Coherent perfect absorption of quantum light

Abstract

Coherent perfect absorption (CPA) was introduced as a classical optics phenomenon of a standing-wave absorption by a subwavelength film. In this paper, we develop a theory of CPA of quantized standing waves taking account of a subwavelength thickness of the absorber. This approach allows us to merge all known quantum effects of CPA under a single theory and introduce other regimes of CPA including CPA of NOON states with arbitrary number of entangled photons, orthogonally squeezed vacuum states, continuous variable entangled states, and Schr\"odinger cat states. Detailed analysis of the quantum regime of CPA sheds light on fundamental aspects of quantum light dissipation and its practical implementation in quantum optics and quantum information.