Reiserer, Andreas

Thursday Jan 16, 2014
Time: 11:00
Place: ETH Zurich, HPF G 6
Host: Andreas Wallraff

Nondestructive Detection of an Optical Photon

Andreas Reiserer
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Germany

I will present a robust photon detector which does not rely on photon absorption. Instead, impinging light is reflected from an optical resonator containing a single atom in a superposition of two states. Upon reflection of a single photon, the phase of the superposition state is flipped. Measuring this phase change thus allows for nondestructive photon detection. The presented single-photon nonlinearity paves the way toward photonic quantum gates and the preparation of novel quantum states of light.