Full Quantum Analysis of Two-Photon Absorption Using Two-Photon Wavefunction: Comparison with One-Photon Absorption

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive quantum analysis of two-photon absorption in three-level atoms, demonstrating how photon pair correlations can enhance two-photon transitions while suppressing one-photon transitions under specific conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a full quantum approach using two-photon wavefunctions to analyze and optimize two-photon absorption, including novel suppression of one-photon transitions.

Findings

Two-photon absorption can be significantly enhanced by tuning photon pair correlations.

Under certain conditions, one-photon transitions can be completely suppressed.

The study compares Gaussian and rectangular photon wavefunctions in two-photon absorption.

Abstract

For dissipation-free photon-photon interaction at the single photon level, we analyze one-photon transition and two-photon transition induced by photon pairs in three-level atoms using two-photon wavefunctions. We show that the two-photon absorption can be substantially enhanced by adjusting the time correlation of photon pairs. We study two typical cases: Gaussian wavefunction and rectangular wavefunction. In the latter, we find that under special conditions one-photon transition is completely suppressed while the high probability of two-photon transition is maintained.