Antibunched photon-pair source based on photon blockade effect in a nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to generate antibunched photon-pairs using a nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator, demonstrating strong antibunching and correlation effects, with potential applications in quantum information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photon blockade mechanism, termed heterogeneous photon blockade, in a nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator for producing antibunched photon pairs.

Findings

Strong antibunching observed in subharmonic modes.

Resonant enhancement of photon-pair number.

Fundamental mode photons can block subharmonic mode photons.

Abstract

Nonclassical light sources, such as correlated photon-pairs, play an important role in quantum optics and quantum information processing systems. This study proposes a process to generate antibunched photon-pairs in a nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator. It is found that when the parameters of the system satisfy certain conditions, the generated photons in subharmonic modes exhibit a strong antibunching behavior and are strongly correlated with one another. In particular, the average photon-pair number is resonantly enhanced. It is also observed that the conventional photon blockade contributes to this phenomenon. In addition, it is interesting to note that fundamental mode photons can blockade the subharmonic mode photons. We refer to this phenomenon as a heterogeneous photon blockade.