Two-photon nonlinear interaction mediated by cavity quantum electrodynamics systems

Exploiting the field-amplification effect of a cavity, the possibility of optical nonlinearity by only two photons was indicated experimentally. In the present article, we review our recent analysis of the two-photon dynamics in a cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system. Since a cavity-QED system is highly dispersive around its resonances, the shapes of photonic pulses are significantly deformed through interaction with the system. Thus, the present analysis is based on a formalism beyond single-mode approximations. The external photon field is treated rigorously as a continuum, which enables us to handle the two-photon wavefunction in the space representation. The degree of optical nonlinearity in a two-photon state is quantified by comparing the output wavefunction with the linear output wavefunction. It is revealed that the semiclassical optical response theory can be applied for evaluation of the two-photon optical nonlinearity. The two-photon nonlinearity appears not purely as a phase shift in the output wavefunction. The degradation of the fidelity between the output wavefunction and the linear output wavefunction always occurs, which hinders the application of this nonlinear effect as a quantum phase gate. The optimum condition for maximizing the two-photon nonlinearity is clarified, suggesting that pulse shape control is more essential than the Q-value control of the cavity QED system.