Pure dephasing induced single-photon parametric down-conversion in an ultrastrong coupled plasmon-exciton system

In coupled quantum systems pure dephasing mechanisms acting on one constituent of the hybrid system break symmetry and enable optical transitions which are forbidden in the non-coupled system, i.e., the pure dephasing bath opens a cascaded dissipation pathway. Here we show that this mechanism enables single-photon induced parametric down-conversion in an ultrastrongly coupled plasmon-exciton system. Fast pure dephasing of the exciton is shown to support photon pair generation as the dominant energy relaxation pathway.