This Letter shows that chains of optical or microwave emitters coupled to a 1D waveguide support subradiant states with close pairs of excited emitters, which have longer lifetimes than even the most subradiant states with only a single excitation. Exact, analytical expressions for non-radiative excitation dimer states are obtained in the limit of infinite chains. To understand the mechanism underlying these states, we present a formal equivalence between subradiant dimers and single localized excitations around a chain defect (unoccupied site). Our analytical mapping permits extension to emitter chains coupled to the 3D free space vacuum field.
We propose a realization of a scalable, high-performance quantum processor whose qubits are represented by the ground and subradiant states of effective dimers formed by pairs of two-level systems coupled by resonant dipole-dipole interaction. The dimers are implanted in low-temperature solid host material at controllable nanoscale separations. The two-qubit entanglement either relies on the coherent excitation exchange between the dimers or is mediated by external laser fields.
We study theoretically subradiant states in the array of atoms coupled to photons propagating in a one-dimensional waveguide focusing on the strongly interacting many-body regime with large excitation fill factor $f$. We introduce a generalized many-body entropy of entanglement based on exact numerical diagonalization followed by a high-order singular value decomposition. This approach has allowed us to visualize and understand the structure of a many-body quantum state. We reveal the breakdown of fermionized subradiant states with increase of $f$ with emergence of short-ranged dimerized antif…
An array of $N$ closely spaced dipole coupled quantum emitters exhibits super- and subradiance with characteristic tailorable spatial radiation patterns. Optimizing their geometry and distance with respect to the spatial profile of a near resonant optical cavity mode allows to increase the ratio between light scattering into the cavity mode and free space by several orders of magnitude. This leads to a distinct nonlinear particle number scaling of the relative strength of coherent light-matter interactions versus decay. In particular, for subradiant states the collective cooperativity increase…
The properties of coupled emitters can differ dramatically from those of their individual constituents. Canonical examples include sub- and super-radiance, wherein the decay rate of a collective excitation is reduced or enhanced due to correlated interactions with the environment. Here, we systematically study the properties of collective excitations for regularly spaced arrays of quantum emitters coupled to a one-dimensional (1D) waveguide. We find that, for low excitation numbers, the modal properties are well-characterized by spin waves with a definite wavevector. Moreover, the decay rate o…
Photon emission is the hallmark of light-matter interaction and the foundation of photonic quantum science, enabling advanced sources for quantum communication and computing. Although single-emitter radiation can be tailored by the photonic environment, the introduction of multiple emitters extends this picture. A fundamental challenge, however, is that the radiative dipole-dipole coupling rapidly decays with spatial separation, typically within a fraction of the optical wavelength. We realize distant dipole-dipole radiative coupling with pairs of solid-state optical quantum emitters embedded …
Cavity-embedded quantum emitters show strong modifications of free space radiation properties such as an enhanced decay known as the Purcell effect. The central parameter is the cooperativity $C$, the ratio of the square of the coherent cavity coupling strength over the product of cavity and emitter decay rates. For a single emitter, $C$ is independent of the transition dipole moment and dictated by geometric cavity properties such as finesse and mode waist. In a recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 093601 (2017)] we have shown that collective excitations in ensembles of dipole-dipole coupled qu…
We study collective `free-space' radiation properties of two distant single-layer arrays of quantum emitters as two-level atoms. We show that this system can support a long-lived Bell superposition state of atomic excitations exhibiting strong subradiance, which corresponds to a non-local excitation of the two arrays. We describe the preparation of these states and their application in quantum information as resource of non-local entanglement, including deterministic quantum state transfer with high fidelity between the arrays representing quantum memories. We discuss experimental realizations…
A ring of sub-wavelength spaced dipole-coupled quantum emitters possesses only few radiant but many extraordinarily subradiant collective modes. These exhibit a 3D-confined spatial radiation field pattern forming a nano-scale high-Q optical resonator. We show that tailoring the geometry, orientation and distance between two such rings allows for increasing the ratio of coherent ring-to-ring coupling versus free-space emission by several orders of magnitude. In particular we find that subradiant excitations, when delocalized over several ring sites, are effectively transported between the rings…
We investigate a one-dimensional quantum emitter chain where transport of excitations and correlations takes place via nearest neighbor, dipole-dipole interactions. In the presence of collective radiative emission, we show that a phase imprinting wavepacket initialization procedure can lead to subradiant transport and can preserve quantum correlations. In the context of cavity mediated transport, where emitters are coupled to a common delocalized optical mode, we analyze the effect of frequency disorder and nonidentical photon-emitter couplings on excitation transport.
The interaction of quantum emitters with structured baths modifies both their individual and collective dynamics. In González-Tudela \emph{et al} we show how exotic quantum dynamics emerge when QEs are spectrally tuned around the middle of the band of a two-dimensional structured reservoir, where we predict the failure of perturbative treatments, anisotropic interactions and novel super and subradiant behaviour. In this work, we provide further analysis of that situation, together with a complete analysis for the quantum emitter dynamics in spectral regions different from the center of the ban…
Collective decays of multiply-excited atoms become subradiant and bound in space when they are strongly coupled to the guided modes in an atom-waveguide interface. In this interface, we analyze their average density-density and modified third-order correlations via Kubo cumulant expansions, which can arise and sustain for long time. The shape-preserving dimers and trimers of atomic excitations emerge in the most subradiant coupling regime of light-induced dipole-dipole interactions. This leads to a potential application of quantum information processing and quantum storage in the encoded nonre…
The photon blockade (PB) effect in emitter-cavity systems depends on the anharmonicity of the ladder of dressed energy eigenstates. The recent developments in color center photonics are leading toward experimental demonstrations of multi-emitter-cavity solid-state systems with an expanded set of energy levels compared to the traditionally studied single-emitter systems. We focus on the case of N = 2 nonidentical quasi-atoms strongly coupled to a nanocavity in the bad cavity regime (with parameters within reach of the color center systems), and discover three PB mechanisms: polaritonic, subradi…
Inherent binary or collective interactions in ensembles of quantum emitters induce a spread in the energy and lifetime of their eigenstates. While this typically causes fast decay and dephasing, in many cases certain special entangled collective states with minimal decay can be found, which possess ideal properties for spectroscopy, precision measurements or information storage. We show that for a specific choice of laser frequency, power and geometry or a suitable configuration of control fields one can efficiently prepare these states. We demonstrate this by studying preparation schemes for …
A scheme to utilize atom-like emitters coupled to nanophotonic waveguides is proposed for the generation of many-body entangled states and for the reversible mapping of these states of matter to photonic states of an optical pulse in the waveguide. Our protocol makes use of decoherence-free subspaces (DFS) for the atomic emitters with coherent evolution within the DFS enforced by strong dissipative coupling to the waveguide. By switching from subradiant to superradiant states, entangled atomic states are mapped to photonic states with high fidelity. An implementation using ultracold atoms coup…
The demonstration of enhanced spontaneous emission of nanoscaled optical emitters near metallic nanoparticles and the recent realization of a nanolaser based on surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (spaser) encourage the search for strong coupling regime at the nanoscale. Here we propose the concept of nanopolaritons. We demonstrate with accurate scattering calculations that the strong coupling regime of a single quantum emitter (a semiconductor quantum dot) placed in the gap between two metallic nanoparticles can be achieved. The largest dimension of the investiga…
We analyze the topological and dynamical properties of a system formed by two chains of identical emitters coupled to a waveguide, whose guided modes induce all-to-all excitation hopping. We find that, in the single excitation limit, the bulk topological properties of the Hamiltonian that describes the coherent dynamics of the system are identical to the ones of a one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. However, due to the long-range character of the exchange interactions, we find weakening of the bulk-boundary correspondence. This is illustrated by the variation of the localization …
We study at the single-photon level the nonreciprocal excitation transfer between emitters coupled with a common waveguide. Non-Markovian retarded effects are taken into account due to the large separation distance between different emitter-waveguide coupling ports. It is shown that the excitation transfer between the emitters of a small-atom dimer can be obviously nonreciprocal by introducing between them a coherent coupling channel with nontrivial coupling phase. We prove that for dimer models the nonreciprocity cannot coexist with the decoherence-free giant-atom structure although the latte…
The control and manipulation of quantum-entangled non-local states is a crucial step for the development of quantum information processing. A promising route to achieve such states on a wide scale is to couple solid-state quantum emitters through their coherent dipole-dipole interactions. Entanglement in itself is challenging, as it requires both nanometric distances between emitters and nearly degenerate electronic transitions. Implementing hyperspectral imaging to identify pairs of coupled organic molecules trapped in a low temperature matrix, we reach distinctive spectral signatures of maxi…
Broadening the reflection band of atomic mirrors by engineering the emitter-waveguide coupling
National Center for Theoretical Sciences（国家理论科学中心）；Hon Hai Research Institute（鸿海研究院）；National Taiwan University（台湾大学）；Academia Sinica（中央研究院）；National Central University（中央大学）
Efficient and versatile interfaces for the interaction of light with matter are an essential cornerstone for quantum science. A fundamentally new avenue of controlling light-matter interactions has been recently proposed based on the rich interplay of photon-mediated dipole-dipole interactions in structured subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters. Here we report on the direct observation of the cooperative subradiant response of a two-dimensional (2d) square array of atoms in an optical lattice. We observe a spectral narrowing of the collective atomic response well below the quantum-limited d…
The discovery of topological materials has challenged our understanding of condensed matter physics and led to novel and unusual phenomena. This has motivated recent developments to export topological concepts into photonics to make light behave in exotic ways. Here, we predict several unconventional quantum optical phenomena that occur when quantum emitters interact with a topological waveguide QED bath, namely, the photonic analogue of the Su-Schrieffer-Hegger model. When the emitters frequency lies within the topological band-gap, a chiral bound state emerges, which is located at just one s…
A ring of sub-wavelength spaced dipole-coupled quantum emitters features extraordinary optical properties when compared to a one-dimensional chain or a random collection of emitters. One finds the emergence of extremely subradiant collective eigenmodes similar to an optical resonator, which feature strong 3D sub-wavelength field confinement. Motivated by structures commonly appearing in natural light harvesting complexes, we extend these studies to stacked concentric multi-ring geometries. We predict that double rings allow to engineer significantly darker and better confined collective excita…
We study numerically the slow (subradiant) decay of the fluorescence of motionless atoms after a weak pulsed excitation. We show that, in the linear-optics regime and for an excitation detuned by several natural linewidths, the slow decay rate can be dominated by close pairs of atoms (dimers) forming superradiant and subradiant states. However, for a large-enough resonant optical depth and at later time, the dynamics is dominated by collective many-body effects. In this regime, we study the polarization and the spectrum of the emitted light, as well as the spatial distribution of excitation in…
We investigate polariton-phonon hybrid excitations, which describe the collective excitations of emitter-photon polaritons and vibrational phonons, in a periodic array of vibrating two-level emitters interacting with waveguide photons. We demonstrate the emergence of an interaction-induced quasiperiodic structure caused by the interplay between phonon scatterings and waveguide-mediated long-range couplings. This quasiperiodicity fundamentally changes the excitation characteristics in the subradiant regime, which feature an appearance of topological edge states and a transition between ergodic …
Single-photon superradiance can emerge when a collection of identical emitters are spatially separated by distances much less than the wavelength of the light they emit, and is characterized by the formation of a superradiant state that spontaneously emits light with a rate that scales linearly with the number of emitters. This collective phenomena has only been demonstrated in a few nanomaterial systems, all requiring temperatures below 10K. Here, we rationally design a single colloidal nanomaterial that hosts multiple (nearly) identical emitters that are impervious to the fluctuations which …
We describe how the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique can be used to compute the quasinormal mode (QNM) for metallic nano-resonators, which is important for describing and understanding light-matter interactions in nanoplasmonics. We use the QNM to model the enhanced spontaneous emission rate for dipole emitters near a gold nanorod dimer structure using a newly developed QNM expansion technique. Significant enhanced photon emission factors of around 1500 are obtained with large output $β$-factors of about $60\%$.
We propose a system for guiding plasmon-enhanced polarized single photons into optical nanowire (ONW) guided modes. It is shown that spontaneous emission properties of quantum emitters (QEs) can be strongly enhanced in the presence of gold nanorod dimer (GNRD) leading to the emission of highly polarized and bright single photons. We have calculated that a high Purcell factor of 279, coupling efficiency of 11 %, and degree of polarization (DOP) of single photons is estimated to be as high as 99.57% in the guided modes of ONW by suitably placing a QE on an optimized location of the GNRD system. …
A chiral-coupled atomic chain of two-level quantum emitters allows strong resonant dipole-dipole interactions, which enables significant collective couplings between every other emitters. We numerically obtain the steady-state phase diagram of such system under weak excitations, where interaction-driven states of crystalline orders, edge or hole excitations, and dichotomy of chiral flow are identified. We distinguish these phases by participation ratios and structure factors, and find two critical points which relate to decoherence-free subradiant sectors of the system. We further investigate …
Scaling law for optimal excitation storage and superradiant release in waveguide QED systems
National Taiwan University（台湾大学）；Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica（中央研究院原子与分子科学研究所）；Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University（台湾大学量子科学与工程中心）；Trapped-Ion Quantum Computing Laboratory, Hon Hai Research Institute（鸿海研究院会离子阱量子计算实验室）；Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences（国家理论科学中心物理组）；Department of Physics, National Central University（中央大学物理系）
We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a driven dissipative spin chain with chiral coupling to a 1D bosonic bath, and its atomic implementation with a two-species mixture of cold quantum gases. The reservoir is represented by a spin-orbit coupled 1D quasi-condensate of atoms in a magnetized phase, while the spins are identified with motional states of a separate species of atoms in an optical lattice. The chirality of reservoir excitations allows the spins to couple differently to left and right moving modes, which in our atomic setup can be tuned from bidirectional to purely unidirection…
