Abstract

We demonstrate a way to prepare single photons with a temporal envelope that resembles the time reversal of photons from the spontaneous decay process. We use photon pairs generated from a time-ordered atomic cascade decay as a starting point: the detection of the first photon of the cascade is used as a herald [1,2]. We show how coupling the heralding photon into an asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavity reverses the temporal shape of the heralded photon from a decaying to a rising exponential envelope. A single photon with such an exponentially rising temporal envelope would be ideal for interacting with two level systems. Using the analogy between an atom and a cavity [3] we demonstrate a proof-of-principle experiment on how these photons can be used for strong interaction with a single atom [4].

© 2015 IEEE