The two-photon ladder climbing (successive two-photon Landau-Zener-type transitions) in a chirped quantum nonlinear oscillator and its classical limit (subharmonic autoresonance) are discussed. An isomorphism between the chirped quantum-mechanical one and two-photon resonances in the system is used in calculating the threshold for the phase-locking transition in both the classical and quantum limits. The theory is tested by solving the Schrodinger equation in the energy basis and illustrated via the Wigner function in phase space.
A scheme for the enhanced generation of higher photon-number states is realized, using an optical time-multiplexing setting that exploits a parametric down-conversion source for an iterative state generation. We use a quantum feedback mechanism for already generated photons to induce self-seeding of the consecutive nonlinear process, enabling us to coherently add photons to the light that propagates in the feedback loop. The addition can be carried out for any chosen number of round trips, resulting in a successive buildup of multiphoton states. Our system is only limited by loop losses. The looped design is rendered possible by a carefully engineered waveguide source that is compatible with and preserves the shape of the propagating mode. We compare the fidelities and success probabilities of our protocol with the common direct heralding of photon-number states. This comparison reveals that, for same the fidelity, our feedback-based setup significantly enhances success probabilities, being vital for an efficient utilization in quantum technologies. Moreover, quantum characteristics of the produced states are analyzed, and the flexibility of producing higher photon-number states with our setup beyond the common direct heralding is demonstrated.
Multi-photon emitters are a sought-after resource in quantum photonics. Nonlinear interactions between a multi-level atomic system and a coherent drive can lead to resonant two-photon emission, but harvesting light from this process has remained a challenge due to the small oscillator strengths involved. Here we present a study of two-photon resonance fluorescence at microwave frequencies, using a superconducting, ladder-type artificial atom, a transmon, strongly coupled to a waveguide. We drive the two-photon transition between the ground and second-excited state at increasingly high powers and observe a resonance fluorescence peak whose intensity becomes comparable to single-photon emission until it splits into a Mollow-like triplet. We measure photon correlations of frequency-filtered spectral lines and find that while emission at the fundamental frequency stays antibunched, the resonance fluorescence peak at the two-photon transition is superbunched. Our results provide a route towards the realization of multi-photon sources in the microwave domain.
When the background density in a bounded plasma is modulated in time, discrete modes become coupled. Interestingly, for appropriately chosen modulations, the average plasmon energy might be made to grow in a ladder-like manner, achieving up-conversion or down-conversion of the plasmon energy. This reversible process is identified as a classical analog of the effect known as quantum ladder climbing, so that the efficiency and the rate of this process can be written immediately by analogy to a quantum particle in a box. In the limit of densely spaced spectrum, ladder climbing transforms into continuous autoresonance; plasmons may then be manipulated by chirped background modulations much like electrons are autoresonantly manipulated by chirped fields. By formulating the wave dynamics within a universal Lagrangian framework, similar ladder climbing and autoresonance effects are predicted to be achievable with general linear waves in both plasma and other media.
A scheme is analyzed for effcient generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation through four-wave mixing processes assisted by the technique of Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage. These opportunities are associated with pulse excitation of laddertype short-wavelength two-photon atomic or molecular transitions so that relaxation processes can be neglected. In this three-laser technique, a delayed-pulse of strong oR-resonant infrared radiation sweeps the laser-induced Stark-shift of a two-photon transition in a such way that facilitates robust maximum two-photon coherence induced by the first ultraviolet laser. A judiciously delayed third pulse scatters at this coherence and generates short-wavelength radiation. A theoretical analysis of these problems based on the density matrix is performed. A numerical model is developed to carry out simulations of a typical experiment. The results illustrate a behavior of populations, coherence and generated radiation along the medium as well as opportunities of effcient generation of deep (vacuum) ultraviolet radiation.
We explore squeezed coherent states of a 3-dimensional generalized isotonic oscillator whose radial part is the newly introduced generalized isotonic oscillator whose bound state solutions have been shown to admit the recently discovered $X_1$-Laguerre polynomials. We construct a complete set of squeezed coherent states of this oscillator by exploring the squeezed coherent states of the radial part and combining the latter with the squeezed coherent states of the angular part. We also prove that the three mode squeezed coherent states resolve the identity operator. We evaluate Mandels $Q$-parameter of the obtained states and demonstrate that these states exhibit sub-Possionian and super-Possionian photon statistics. Further, we illustrate the squeezing properties of these states, both in the radial and angular parts, by choosing appropriate observables in the respective parts. We also evaluate Wigner function of these three mode squeezed coherent states and demonstrate squeezing property explicitly.