Photon transport in bimodal atom-cavity systems with waveguide coupling: Application to deterministic photon subtraction

The single-photon Raman interaction has emerged as a promising tool for deterministic photon subtraction, acting as a photon-activated switch in which the first arriving photon renders the system transparent to subsequent photons. Here, we employ the input-output formalism to perform a single-photon transport analysis within a photon subtractor consisting of a three-level quantum emitter coupled to a bimodal cavity-waveguide system. The analysis provides the frequency response of the system and reveals how it is affected by the key physical parameters of the cavity modes, such as coupling strengths and decay rates. We utilize these results to calculate the probability of successful photon subtraction from pulses of different temporal shapes, durations, and carrier frequencies. Subsequent analysis combines the input-output formalism with the quantum trajectory method to numerically verify the analytical findings as well as to assess the impact of photon number of the input pulse on the subtractor's performance. Our findings highlight the single-photon model's capability in predicting the system's response to multiphoton inputs in the pulsed regime as well as its potential utility in the design of efficient single-photon subtractors.