Cavity-Free Photon Blockade Induced by Many-Body Bound States

We show theoretically that a variety of strong quantum nonlinear phenomena occur in a completely open one-dimensional waveguide coupled to an N-type four-level system. This system could be realized, for example, in experiments using superconducting circuits. We focus on photon blockade, photon-induced tunneling, bunching or anti-bunching, and the creation of single-photon states, all in the absence of a cavity. Many-body bound states appear due to the strong photon-photon correlation mediated by the four-level system. These bound states cause photon blockade, generating a sub-Poissonian single-photon source [1]. Such a source is crucial for quantum cryptography and distributed quantum networking; our work thus supports the notion that open quantum systems can play a critical role in the manipulation of individual, mobile quanta, a key goal of quantum communication. [1] H. Zheng, D. J. Gauthier, and H. U. Baranger, Phys. Rev. Lett. in press (2011), arXiv:1107.0309.