Photon--Matter Quantum Correlations in Spontaneous Raman Scattering

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Hamiltonian formalism to analyze quantum correlations between photons and material excitations in spontaneous Raman scattering, with implications for quantum information protocols.

Contribution

It presents a novel Hamiltonian approach to study photon-matter correlations in Raman scattering, accounting for spectral and dispersion effects, and compares predictions with experimental data.

Findings

The formalism accurately predicts energy and position correlations.

Spectral linewidth and dispersion significantly influence correlations.

Results inform the design of quantum protocols using Raman scattering.

Abstract

We develop a Hamiltonian formalism to study energy and position/momentum correlations between a single Stokes photon and a single material excitation that are created as a pair in the spontaneous Raman scattering process. Our approach allows for intuitive separation of the effects of spectral linewidth, chromatic dispersion, and collection angle on these correlations, and we compare the predictions of the model to experiment. These results have important implications for the use of Raman scattering in quantum protocols that rely on spectrally unentangled photons and collective excitations.