One Photon Can Simultaneously Excite Two or More Atoms.

We consider two separate atoms interacting with a single-mode optical or microwave resonator. When the frequency of the resonator field is twice the atomic transition frequency, we show that there exists a resonant coupling between one photon and two atoms, via intermediate virtual states connected by counterrotating processes. If the resonator is prepared in its one-photon state, the photon can be jointly absorbed by the two atoms in their ground state which will both reach their excited state with a probability close to one. Like ordinary quantum Rabi oscillations, this process is coherent and reversible, so that two atoms in their excited state will undergo a downward transition jointly emitting a single cavity photon. This joint absorption and emission process can also occur with three atoms. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.

[1]  Erik Lucero,et al.  Synthesizing arbitrary quantum states in a superconducting resonator , 2009, Nature.

[2]  Cristiano Ciuti,et al.  Extracavity quantum vacuum radiation from a single qubit , 2009, 0906.2706.

[3]  H. J. Kimble,et al.  The quantum internet , 2008, Nature.

[4]  F. Nori,et al.  Superconducting Circuits and Quantum Information , 2005, quant-ph/0601121.

[5]  B R Masters,et al.  Two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy. , 2000, Annual review of biomedical engineering.

[6]  S. Girvin,et al.  Cavity quantum electrodynamics for superconducting electrical circuits: An architecture for quantum computation , 2004, cond-mat/0402216.

[7]  J. Raimond,et al.  Atomic clocks for controlling light fields , 2013 .

[8]  E. Solano,et al.  Circuit quantum electrodynamics in the ultrastrong-coupling regime , 2010 .

[9]  G. Guo,et al.  Efficient scheme for two-atom entanglement and quantum information processing in cavity QED , 2000, Physical review letters.

[10]  P. Bertet,et al.  Coherent dynamics of a flux qubit coupled to a harmonic oscillator , 2004, Nature.

[11]  S. Girvin,et al.  Strong coupling of a single photon to a superconducting qubit using circuit quantum electrodynamics , 2004, Nature.

[12]  Guanyu Zhu,et al.  Circuit QED with fluxonium qubits: Theory of the dispersive regime , 2012, 1210.1605.

[13]  F. Nori,et al.  Quantum information processing with superconducting qubits in a microwave field , 2003, cond-mat/0306207.

[14]  Hideaki Takayanagi,et al.  Two-photon probe of the Jaynes-Cummings model and controlled symmetry breaking in circuit QED , 2009 .

[15]  Franco Nori,et al.  Multiphoton quantum Rabi oscillations in ultrastrong cavity QED , 2015, 1509.06102.

[16]  C. K. Law,et al.  Three-photon resonance and adiabatic passage in the large-detuning Rabi model , 2015 .

[17]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[18]  Maria Goeppert-Mayer.  Über Elementarakte mit zwei Quantensprüngen , 1931 .

[19]  M. Hartmann,et al.  Spontaneous conversion from virtual to real photons in the ultrastrong-coupling regime. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[20]  Franco Nori,et al.  Dynamics and quantum Zeno effect for a qubit in either a low- or high-frequency bath beyond the rotating-wave approximation , 2010, 1001.4831.

[21]  S. Girvin,et al.  Deterministically Encoding Quantum Information Using 100-Photon Schrödinger Cat States , 2013, Science.

[22]  C. K. Law,et al.  Photon emission via vacuum-dressed intermediate states under ultrastrong coupling , 2013, 1312.7612.

[23]  P. Forn-Díaz,et al.  Strong coupling of a quantum oscillator to a flux qubit at its symmetry point. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[24]  S. Haroche.  Nobel Lecture: Controlling photons in a box and exploring the quantum to classical boundary , 2013 .

[25]  M. Hartmann,et al.  Nonclassical radiation from thermal cavities in the ultrastrong coupling regime. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[26]  Hang Zheng,et al.  Quantum anti-Zeno effect without rotating wave approximation , 2010, 1003.1899.

[27]  Salvatore Savasta,et al.  Switching on and off of ultrastrong light-matter interaction: Photon statistics of quantum vacuum radiation , 2013 .

[28]  A. Ridolfo,et al.  Vacuum-induced symmetry breaking in a superconducting quantum circuit , 2014, 1406.5119.

[29]  Hang Zheng,et al.  A qubit strongly coupled to a resonant cavity: asymmetry of the spontaneous emission spectrum beyond the rotating wave approximation , 2010, 1009.4366.

[30]  M. Leib,et al.  Photon blockade in the ultrastrong coupling regime. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[31]  Jens Koch,et al.  Coupling superconducting qubits via a cavity bus , 2007, Nature.

[32]  F. Nori,et al.  Generating nonclassical photon states via longitudinal couplings between superconducting qubits and microwave fields , 2015, 1502.01175.

[33]  J. Dowling.  Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities, and Photons. , 2014 .

[34]  J. Laurat,et al.  Conditional control of the quantum states of remote atomic memories for quantum networking , 2006 .

[35]  E. Solano,et al.  Broken selection rule in the quantum Rabi model , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[36]  S. Deleglise,et al.  Reconstruction of non-classical cavity field states with snapshots of their decoherence , 2008, Nature.

[37]  F. Nori,et al.  Colloquium: Stimulating uncertainty: Amplifying the quantum vacuum with superconducting circuits , 2011, 1103.0835.

[38]  Franco Nori,et al.  Optical selection rules and phase-dependent adiabatic state control in a superconducting quantum circuit. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[39]  E Solano,et al.  Observation of the Bloch-Siegert shift in a qubit-oscillator system in the ultrastrong coupling regime. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[40]  G. Rempe,et al.  An elementary quantum network of single atoms in optical cavities , 2012, Nature.

[41]  Gilles Nogues,et al.  Coherent Operation of a Tunable Quantum Phase Gate in Cavity QED , 1999 .

[42]  W. Denk,et al.  Two-photon laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. , 1990, Science.

[43]  A. Houck,et al.  Dispersive photon blockade in a superconducting circuit. , 2010, Physical review letters.