Single-photon all-optical switching

Peter Bermel, Alejandro Rodriguez, Aristeidis Karalis, Steven G. Johnson, John D. Joannopoulos, Marin Soljačić
Department of Physics and the Center for Material Science and Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
(Dated: March 10, 2006)
This paper investigates an analytical model of a system consisting of a photonic crystal waveguide,
a microcavity, and a four-level electromagnetically-induced transparency atom. The transmission
and reflection of the system are numerically calculated, and it shown that classical results for this
class of systems can be extended to the quantum regime. In particular, these systems could enable
ultrafast nonlinear all-optical switching at single photon energy levels.

Obtaining strong coupling between two individual pho-

tons is an important but elusive goal thus far. The inher-
ent strength of photon-photon coupling being extremely
weak [1] requires enhancement of the inherent nonlinear-
ities of a system by many orders of magnitude. Most
nonlinear systems lack the strength necessary for single
photon interactions to have a significant effect, e.g., Kerr
nonlinearities [2]. The electromagnetically induced trans-
parency (EIT) effect has been shown experimentally to
create extremely large nonlinearities compared to con-
ventional material systems [3]. Previous studies have also
considered EIT atoms coupled to quantized photons in a
homogeneous medium [4]. FIG. 2: Diagram of the atomic levels of the EIT atom consid-
ered. Coupling between the |2i and the |3i levels is classical;
the other couplings take place at the single photon level.

this paper can be used to design all-optical switches at

FIG. 1: Illustration of the photonic crystal system used in this
paper. It consists of a triangular lattice of air holes in silicon
with dielectric constant  = 13 and air rod radius r = 0.48a.
In this paper, a structure is sought to enhance the
already substantial nonlinearities present in an EIT sys-
tem; photonic crystals are particularly suitable for this
purpose [5]. Specifically, the characteristics of a system
consisting of an EIT atom in a photon microcavity cou-
pled to a photonic crystal waveguide, originally studied
by ref. [6], are explored. This paper extends the previous
work’s semiclassical results to the quantum regime. It is
shown that a single EIT atom coupled to a cavity photon
mode, which in turn, is coupled to a waveguide, can see
its transmission gated by another photon of a different
frequency also trapped inside the cavity. The results in
the minimum possible power level, and can be applied to
creating entangled states for quantum computing [7].
Consider the following setup: a waveguide with linear
dispersion, side-coupled to a cavity which supports two
resonant modes of frequencies ωc and ω24 . The photonic
crystal implementation of this is shown in fig. 1. It con-
sists of a triangular lattice of air holes in silicon with
radius 0.48a which has a complete photonic bandgap in
2D [8]. The atomic system lies in the center of the defect
cavity. The corresponding atomic states and couplings
are illustrated in fig. 2. This geometry has been used
for recent studies of quantum dots in photonic crystal
microcavities, as in ref. [9].
The cavity in turn is coupled to an atomic system with
4 states. The Hamiltonian will be given by:
ωk a†k ak + ωc a† a + Vk (a†k + ak )(a† + a)
X X
H/~ =
k k
+ ω41 σ44 + ω31 σ33 + ω21 σ22 + ΩC (σ32 + σ23 ) cos (ω23 t)
g13 (a† σ13 + aσ31 ) + g24 b† σ24 + bσ42


+ (1)
where ak are the annihilation operators for waveguide
states of wavevector k and frequency ωk , a and b are
the annihilation operators for cavity photon states, Vk is
the coupling to the waveguide states with the cavity pho-
ton states, ωij are the transition energies between atomic
 2

states i and j, and σij are the projection operators that

take the atomic state from j to i. The second and third
atomic levels are coupled via a classical field of frequency
ω23 and Rabi frequency 2ΩC . The first and third atomic
levels are coupled with strength g13 to a cavity photon of
frequency ωc and the second and fourth atomic levels are
coupled with strength g24 to a cavity photon of frequency
ω24 .
Following refs. [10] and [11], the Hamiltonian can be
rewritten in real space and separated into a diagonal part:
Z h i
Ho /~ = ωc dx a†R (x)aR (x) + a†L (x)aL (x)

+ ωc (a† a + b† b + σ33 + σ44 ) + ω21 σ22 (2)

and an interaction part:

Z
HI /~ = dx[a†R (x)(−ivg ∂x − ωc )aR (x)
FIG. 3: Transmission for g13 = 20.5 GHz, V = 21.5 GHz.
+ a†L (x)(ivg ∂x − ωc )aL (x) + V δ(x)(a†R (x)a + aR (x)a† The dashed gray line shows transmission without EIT,while
the solid gray and blue lines show the transmission with EIT
+ a†L (x)a + aL (x)a† )] + ΩC (σ23 + σ32 ) + g13 (a† σ13 for values of Ω = 5 GHz and Ω = 21 GHz, respectively.
+ aσ31 ) − iΓ3 σ33 + ∆ω̃24 σ44 + g24 (bσ42 + b† σ24 ) (3)

via the interaction picture, where the total system Hamil- single resonant mode at k = 0 experiences a Rabi split-
tonian is given by H = Ho + HI . The eigenstate for the ting into two modes at k = ±g13 [12, 13]. Also, for
system can be written as: small Γ3 , the absorption increases linearly. As Γ3 ex-
Z h i ceeds 100 GHz, the absorption becomes so strong that
† †
|ψk i = { dx φ+ k,R (x)aR (x) + φ+
k,L (x)aL (x) + ek a† the atom becomes gradually decoupled from the cavity
photon mode. This can be explained by noting that for
+ fk σ31 + hk σ21 + pk σ41 b} |0, 0, 1, 1i (4) Γ3  g13 , the normal modes of the system go from super-
positions of the cavity and atom modes to one mode that
where:
is almost entirely atomic (and very lossy) and one that is
φ+ ikx almost entirely photonic (without losses). For very large
k,R (x) = e [θ(−x) + tθ(x)]
−ikx
Γ3 , a transmission nearly indistinguishable from a system
φ+
k,L (x) = re θ(−x), without any atom whatsoever is observed.
and ek , fk , hk , and pk are the probability amplitudes Now, consider a 3-level atomic system without losses.
of the cavity photon at ωc , occupation of the 3rd atomic Compared to a system without an atom, one expects two
level, occupation of the 2nd atomic level, and an absorbed effects to occur: first, Rabi splitting will be observed,
cavity photon at ω24 , respectively. |0, 0, 1, 1i corresponds and second, another mode, corresponding to the dark
to the “ground state” of zero photons in the waveguide state of the EIT atom, will emerge at k = 0. The
or the cavity at ωc , one photon at ω24 , and the atom in eigenstate
h associated i with the dark state is given by
g13
its ground state, denoted by 1, respectively. |ψi = a† − Ω C
σ 21 |0, 0, 1, 1i. The system goes from
Applying equation (3) to the time-independent eigen- a normal Fano resonance without the atom to a system
value equation H |ψk i = k |ψk i, and solving for the with 3 resonant peaks, the outer two from Rabi splitting,
 2
transmission coefficient yields T (k ) = ξ/(ξ − iV 2 /vg ) , and the inner one from the dark state. The experimen-
where: tal values seen in ref. [9] correspond to a regime where
g13 ≈ V – specifically, they find that g13 = 20.5 GHz and
2
V = 21.5 GHz. Fig. 3 shows that introduction of the cou-
g13 pling field ΩC creates a dark state manifested as a central
ξ = k − Ω2C
(5)
k + iΓ3 − 2 /( −∆ω̃ )
k −g24 k 24
dip in the transmission between two Rabi-split transmis-
sion minima. The width of the Rabi-split resonances is
No absorption occurs unless Γ3 6= 0 or Im{∆ω̃24 } = 6 0. equal to the natural cavity bandwidth. The scaling of
First, consider the case of a 2-level atomic system (i.e., the width of the central resonance (corresponding to an
ΩC = 0, g24 = 0), with a phenomenological non-radiative EIT dark state) with ΩC can be calculated as well. It is
decay rate Γ3 . For a fixed atom-photon coupling g13 , the observed that for sufficiently small ΩC /g13 , the central

FIG. 4: Reflection (black line) and Absorption (blue line) for
g13 = 20.5, V = 21.5 GHz and Γ3 = 30 GHz. The inset
shows how the reflection window can be shifted by an easily
measurable amount with a single b photon.
resonance displays a width that scales like (ΩC /g13 )2 , as
suggested by ref. [4]. Classically, the narrowing for small
ΩC is given by Ω2C /(3e2 f13 /me Vmode ) [3, 6, 14], showing
complete agreement between the classical and quantum
regimes.
Fig. 3 shows that as ΩC is decreased, the central res-
onance width decreases, while its separation from the
Rabi-split peaks stays roughly constant. However, it may
still be hard to distinguish the dark state from the other
two states since they are so closely spaced. Clearly, if
Rabi splitting could be increased without limit, this prob-
lem could always be avoided; however, in practice, there
are limits to how strong a coupling (g13 ) can be achieved.
For use in applications, it may therefore be preferable to
look at reflection instead, because first, it is equivalent to
the transmission of a resonant cavity between two waveg-
uides, and second, it will yield a central peak that is much
higher than the other two when the atom has nonradia-
tive losses (because only the central peak corresponds to
the dark state).
Now, consider turning on the fourth level by setting
g24 6= 0. We expect an AC-stark shift to be induced in
this system which will change the reflection. This effect
was suggested as a possible mechanism for switching in
refs. [15, 16]. Using equation (5) to calculate the reflec-
tion, the dark state is given by the poles of the denomina-
2 [16] S. Harris and L. Hau, Phys. Rev. Lett. (1999).
tor of the EIT term, i.e., k − g24 /(k − ∆ω̃24 ) = 0, which
3
2
yields k = ±g24 for no detuning, and k ≈ −g24 /∆ω̃24
for a large detuning, thereby matching the classical result
found in ref. [6]. There are two possible effects that can
be induced by the introduction of the ω24 photon. First,
Autler-Townes splitting of the transmission spectrum oc-
curs when the b photon is in resonance with the cavity
frequency, while when the b photon is substantially de-
tuned from the cavity frequency, an AC Stark shift in the
dark state resonant frequency is observed [11].
However, in order to obviate this problem altogether,
one can introduce an absorption via Γ3 6= 0, and thus ab-
sorb the majority of light not coupled to the dark state.
In fig. 4, the reflection and absorption are plotted for an
optimal value of Γ3 . As shown, for Γ3 = 30 GHz, the pos-
sibility of achieving substantially decreased reflections at
the Rabi-split frequencies while still having full reflection
at the center (EIT narrowed) peak is realized. As shown
by the inset of fig. 4, in conjunction with the presence of
an off-resonance b photon, it is possible to achieve switch-
ing in this geometry.
This work was support in part by the Materials Re-
search Science and Engineering Center Program of the
National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR 02-
13282.
[1] R. P. Feynman, Phys. Rev. 76, 769 (1949).
[2] M. Fleischhauer, A. Imamoglu, and J. Marangos, Rev.
Mod. Phys. 77, 633 (2005).
[3] L. Hau, S. Harris, Z. Dutton, and C. Behroozi, Nature
297, 594 (1999).
[4] R. Beausoleil, W. Munro, and T. Spiller, ArXiV:quant-
ph 0302109 v3 (2005).
[5] M. S. et al., .
[6] M. Soljacic, E. Lidorikis, J. D. Joannopoulos, and L. V.
Hau, Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 171101 (2005).
[7] R. Feynman, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 21, 467 (1982).
[8] J. Joannopoulos, R. Meade, and J. Winn, Photonic Crys-
tals: Molding the Flow of Light (Princeton, Princeton,
NJ, 1995).
[9] T. Yoshie et al., Nature 432, 200 (2004).
[10] J.-T. Shen and S. Fan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 213001
(2005).
[11] M. Werner and A. Imamoglu, Phys. Rev. A 61,
011801(R) (1999).
[12] V. Savona, L. Andreani, P. Schwendimann, and A. Quat-
tropani, Solid Sate Comm. 93, 733 (1995).
[13] G. Khitrova et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 1591 (1999).
[14] Z. Dutton, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 2002.
[15] H. Schmidt and A. Imamoglu, Opt. Lett. 21, 1936 (1996).