Large Cross-Phase Modulations at the Few-Photon Level

We demonstrate an efficient cross-phase modulation (XPM) based on a closed-loop double-Lambda system. The property of the double-Lambda medium can be controlled by changing the phases of the applied optical fields. This phase-dependent XPM scheme can achieve large phase modulations at low-light intensities without requiring cavities or tightly focusing laser beams. With this scheme, we observe a pi-level phase shift with two pulses, both consisting of eight photons in cold rubidium atoms. Such a novel scheme provides a simple route to generate strong interactions between photons and may have potential applications in all-optical quantum signal processing.