Deterministic single photon subtraction for engineering exotic non-classical states of light*

We present an analytical and numerical simulation study of deterministic single photon subtraction using Single Photon Raman Interaction (SPRINT) [1] in a three level Λ-type quantum emitter coupled with a chiral waveguide or cavity. This process of deterministic single photon subtraction is fundamentally different from the usual probabilistic single photon subtraction, which is inherently just the application of the annihilation operator on the incoming light field. Unlike probabilistic single photon subtraction, the photon subtraction probability relying on SPRINT is independent of the number of photons in the input field. We investigate the effects of the repeated application of the deterministic subtraction operator on photonic fields and the resulting changes in phase space statistics that lead to exotic non-classical states of light, such as states with negative Wigner functions and squeezed states. We also discuss the prospects of experimental implementation of this approach.

[1] S. Rosenblum et al., Extraction of a single photon from an optical pulse, Nature Photonics 10, 19(2015).