Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in an asymmetric nonlinear optical coupler

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in an asymmetric nonlinear optical coupler with quadratic nonlinearity, providing analytic solutions and showing how phase control can switch between these effects.

Contribution

It offers a quantum mechanical analysis of Zeno effects in an asymmetric nonlinear optical coupler with explicit analytic solutions and phase-based control mechanisms.

Findings

Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects are observed in the coupler.

Phase control enables switching between Zeno and anti-Zeno effects.

Analytic solutions for Heisenberg's equations are derived.

Abstract

Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in an asymmetric nonlinear optical coupler are studied. The asymmetric nonlinear optical coupler is composed of a linear waveguide ($\chi^{\left(1\right)}$) and a nonlinear waveguide ($\chi^{\left(2\right)}$) interacting with each other through the evanescent waves. The nonlinear waveguide has quadratic nonlinearity and it operates under second harmonic generation. A completely quantum mechanical description is used to describe the system. The closed form analytic solutions of Heisenberg's equations of motion for the different field modes are obtained using Sen-Mandal perturbative approach. In the coupler, the linear waveguide acts as a probe on the system (nonlinear waveguide). The effect of the presence of the probe (linear waveguide) on the photon statistics of the second harmonic mode of the system is considered as quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects. Further,it is also shown that in the stimulated case, it is easy to switch between quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects just by controlling the phase of the second harmonic mode of the asymmetric coupler