Generation of quantum photon states in an active microcavity trap

Abstract

The active microcavity is adopted as an efficient source of non-classical light. By this device, excited by a mode-locked laser at a rate of 100 MHz, single photons are generated over a single field mode with a non-classical sub-Poissonian distribution. The process of adiabatic recycling within a multistep Franck–Condon molecular optical-pumping mechanism, characterized in our case by a quantum efficiency close to one, implies a pump self-regularization process leading to a striking n-squeezing effect. Moreover, the microactivity has been adopted as active beam splitter in a novel Hanbury-Brown–Twiss configuration for the radiation taking place over the two output mirrors. By a replication of the basic single-atom excitation process a beam of quantum photon |n〉 states (Fock states) can be created. The new process may represent a significant advance in the modern fields of basic quantum-mechanical investigation, quantum communication and quantum cryptography.