Surface plasmon polariton induced strong coherent superposition

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that surface plasmon polaritons can induce a strong, robust coherent superposition in a two-level emitter, creating a potential qubit for quantum information processing with nonclassical photon emission features.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate a stable qubit using surface plasmon polaritons, resilient to spontaneous emission, advancing quantum device design.

Findings

Nearly equal probability for the emitter to be in either energy state at steady state.

The photon statistics show significant nonclassical features.

The superposition is achievable even with weak plasmon driving strength.

Abstract

A strong coherent superposition is shown to be induced between the energy states of a two-level emitter immersed in a surface plasmon polariton evanescently confined to a small metallic ring. It turns out that there is nearly equal chance for the two-level emitter to be found either in the upper or lower energy level at steady state even for a weaker surface plasmon driving strength. This indicates that it is possible to create a qubit that is robust against emitter spontaneous damping rate, which can be applicable in designing a device that can perform certain quantum information processing tasks. In support of this proposal, the photon statistics of the emitted radiation is found to exhibit significant nonclassical features.