All-optical pulse switching with a periodically driven dissipative quantum system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel all-optical pulse switching scheme using a periodically driven dissipative quantum system, demonstrating effective control of pulse signals with robustness against errors, applicable in atomic gases and superconducting circuits.

Contribution

It proposes a new AOPS protocol utilizing Floquet-Lindblad theory to control pulse signals in dissipative quantum systems, highlighting the advantages of square-wave control fields.

Findings

Square-wave control fields outperform continuous-wave fields for pulse switching.

Switching efficacy remains robust despite pulse errors.

The protocol is feasible in atomic gases and superconducting circuits.

Abstract

All-optical switching used to switch the input optical signals without any electro-optical conversion plays a vital role in the next generation of optical information processing devices. Even all-optical switchings (AOSs) with continuous input signals have been widely studied, all-optical pulse switchings (AOPSs) whose input signals are pulse sequences have rarely been investigated because of the time-dependent Hamiltonian, especially for dissipative quantum systems. In this paper, we propose an AOPS scheme, where a strong pulsed field is used to switch another pulsed input signal. With the help of Floquet-Lindblad theory, we identify the control field that can effectively turn on/off the input signal whose amplitude envelope is a square-wave (SW) pulse train in a three-level dissipative system. By comparing the properties of the AOPSs controlled by a continuous-wave (CW) field and an SW control field, we find that the SW field is more suitable to be a practical tool for controlling the input SW signal. It is interesting to impress that the switching efficacy is robust against pulse errors. The proposed protocol is readily implemented in atomic gases or superconducting circuits and corresponds to AOPSs or all-microwave pulse switchings.