Two-photon and three-photon blockades in driven nonlinear systems

TL;DR

This paper predicts and analyzes higher-order photon blockades in driven nonlinear systems, demonstrating the possibility of blocking multiple photons simultaneously through tuning system parameters, with potential applications in quantum optics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of two-photon and three-photon blockades in Kerr-type systems, expanding the understanding of photon blockade phenomena beyond the single-photon case.

Findings

Higher-order photon blockades can be achieved by tuning the driving frequency.

Two- and three-photon blockades can be identified via photon-number correlations and Wigner functions.

These phenomena can be observed in existing cavity and circuit QED systems without higher-order nonlinear media.

Abstract

Photon blockade, in analogy to Coulomb's or phonon blockades, is a phenomenon when a single photon in a nonlinear cavity blocks the transmission of a second photon. This effect can occur in Kerr-type systems driven by a laser due to strong nonlinear photon-photon interactions. We predict the occurrence of higher-order photon blockades where the transmission of more than two photons is effectively blocked by single- and two-photon states. This photon blockade can be achieved by tuning the frequency of the laser driving field to be equal to the sum of the Kerr nonlinearity and the cavity resonance frequency. We refer to this phenomenon as two-photon blockade or two-photon state truncation via nonlinear scissors, and can also be interpreted as photon-induced tunneling. We also show that, for a driving-field frequency fulfilling another resonance condition and for higher strengths of the driving field, even a three-photon blockade can occur but less clearly than in the case of single- and two-photon blockades. We demonstrate how various photon blockades can be identified by analyzing photon-number correlations, coherence and entropic properties, Wigner functions, and spectra of squeezing. We show that two- and three-photon blockades can, in principle, be observed in various cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamical systems for which the standard single-photon blockade was observed without the need of using higher-order driving interactions or Kerr media exhibiting higher-order nonlinear susceptibility.