Cavity-Free Photon Blockade Induced by Many-Body Bound States
Huaixiu Zheng, Daniel J. Gauthier, Harold U. Baranger · Physical Review Letters · 2011
The manipulation of individual, mobile quanta is a key goal of quantum communication; to achieve this, nonlinear phenomena in open systems can play a critical role. We show theoretically that a variety of strong quantum nonlinear phenomena occur in a completely open one-dimensional waveguide coupled to an N-type four-level system. We focus on photon blockade and the creation of single-photon states in the absence of a cavity. Many-body bound states appear due to the strong photon-photon correlation mediated by the four-level system. These bound states cause photon blockade, which can generate a sub-Poissonian single-photon source.