Control of single-photon transport in a one-dimensional waveguide by another single photon

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a single-photon transport in a 1D waveguide can be controlled by another single photon via a three-level emitter and an auxiliary cavity, enabling switchable reflection and transmission.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control single-photon transport using an extra cavity field coupled to a three-level emitter in a 1D waveguide.

Findings

Single-photon reflection occurs when the cavity is empty.

Full transmission is achieved when the cavity contains one photon.

Transport can be tuned by cavity parameters in off-resonance conditions.

Abstract

We study the controllable single-photon transport in a one-dimensional (1D) waveguide with nonlinear dispersion relation coupled to a three-level emitter in cascade configuration. An extra cavity field was introduced to drive one of the level transitions of the emitter. In the resonance case, when the extra cavity does not contain photons, the input single photon will be reflected, and when the cavity contains one photon, the full transmission of the input single photon can be obtained. In the off-resonance case, the single-photon transport can also be controlled by the parameters of the cavity. Therefore, we have shown that the single-photon transport can be controlled by an extra cavity field.