Photon-number selective group delay in cavity induced transparency

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in a cavity-atom system, the group delay of a probe pulse depends on its photon number, enabling photon-number selective control and potential single-photon source creation.

Contribution

It introduces a method for photon-number selective group delay in cavity-induced transparency using a quantum cavity-atom system.

Findings

Probe group delay depends on photon number in strong-coupling regime.

Single-photon components can be spatially separated from multi-photon components.

Potential for deterministic single-photon source development.

Abstract

We show that the group velocity of a probe pulse in an ensemble of $\Lambda$-type atoms driven by a quantized cavity mode depends on the quantum state of the input probe pulse. In the strong-coupling regime of the atom-cavity system the probe group delay is photon number selective. This can be used to spatially separate the single photon from higher photon-number components of a few-photon probe pulse and thus to create a deterministic single-photon source.