All Optical Switch of Vacuum Rabi Oscillations: The Ultrafast Quantum Eraser

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultrafast all-optical control of vacuum Rabi oscillations in a quantum emitter-cavity system, revealing non-adiabatic effects and quantum complementarity through precise pulse timing.

Contribution

It introduces a method for ultrafast, time-specific optical switching of Rabi oscillations, highlighting the role of pulse timing in controlling quantum coherence without disturbing population dynamics.

Findings

Selective control pulses can switch off and on Rabi oscillations.

Exotic non-adiabatic effects depend on pulse arrival times.

First-order coherence can be manipulated independently of population dynamics.

Abstract

We study the all-optical time-control of the strong coupling between a single cascade three-level quantum emitter and a microcavity. We find that only specific arrival-times of the control pulses succeed in switching-off the Rabi oscillations. Depending on the arrival times of control pulses, a variety of exotic non-adiabatic cavity quantum electrodynamics effects can be observed. We show that only control pulses with specific arrival times are able to suddenly switch-off and -on first-order coherence of cavity photons, without affecting their strong coupling population dynamics. Such behavior may be understood as a manifestation of quantum complementarity.