Creation, Storage, and On-Demand Release of Optical Quantum States with a Negative Wigner Function

Abstract

Nonclassical quantum states---those with no correspondence to classical states---can be characterized by a negative Wigner function and are vital to quantum-information processing. A new all-optical scheme achieves, for the first time, creation, storage, and on-demand release of highly nonclassical photonic states by using two coupled optical cavities, one for creation and storage, and the other for dynamical tuning of the release.