Exact solution of a lambda quantum system driven by a two-photon wavepacket

Abstract

Three-level atoms in lambda configuration find diverse applications in quantum information processing, and a promising way to manipulate their quantum states is with single-photon pulses propagating in a waveguide (which can be theoretically regarded as a highly broadband regime of the Jaynes-Cummings model). Here, we analytically find the non-perturbative dynamics of a lambda atom driven by a two-photon wavepacket, propagating in a one-dimensional electromagnetic environment. As an application, we study the dynamics of a quantum state purification. By comparing our exact model with an approximated model of two cascaded single-photon wavepackets, we show how two-photon nonlinearities and stimulated emission affect the purification.