title: Irreversible photon transfer in an ensemble of Lambda-type atoms and a photon diode.
abstract: We show that a pair of quantized modes interacting with a spectrally broadened ensemble of Lambda-type atoms is analogous to an ensemble of two-level systems coupled to a bosonic reservoir. This enables an irreversible photon transfer between photon modes. The reservoir can be engineered which allows the observation of effects such as the Zeno and anti-Zeno effect, the destructive interference of decay channels, and the decay in a squeezed vacuum. We also consider a photon diode, i.e., a device which directs a single photon from any one of two input ports to a common output port.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and research center OPTIMAS, University of Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
authors.forename: Gor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nikoghosyan
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fleischhauer