Masatoshi Nakatani

Enhanced up-conversion of entangled photons and quantum interference under a localized field in nanostructures.

We theoretically investigate the up-conversion process of two entangled photons on a molecule, which is coupled by a cavity or nanoscale metallic structure. Within one-dimensional input-output theory, the propagators of the photons are derived analytically and the up-conversion probability is calculated numerically. It is shown that the coupling with the nanostructure clearly enhances the process. We also find that the enhancement becomes further pronounced for some balanced system parameters, such as the quantum correlation between photons, radiation decay, and coupling between the nanostructure and molecule. The nonmonotonic dependencies are reasonably explained in view of quantum interference between the coupled modes of the whole system. This result indicates that controlling quantum interference and correlation is crucial for few-photon nonlinearity, and provides a new guidance to wide variety of fields, e.g., quantum electronics and photochemistry.

Strategy of ring-shaped aggregates in excitation energy transfer for removing disorder-induced shielding

Peripheral light harvesting complex (LH2), which is found in photosynthetic antenna systems of purple photosynthetic bacteria, has important functions in the photosynthetic process, such as harvesting sunlight and transferring its energy to the photosynthetic reaction center. The key component in excitation energy transfer (EET) between LH2s is B850, which is a characteristic ring-shaped aggregate of pigments usually formed by 18 or 16 bacteriochlorophylls in LH2. We theoretically study the strategy of the ring-shaped aggregate structure, which maximizes EET efficiency, by using the standard Frenkel exciton model and the self-consistent calculation method for the Markovian quantum master equation and Maxwell equation. As a result, we have revealed a simple but ingenious strategy of the ring-shaped aggregate structure. The combination of three key properties of the ring unit system maximizes the EET efficiency, namely the large dipole moment of aggregates causes the basic improvement of EET efficiency, and the isotropic nature and the large occupying area are critically effective to remove the disorder-induced shielding that inhibits EET in the presence of the randomness of orientation and alignment of carriers of excitation energy.

Validity of the Markov Approximation in Quantum Master Equations for Composite Systems

We show that the Markov approximation cannot be generally applied for composite systems interacting with thermal reservoir even if characteristic time of the system is much larger than reservoir correlation time.

Up-conversion dynamics for temporally entangled two-photon pulses

We analyze the up conversion of a two-photon pulse having temporal entanglement on the basis of a full quantum formalism that treats both photons and optical media quantum mechanically. We derive a formula of the up-converted photon wave function, which is applicable to arbitrary input two-photon states for a three-level system, as the simplest second-order nonlinear optical system. As the input, we employ three kinds of temporally entangled two-photon pulses: correlated, uncorrelated, and anticorrelated. We observe the up-conversion efficiency and the temporal profile of the up-converted photon. Our results reveal the crossover behavior of the up conversion from anticorrelation to correlation and show how the temporal correlation in the input is reflected in the up-conversion process.