Nanofiber-based all-optical switches

TL;DR

This paper investigates all-optical switching using a single four-level atom in a nanofiber cavity under EIT conditions, demonstrating high contrast with few photons for two different schemes.

Contribution

It introduces two novel all-optical switching schemes in a nanofiber cavity with detailed analysis and numerical results showing high contrast at low photon numbers.

Findings

Switching contrast of about 67% with the first scheme.

Switching contrast of about 95% with the second scheme.

Effective operation with small mean photon numbers.

Abstract

We study all-optical switches operating on a single four-level atom with the $N$-type transition configuration in a two-mode nanofiber cavity with a significant length (on the order of $20$ mm) and a moderate finesse (on the order of 300) under the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) conditions. In our model, the gate and probe fields are the quantum nanofiber-cavity fields excited by weak classical light pulses, and the parameters of the $D_2$ line of atomic cesium are used. We examine two different switching schemes. The first scheme is based on the effect of the presence of a photon in the gate mode on the EIT of the probe mode. The second scheme is based on the use of EIT to store a photon of the gate mode in the population of an appropriate atomic level, which leads to the reduction of the transmission of the field in the probe mode. We investigate the dependencies of the switching contrast on various parameters, such as the cavity length, the mirror reflectivity, and the detunings and powers of the cavity driving field pulses. For a nanofiber cavity with fiber radius of 250 nm, cavity length of 20 mm, and cavity finesse of 313 and a cesium atom at a distance of 200 nm from the fiber surface, we numerically obtain a switching contrast on the order of about 67% for the first scheme and of about 95% for the second scheme. These switching operations require small mean numbers of photons in the nanofiber cavity gate and probe modes.