All-optical coherent control of vacuum Rabi oscillations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultra-fast, all-optical coherent control of vacuum Rabi oscillations between a quantum dot and a cavity, enabling rapid manipulation of light-matter states at optical frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control vacuum Rabi oscillations using a photonic molecule and a cavity-enhanced AC Stark shift at picosecond timescales, which was previously challenging at optical frequencies.

Findings

Achieved coherent transfer of excitation between quantum dot and cavity.

Controlled vacuum Rabi oscillations with picosecond Stark shift modulation.

Enabled fast addition and removal of excitation from the cavity.

Abstract

When an atom strongly couples to a cavity, it can undergo coherent vacuum Rabi oscillations. Controlling these oscillatory dynamics quickly relative to the vacuum Rabi frequency enables remarkable capabilities such as Fock state generation and deterministic synthesis of quantum states of light, as demonstrated using microwave frequency devices. At optical frequencies, however, dynamical control of single-atom vacuum Rabi oscillations remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate coherent transfer of optical frequency excitation between a single quantum dot and a cavity by controlling vacuum Rabi oscillations. We utilize a photonic molecule to simultaneously attain strong coupling and a cavity-enhanced AC Stark shift. The Stark shift modulates the detuning between the two systems on picosecond timescales, faster than the vacuum Rabi frequency. We demonstrate the ability to add and remove excitation from the cavity, and perform coherent control of light-matter states. These results enable ultra-fast control of atom-cavity interactions in a nanophotonic device platform.