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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Photonics. 2014 Jul;8(7):550–555. doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2014.114

FIG. 1.

FIG. 1

a, cQED allows to bring Quantum Electrodynamics—the theory of light-matter interaction—under prolonged scrutiny at the level of a few photons and in the presence of a quantum emitter. An external laser can be shined on the emitter to drive its dynamics. We show in this text how peculiar quantum superpositions can thus be realized and the emission subsequently forced to take place exclusively in bundles of N-photons. b, A possible solid state implementation of our proposal places a quantum dot in a micropillar: exciting on the side with a conventional laser, one can collect in the cavity emission the output from a quantum laser or a quantum gun, depending on the system parameters.