Quantum vortices of strongly interacting photons

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Drori, Lee; Das, Bankim Chandra; Zohar, Tomer Danino; Winer, Gal; Poem, Eilon; Poddubny, Alexander; Firstenberg, Ofer
• 署名单位: Weizmann Institute of Science
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10053
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adh5315
• 发表日期: 2023-07-14
• 页码: 193-+
• 关键词: bose-einstein condensation; nonlinear optics; instability

摘要

Vortices are topologically nontrivial defects that generally originate from nonlinear field dynamics. All-optical generation of photonic vortices-phase singularities of the electromagnetic field-requires sufficiently strong nonlinearity that is typically achieved in the classical optics regime. We report on the realization of quantum vortices of photons that result from a strong photon-photon interaction in a quantum nonlinear optical medium. The interaction causes faster phase accumulation for copropagating photons, producing a quantum vortex-antivortex pair within the two-photon wave function. For three photons, the formation of vortex lines and a central vortex ring confirms the existence of a genuine three-photon interaction. The wave function topology, governed by two- and three-photon bound states, imposes a conditional phase shift of p per photon, a potential resource for deterministic quantum logic operations.