PHYSICAL REVIEW A 90, 055801 (2014)

Quantum nondemolition measurement of small photon numbers using stored light

L. Liang, G. W. Lin,* Y. M. Hao, Y. P. Niu, and S. Q. Gong
Department of Physics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
(Received 2 July 2014; published 3 November 2014)
We propose a scheme for realizing a quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of a small number of
optical photons. Our scheme has two stages: First, we couple a propagating light pulse with fixed photon number
to a trapped cold atomic gas within a cavity, such that the pulse is stored within a collective polariton mode.
Second, a small-photon-number measurement is engineered by monitoring the cavity-transmission spectrum.
Since the polariton mode profile is preserved during the process of detecting the spectrum, photon-number QND
measurements could be achieved by retrieving the light pulse from the polariton mode. We also discuss a method
which uses QND measurements to generate small-photon Fock states.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.90.055801

PACS number(s): 42.50.Pq, 42.50.Gy, 42.50.Dv, 42.50.Ct

II. QUANTUM NONDEMOLITION MEASUREMENT
OF SMALL PHOTON NUMBER

I. INTRODUCTION

The direct observation of individual quantum systems

without destroying them, known as quantum nondemolition
(QND) measurement of individual quantum particles, is
of great importance for applications, such as constructing
extremely precise clocks [1,2] and effectively controlling
quantum states [3,4]. Much effort has been made towards a
QND measurement of small photon numbers. In the microwave
domain, several experiments have demonstrated a QND
measurement of a small number of photons trapped in a high-Q
microwave cavity [57]. In the optical domain, a scheme for
the QND measurement of an individual photon was presented
on the assumption that the large Kerr nonlinearity at the singlephoton level has been achieved [8]. Remarkably, Reiserer et al.
very recently experimentally showed nondestructive detection
of an optical photon through cavity-assisted interactions [9].
By combining the techniques of storing light and monitoring fluorescence, James et al. [10] and Imamoglu [11]
proposed novel schemes for photon counting, respectively. In
these two schemes [10,11], they showed that it is possible to
measure small photon numbers by monitoring the resonance
fluorescence with very high efficiency after storing light. However, monitoring the resonance fluorescence would destroy
the polariton mode profiles [11]. In this Brief Report, by
combining the techniques of storing light and detecting cavitytransmission spectrum, we show that a QND measurement can
be achieved for a small number of optical photons. The first
step in our scheme, similar to the process for photon counting [10,11], is mapping the quantum state of a propagating
light pulse with a fixed photon number onto a polariton mode
of an ensemble atomic gas. After that, photon number could
be measured by detecting the cavity-transmission spectrum.
Since the profile of the collective polariton mode is preserved
during the process of detecting the spectrum, we would realize
a QND measurement for a small number of optical photons by
retrieving the light pulse from the polariton mode. By using
the QND measurement, generation of small photon Fock states
is also discussed.

gwlin@ecust.edu.cn
niuyp@ecust.edu.cn

sqgong@ecust.edu.cn

1050-2947/2014/90(5)/055801(4)

Our model consists of an ensemble of N identical four-level

atoms inside an optical cavity [Fig. 1(a)]. The atomic level
structure and relevant transitions are shown in Fig. 1(b).
Each atom has two stable ground states |g, |s and two
excited states |d, |e. The atomic transitions |g |d and
|s |d are resonantly coupled by a quantum probe field
and a classical pump field, described by Rabi frequencies
G and c , respectively. Thus they form the standard -type
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system. With
exactly n photons inside the medium, the quantum state of the
system is [12,13]

n

c (t)
G N

|n  
E0 
sg
2c (t) + G2 N
2 (t) + G2 N
| |vac,

(1)

where | is the atomic state where all the atoms are initially
prepared in the ground state |g, |vac is the vacuum state of

the probe field mode, E0 is the creation operator of the probe


field, and sg = 1N N
j =1 |sj gj | is the collective atomic
raising operator with N (N  1) being the number of atoms.
Following the scheme for photon counting [11], we can achieve
the state transformation between the quantum state of the
incident probe and the collective atomic states by adiabatically
turning the coupling laser off or on. What is more, by stopping
the incident pulse in the atomic ensemble, we have a one-to-one
projection between the incoming photons and the collective
atomic excitations [11].
Mapping the quantum state of the probe pulse onto the
metastable collective atomic state is the first step of our
scheme. Then we couple the atomic transition |s |e to the
cavity mode via the interaction Hamiltonian [see Fig. 1(c)]:
H =

N


gj eit |sj ej |a + H.c.,

(2)

j =1

where gj is the atom-cavity coupling strength of atom j , a (a)

is the creation (annihilation) operator of the cavity mode, and
 is the detuning of the cavity mode from the atomic transition.
For the sake of simplicity, we first consider one photon stored
in the collective atomic excitation. Then the atomic state can
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2014 American Physical Society

BRIEF REPORTS

PHYSICAL REVIEW A 90, 055801 (2014)

to the large detuning. Thus one can represent the Hamiltonian

H0 in two-state space {|ns ,0e , |(n 1)s ,1e } with
H (n) = gn eit |ns ,0e (n 1)s , 1e |a + H.c.,
(5)
N
with gn = [(n j =1 |gj |2 )/N ]1/2 . Similar to the n = 1 case,
when   gn and the atoms are initially in the collective state
|ns ,0e , the effective Hamiltonian for H (n) is given by

FIG. 1. (Color online) (a) Schematic diagram for QND measurement of small number of optical photons. (b) The relevant atomic
transitions for storing light. (c) The relevant atomic transitions for
detecting the cavity-transmission spectrum.

be written as the collective polariton state |1s ,0e  = sg |,

where |ms ,ke  denotes m atoms in the metastable state |s
and k atoms in the excited state |e. As shown in Fig. 2(a),
state |1s ,0e  governed by Hamiltonian H0 would be excited to

another collective state |0s ,1e  = 1 N
j =1 gj |ej sj ||1s ,0e ,

2 1/2
with the normalization factor 1 = [N/( N
. In
j =1 |gj | )]
terms of two collective atomic states |1s ,0e  and |0s ,1e , the
Hamiltonian H can be rewritten as
H (1) = g1 eit |1s ,0e 0s ,1e |a + H.c.,
(3)
N
where g1 = [( j =1 |gj |2 )/N]1/2 [14]. In the case of large
detuning   g1 , one can obtain the effective Hamiltonian
given by [15]
(1)
Heff
= 1 [|1s ,0e 0s ,1e |a , |0s ,1e 1s ,0e |a]

= 1 (|1s ,0e 1s ,0e |a a |0s ,1e 0s ,1e |aa ),


2
where 1 = g1 2 / = ( N
j =1 |gj | )/(N). When the atoms
(1)
reduces to
are initially in the collective state |1s ,0e , Heff
(1)
Heff
= 1 (|1s ,0e 1s ,0e |a a).

(n)
Heff
= n |ns ,0e ns ,0e |a a,
(6)

2
here n = gn 2 / = (n N
j =1 |gj | )/(N ) = n1 . We note that
(n)
(1 n N ) only leads
the polariton mode |ns ,0e  in Heff
to photonnumber-dependent shifts of cavity frequency and
(n)
thus [|ns ,0e ns ,0e |,Heff
] = 0. As shown below, this property
(n)
of Heff can be used for QND measurements of |ns ,0e  by
detecting the cavity-transmission spectrum.
According to the HeisenbergLangevin equation, the equation of motion for the intracavity light field is [16]

i
(n) 
a(t),Heff
a(t)


+ ain (t) + bin (t),

a =

where is the cavity decay rate, ain and bin are the input
fields from the two mirrors, respectively. We assume that ain
is described by an input laser field and bin is initially in the
vacuum state, i.e., bin =
0. By defining the Fourier components
of the field  = 12 d()ei(0 )t [16], with 0 being
the central frequency of the cavity mode and  = a, ain ,bout ,
the motion equation then becomes
0 = i[( 0 ) + n1 |ns ,0e ns ,0e |]a()

(8)
a() + ain ().

By using the input-output formulation bin + bout = a [16],

one can obtain the relationship between the output field and
input field,

(4)

If there are n (1 < n N) photons stored in the atomic ensemble,

the collective polariton state is described by |ns ,0e  =
1 n ( N sg )n |. As shown in Fig. 2(b), state |ns ,0e 
CN

would
 be excited to the first-excited state, |(n 1)s ,1e  =
n N
j =1 gj |ej sj ||ns ,0e , with the normalization factor n =

2 1/2
[N/(n N
, and the transitions to higher-excited
j =1 |gj | )]
states for two or more atoms in state |e may be neglected due

FIG. 2. (Color online) The relevant atomic transitions in collective polariton states for (a) n = 1 and (b) n > 1.

(7)

bout () =

ain ()
.
i[( 0 ) + n1 |ns ,0e ns ,0e |]

(9)

When the atoms are in the collective state |ns ,0e , if we take
the transmission field and perform the partial trace over the
atomic state, the cavity-transmission spectrum is
T =

2
.
+ [( 0 ) + n1 ]2

(10)

In Fig. 3, we plot the transmission spectrum T versus

the frequency detuning ( 0 ) in units of , with n =
{0,1,2,3}. From Fig. 3, we can clearly see that the cavitytransmission spectrum T strongly depends on the photon
number n. Thus one can get the photon number by detecting
the cavity-transmission spectrum. Since the commutation
(n)
] = 0 ensures that measurement of |ns ,0e 
[|ns ,0e ns ,0e |,Heff
with a fixed photon number is QND type [16], the profile of
the collective excitations mode is preserved during the process
of detecting the spectrum. Then the polariton mode can be
retrieved as the photon pulse [12,13], and one could realize
the photon-number QND measurement.
Note that James et al. [10] and Imamoglu [11] have
proposed schemes for photon counting by combining the

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PHYSICAL REVIEW A 90, 055801 (2014)

from the transition |d |s [17], which has a polarization

and frequency different from that of the laser field. If we
assume that the interaction time t is short, then the whole
state of the atomic collective state and the forward-scattering
Stokes mode can be written as
p2
| = |0s  |0Stoke + p|1s  |1Stoke + |2s  |2Stoke
2!

4 
3
p
p
,
(11)
+ |3s  |3Stoke + O
3!
4!

FIG. 3. (Color online) Cavity transmission spectrum T versus the

frequency detuning ( 0 ) in units of , with n = {0,1,2,3}. is
the minimal shift of four spectral lines. Here, we have taken g = 2
and  = 50.

techniques of storing light and monitoring fluorescence,

respectively. However, as pointed out by Imamoglu [11],
photon scattering with the fluorescence measurements would
destroy the polariton mode profile by collapsing the spatially
extended collective atomic excitation into a smaller number
of atoms localized within an optical wavelength. Thus the
schemes with the fluorescence measurements could not be
QND type. QND measurement of small photon number was
presented based on large optical Kerr nonlinearity in the singlephoton level [8]. But the single-photon Kerr nonlinearity is
still a challenge in experiments. Recently, Reiserer et al. [9]
experimentally demonstrated nondestructive detection of an
optical photon through cavity-assisted interactions, whereas
this method cannot be directly extended to QND measurement
of photon number n for n > 1.
III. GENERATION OF PHOTON FOCK STATE

QND measurements can also be used to generate smallphoton Fock states. For this purpose, the atomic ensemble
with all the atoms in the ground state |g is illuminated by
a short, off-resonant laser pulse that induces the transition
|g |d with the Rabi frequency R and the large detuning
, as shown in Fig. 4. The forward-scattered Stokes light comes

FIG. 4. (Color online) (a) Schematic diagram for generating

photon Fock states. (b) The relevant atomic level structure and
transitions. A short, off-resonant laser pulse induces Raman transition
|g |s [17].

where |mStoke (m = 0,1,2,3) denotes the photon Fock state

for the forward-scattering Stokes mode, and p (p < 1) is the
probability amplitude for the single-photon Fock state. This is
controlled by the interaction time t and the Rabi frequency
R of the off-resonant laser pulse [17]. O(p4 ) represents the
terms with more excitations
whose probabilities are equal

to
or smaller than p4 / 4!. For example, for p = 0.3, p4 / 4!
0.001 is small so that the terms with more excitations can be
ignored. Then QND measurements of the atomic collective
state |ns  by detecting the cavity-transmission spectrum will
make the photon state collapse into a certain Fock state
|mStoke .
IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Now we address the experimental feasibility of the proposed scheme. For a potential experimental system, we
consider a sphere-shaped ensemble of rubidium atoms trapped
in an optical cavity (see Fig. 1). The atom-cavity coupling
strength g depends on the atoms position r through the
relation [19]
g = g0 sin(k0 z) exp[(x 2 + y 2 )/R 2 ],

(12)

where g0 is the peak coupling strength in the antinodes, R

and k0 are the waist and the wave vector of the Gaussian
cavity mode, respectively, and z is assumed to be along the
axis of the cavity. For the experimentally realistic parameters
of the cavity [20], (g0 ,)/(2 ) = (4.5,1) MHz, R = 35 m,
and k0 = 2/, with 780 nm being the wavelength of
the cavity mode. Assume that the diameter of the atomic
ensemble is d 20 m and the atomic number density of an
ultracold ensemble is  1015 cm3 ; thus, about 106 atoms
are coupled to the cavity
mode with the effective coupling
strength geff /(2 ) = ( |g|2 dV )1/2 /V 2 MHz, here V is
the volume of the atomic ensemble. For QND measurements
of photon numbers,
we need the large detuning condition

  gn ngeff . But the minimal shift of spectral lines is

2
/, which is in inverse proportion to . Setting the
= geff
atom-cavity detuning /(2 ) = 50
MHz, for small photon
number n = {0,1,2,3},   gn ng and the minimal shift
of the center frequency of the cavity-transmission spectrum is
80 kHz. Recently, by detecting the cavity-transmission
spectrum, Zhang et al. [21] have demonstrated the capability to
measure the microshift of the cavity resonance 1.25 kHz
with high accuracy. We note that the number of atoms coupled
to the cavity mode is limited by the volume of the cavity mode,
thus the optical depth of the atomic ensemble is finite and it
is difficult to implement the storage with high efficiency. To
increase the optical depth, following the method in Ref. [18],

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PHYSICAL REVIEW A 90, 055801 (2014)

E0

e
d

G'

(a)

(b)

FIG. 5. (Color online) Following the method in Ref. [18], we

could add another cavity along the propagation direction of probe
quantum field to implement the storage with high efficiency.

In summary, we have presented a scheme for realizing QND

measurements of small photon number by combining the techniques of storing light and detecting the cavity-transmission
spectrum. After mapping the probe-field pulse with a fixed
photon number to the collective polariton mode, one could
detect the cavity transmission spectrum to obtain the photon
number. The process of detecting the cavity-transmission
spectrum does not destroy the polariton mode profile, thus
the photon-number QND measurement could be achieved by
retrieving the light pulse from the polariton mode. We also
discussed a method for generating of small photon Fock states
by using the QND measurement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

we could add another cavity along the propagation direction of

the probe quantum field, as shown in Fig. 5, and then achieve
the maximum storage efficiency C/(1 + C), with C
being the cavity cooperativity parameter. For C  1, 1.

This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences

Foundation of China (Grants No. 11204080, No. 11274112,
and No. 91321101) and the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (Grant No. WM1313003 ).

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