Numerical analyses of emission of a single-photon pulse based on single-atom–cavity quantum electrodynamics

Abstract

We numerically investigate an on-demand single-photon source, which is implemented with a strongly coupled atom–cavity system, proposed by A. Kuhn, M. Hennrich, T. Bondo, and G. Rempe, Appl. Phys. B 69, 373 (1999). In the scheme of Kuhn et al., a $\Lambda$-type three-level atom is captured in a single-mode optical cavity. Considering the three atomic levels, the ground state $u$, the first excited state $g$ accompanying the cavity mode, and the second excited state $e$, in the $\Lambda$-configuration, we assume that a classical field and a quantized cavity field lead to the transition between $u$ and $e$ and that between $e$ and $g$, respectively. The classical light pulse rising sufficiently slowly triggers an adiabatic process of the system and lets a single photon of the cavity mode emerge. We simulate this adiabatic evolution and transmission of the single photon through an imperfect mirror of the cavity using the master equation. We concentrate on examining the physical properties of the efficiency of single-photon generation, the fluctuation of the duration of the photon emission, and the time of the emission measured from a peak of the trigger pulse. We find a function that approximates to the efficiency closely and the upper bound of the fluctuation of the duration.