Maximally Efficient Biphoton Generation by Single Photon Decay in Nonlinear Quantum Photonic Circuits.

We develop a general nonperturbative formalism and propose a specific scheme for maximally efficient generation of biphoton states by parametric decay of single photons. We show that the well-known critical coupling concept of integrated optics can be generalized to the nonlinear coupling of quantized photon modes to describe the nonperturbative optimal regime of a single-photon nonlinearity and establish a fundamental upper limit on the nonlinear generation efficiency of quantum-correlated photons, which approaches unity for low enough absorption losses.

Ultrafast coherent nonlinear nanooptics and nanoimaging of graphene.

With its linear energy dispersion and large transition dipole matrix element, graphene is an attractive material for nonlinear optoelectronic applications. However, the mechanistic origin of its strong nonlinear response, the ultrafast coherent dynamics and the associated nanoscale phenomena have remained elusive due to a lack of suitable experimental techniques. Here, using adiabatic nanofocusing and imaging, we study the broadband four-wave mixing (FWM) response of graphene with nanometre and femtosecond spatio-temporal resolution. We detect a nonlinear signal enhancement at the edges and dependence on the number of layers from excitation areas as small as 104 carbon atoms. Femtosecond FWM nanoimaging and concomitant frequency-domain measurements reveal dephasing on T2 ≈ 6 ± 1 fs timescales, which we attribute to a strong electron-electron interaction. We also identify an unusual non-local FWM response on ~100-400 nm length scales, which we assign to a Doppler effect controlling the nonlinear interaction between the tip near-field momenta and the graphene electrons with high Fermi velocity. These results illustrate the distinct nonlinear nanooptical properties of graphene, expected also in related classes of two-dimensional materials, that could form the basis for improved nonlinear and ultrafast nanophotonic devices.

Magnetopolaritons in Weyl Semimetals in a Strong Magnetic Field.

Exotic topological and transport properties of Weyl semimetals have generated a lot of excitement in the condensed matter community. Here we show that Weyl semimetals in a strong magnetic field are highly unusual optical materials. The propagation of electromagnetic waves is affected by an interplay between the plasmonic response of chiral Weyl fermions and extreme anisotropy induced by a magnetic field. The resulting magnetopolaritons possess a number of peculiar properties, such as hyperbolic dispersion, photonic stop bands, coupling-induced transparency, and broadband polarization conversion. These effects can be used for optical spectroscopy of these materials including detection of the chiral anomaly or for broadband terahertz or infrared applications.

Fluctuation-dissipation relation in a resonantly driven quantum medium.

Noise associated with the spontaneous emission in a coherently driven medium is calculated. The significant field-induced modification of relation between the noise power and damping constant in a thermal reservoir is obtained. The nonlinear noise exchange between different atomic frequencies leads to violation of standard relations dictated by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The developed general method is applied to the EIT system, attractive for realization of different quantum-information processing devices. It is shown that there is a significant factor defining the thermal noise at operating frequency in the EIT system. It is the averaged number of thermal photons at low frequency of ground state splitting.

Strong magneto-optical effects due to surface states in three-dimensional topological insulators.

We show that a thin film of a three-dimensional topological insulator such as Bi(2)Se(3)or Bi(2)Te(3) can exhibit strong linear and nonlinear magneto-optical effects in a transverse magnetic field. In particular, one can achieve an almost complete circular polarization of an incident terahertz or mid-infrared radiation and an efficient four-wave mixing.

Superradiant decay of cyclotron resonance of two-dimensional electron gases.

We report on the observation of collective radiative decay, or superradiance, of cyclotron resonance (CR) in high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases in GaAs quantum wells using time-domain terahertz magnetospectroscopy. The decay rate of coherent CR oscillations increases linearly with the electron density in a wide range, which is a hallmark of superradiant damping. Our fully quantum mechanical theory provides a universal formula for the decay rate, which reproduces our experimental data without any adjustable parameter. These results firmly establish the many-body nature of CR decoherence in this system, despite the fact that the CR frequency is immune to electron-electron interactions due to Kohn's theorem.

Efficient nonlinear generation of THz plasmons in graphene and topological insulators.

Surface plasmons in graphene may provide an attractive alternative to noble-metal plasmons due to their tighter confinement, peculiar dispersion, and longer propagation distance. We present theoretical studies of the nonlinear difference frequency generation (DFG) of terahertz surface plasmon modes supported by two-dimensional layers of massless Dirac electrons, which includes graphene and surface states in topological insulators. Our results demonstrate strong enhancement of the DFG efficiency near the plasmon resonance and the feasibility of phase-matched nonlinear generation of plasmons over a broad range of frequencies.

Generation of entangled photons in graphene in a strong magnetic field.

Entangled photon states attract tremendous interest as the most vivid manifestation of nonlocality of quantum mechanics and also for emerging applications in quantum information. Here we propose a mechanism of generation of polarization-entangled photons, which is based on the nonlinear optical interaction (four-wave mixing) in graphene placed in a magnetic field. Unique properties of quantized electron states in a magnetized graphene and optical selection rules near the Dirac point give rise to a giant optical nonlinearity and a high rate of photon production in the mid- or far-infrared range. A similar mechanism of photon entanglement may exist in topological insulators where the surface states have a Dirac-cone dispersion and demonstrate similar properties of magneto-optical absorption.

Modification of the adiabatic invariants method in the studies of resonant dissipative systems.

We study the system of equations for the canonically conjugate variables p and q specified by the one-dimensional Hamiltonian H=H(p,q,Λ(1),...,Λ(N)) dependent on Nself-consistent slightly changing parameters obeying the equations: Λ(n)=εf(n)(Λ(1),...,Λ(N),p,q). A broad range of oscillatory and wave processes with weak dissipation is described by analogous systems. The general method of adiabatic invariant construction for this system is proposed. Self-consistent averaged equations for the evolution of the action integral and the parameters Λ(n) are obtained. The constructed theory is applied to a generalized model of the nonlinear resonance. The autoresonance (phase locking) regime of decay parametric instability in a dissipative medium is revealed.