optical microcavity containing a single artificial atom-quantum dot (QD) in the Purcell regime. The reflected light consists of a superposition of the driving field with the cavity output field. We achieve the second-order autocorrelation g2(0)=0.030+-0.002 and the two-photon interference visibility 94.3%+-0.2. By separating the coherent and incoherent fields in the reflected light, we observe that the incoherent field from the cavity exhibits super-bunching with g2(0)=41+-2 while the coherent field remains Poissonian statistics. By controlling the relative amplitude of coherent and incoherent fields, we verify that photon statistics of reflected light is tuneable from perfect anti-bunching to super-bunching in agreement with our predictions. Our results demonstrate photon statistics of light as a quantum interference phenomenon that a single QD can scatter two photons simultaneously at low driving fields in contrast to the common picture that a single two-level quantum emitter can only scatter (or absorb and emit) single photons. This work opens the door to tailoring photon statistics of laser light via cavity or waveguide quantum electrodynamics and interference.

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