Recoil effects of a motional scatterer on single-photon scattering in one dimension

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a motional scatterer's recoil influences single-photon scattering in one dimension, revealing multi-peak reflection spectra as trap looseness or mass decreases, with implications for quantum control.

Contribution

It models the motional scatterer as a two-level system in a harmonic trap, analyzing recoil effects on photon transport beyond the Lamb-Dicke limit.

Findings

Reflection spectrum shows a single peak in the Lamb-Dicke limit.

Multi-peak structures emerge with looser trapping or lighter scatterers.

Recoil effects significantly alter photon scattering behavior.

Abstract

The scattering of a single photon with sufficiently high energy can cause a recoil of a motional scatterer. We study its backaction on the photon's coherent transport in one dimension by modeling the motional scatterer as a two-level system, which is trapped in a harmonic potential. While the reflection spectrum is of a single peak in the Lamb-Dicke limit, multi-peaks due to phonon excitations can be observed in the reflection spectrum as the trap becomes looser or the mass of the two-level system becomes smaller.