Universal photon blockade via two-photon light-matter interaction at chiral exceptional points

Abstract: The photon blockade (PB) effect is a hallmark non-classical phenomenon in quantum optics and finds important applications for building quantum sources, while the control of PB by the non-Hermitian exceptional points remains largely unexplored. In this work, we theoretically investigate universal photon blockade in a microcavity harboring chiral exceptional points (CEPs) for building multiplexing quantum sources with nonreciprocal photon statistics. The results reveal that the presence of the CEPs leads to a stark contrast in the photon statistics of two whispering-gallery modes with opposite propagating directions. That is, one mode exhibits a strong PB effect while the other displays either sub-Poissonian or super-Poissonian distribution. Our findings thus may pave the way for advanced applications of photon blockade, and provide a theoretical foundation for the selective generation of single-photon and two-photon emission