Glass fiber creates strong interaction between two photons

Glass fiber creates strong interaction between two photons

A new study shows that a strong interaction was established between two photons with the help of a glass fiber, marking a significant achievement in quantum optics.

A study published Sunday in the journal Nature Photonics reveals that with the help of a glass fiber, a strong interaction was successfully established between two single photons, which generally cannot interact in free space. These experimental results open up new possibilities for quantum optics.

“In order to have light interact with light, people have been using so-called nonlinear media”, said Professor Arno Rauschenbeutel of the Institute for Atomic and Subatomic Physics, TU Wien, in a recent statement.

Researchers of the study developed a system that created an interaction between two photons, so strong that the phase of the photons changed by 180 degrees. “It is like a pendulum, which should actually swing to the left, but due to coupling with a second pendulum, it swings to the right,” said Rauschenbeutel. “There cannot be a more extreme change in the pendulum’s oscillation. We achieve the strongest possible interaction with the smallest possible intensity of light.”

According to the statement, an ultra-thin glass fiber was coupled to a bottle-like light resonator to allow light to partly enter the resonator, move in circles, and return to the glass fiber. This allows the phase of the photon to be inverted.

“The atom is an absorber which can be saturated,” said Rauschenbeutel. “A photon is absorbed by the atom for a short while and then released into the resonator. During that time, it cannot absorb any other photons. If two photons arrive simultaneously, only one can be absorbed, while the other can still be phase shifted.”

Science World Report states that from a quantum mechanical point of view, there is no difference between the two photons, with both hitting the resonator at the same time, and both experiencing a phase shift by 180 degrees. “That way, a maximally entangled photon state can be created,” said Rauschenbeutel. “Such states are required in all fields of quantum optics – in quantum teleportation, or for light-transistors which could potentially be used for quantum computing.”

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