title: Experimental demonstration of interaction-free all-optical switching via the quantum Zeno effect.
abstract: We experimentally demonstrate all-optical interaction-free switching using the quantum Zeno effect, achieving a high contrast of 35:1. The experimental data match a zero-parameter theoretical model for several different regimes of operation, indicating a good understanding of the switch's characteristics. We also discuss extensions of this work that will allow for significantly improved performance, and the integration of this technology onto chip-scale devices, which can lead to ultra-low-power all-optical switching, a long-standing goal with applications to both classical and quantum information processing.
authors.affiliation: EECS Department, Center for Photonic Communication and Computing, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3118, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: McCusker
authors.affiliation: EECS Department, Center for Photonic Communication and Computing, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3118, USA.
authors.forename: Yu-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: EECS Department, Center for Photonic Communication and Computing, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3118, USA.
authors.forename: Abijith S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kowligy
authors.affiliation: EECS Department, Center for Photonic Communication and Computing, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3118, USA.
authors.forename: Prem
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar