Antibunched Emission of Photon-Pairs via Quantum Zeno Blockade

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'quantum Zeno blockade,' a novel method to control light at the quantum level, enabling efficient generation of entangled photon pairs on demand with significantly improved rates.

Contribution

The paper presents the concept of quantum Zeno blockade for photon management and demonstrates its potential for high-rate, deterministic entangled photon generation in integrated photonic systems.

Findings

High-fidelity entangled photons can be produced on-demand at MHz rates.

Quantum Zeno blockade can suppress undesired scattering at the few-photon level.

Potential for a >10^7-fold improvement over current photon sources.

Abstract

We propose a new methodology, namely "quantum Zeno blockade," for managing light scattering at a few-photon level in general nonlinear-optical media, such as crystals, fibers, silicon microrings, and atomic vapors. Using this tool, antibunched emission of photon pairs can be achieved, leading to potent quantum-optics applications such as deterministic entanglement generation without the need for heralding. In a practical implementation using an on-chip toroidal microcavity immersed in rubidium vapor, we estimate that high-fidelity entangled photons can be produced on-demand at MHz rates or higher, corresponding to an improvement of $\gtrsim10^7$ times from the state-of-the-art.