We theoretically show that the dynamics of a driven quantum harmonic oscillator subject to non-dissipative noise is formally equivalent to the single-particle dynamics propagating through an experimentally feasible dynamically-disordered photonic network. Using this correspondence, we find that noise assisted energy transport occurs in this network and, if the noise is Markovian or delta-correlated, we can obtain an analytical solution for the maximum amount of transferred energy between all network's sites at a fixed propagation distance. Beyond the Markovian limit, we further consider two different types of non-Markovian noise and show that it is possible to have efficient energy transport for larger values of the dephasing rate.
The evolution of the spatial degrees of freedom of a photon propagating through atmospheric turbulence is treated as a non-Markovian process. Here, we derive and solve the evolution equation for this process. The turbulent medium is modeled by a sequence of multiple phase screens for general turbulence conditions. The non-Markovian perspective leads to a second-order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. The solution for this differential equation is obtained with the aid of a perturbative analysis, assuming the turbulence is relatively weak. We also provide another s…
Nanophotonics focuses on the control of light and the interaction with matter by the aid of intricate nanostructures. Typically, a photonic nanostructure is carefully designed for a specific application and any imperfections may reduce its performance, i.e., a thorough investigation of the role of unavoidable fabrication imperfections is essential for any application. However, another approach to nanophotonic applications exists where fabrication disorder is used to induce functionalities by enhancing light-matter interaction. Disorder leads to multiple scattering of light, which is the realm …
The system-environment interaction is simulated by light propagating in coupled photonic waveguides. The profile of the electromagnetic field provides intuitive physical insight to study the Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems. The transition from non-Markovian to Markovian process is demonstrated by increasing the size of environment, as the energy evolution changes from oscillating to an exponential decay, and the revival period increases. Moreover, the dynamical decoupling with a sequence of phase modulations is introduced to such a photonic open system to form a ba…
The phenomenon of chiral-symmetry protected thermalization gap in Hermitian photonic systems is counterintuitive as it implies that the photon coherence can be continuously improved by disorders towards an asymptotic limit. We show that the phenomenon disappears in time-independent, non-Hermitian photonic systems even when the chiral symmetry is well preserved. In fact, the degree of thermalization generally increases with the disorder strength, in agreement with intuition. As non-Hermitian characteristics (e.g., weak gain and loss) can be expected in realistic physical situations, the phenome…
The study of open quantum systems is important for fundamental issues of quantum physics as well as for technological applications such as quantum information processing. Recent developments in this field have increased our basic understanding on how non-Markovian effects influence the dynamics of an open quantum system, paving the way to exploit memory effects for various quantum control tasks. Most often, the environment of an open system is thought to act as a sink for the system information. However, here we demonstrate experimentally that a photonic open system can exploit the information…
We report measurements of Hanbury Brown and Twiss correlation of coherent light transmitted through disordered one-dimensional photonic lattices. Although such a lattice exhibits transverse Anderson localization when a single input site is excited, uniform excitation precludes its observation. By examining the Hanbury Brown--Twiss correlation for a uniformly excited disordered lattice, we observe intensity anticorrelations associated with photon antibunching--a signature of non-Gaussian statistics. Although the measured average intensity distribution is uniform, transverse Anderson localizatio…
We present a formula to evaluate the spontaneous emission spectra of an atom in contact with a radiation field with non-Markovian effects. This formula is written in terms of a two-time correlation of system observables and the environmental correlation function, and depends on the distance between the emitting atom and the detector. As an example, we use it to analyze the fluorescence spectra of a two level atom placed as an impurity in a photonic crystal. The radiation field within those materials has a gap or discontinuity where electromagnetic modes cannot propagate in the stationary limit…
The dynamics of a three-level atom in a cascade configuration with both transitions coupled to a single structured reservoir of quantized field modes is treated using Laplace transform methods applied to the coupled amplitude equations. Results are also obtained from master equations by two different approaches, that is, involving either pseudomodes or quasimodes. Two different types of reservoir are considered, namely a high-Q cavity and a photonic band-gap system, in which the respective reservoir structure functions involve Lorentzians. Non-resonant transitions are included in the model. In…
In this paper, the non-Markovian dynamics of a microcavity coupled to a waveguide in photonic crystals is studied based on Fano-type tight binding model. Using the exact master equation, we solve analytically and numerically the temporal evolution of the cavity coherent state and the associated physical observables. A critical transition is revealed when the coupling increase between the cavity and the waveguide. In particular, the cavity field becomes dissipationless when the coupling strength goes beyond a critical value, as a manifestation of strong non-Markovian memory effect. The result a…
It is known that the superposition of two bound states in the continuum (BIC) leads to the phenomenon of an oscillating bound state, where excitations mediated by the continuum modes oscillate persistently. We perform exact calculations for the oscillating BICs in a 1D photonic lattice coupled to a "giant atom" at multiple points. Our work is significantly distinct from previous proposals of oscillating BICs in continuous waveguide systems due to the presence of a finite energy band contributing band-edge effects. In particular, we show that the bound states outside the energy band are detrime…
We study the time behavior of entanglement between two noninteracting qubits each immersed in its own environment for two different non-Markovian conditions: a high-$Q$ cavity slightly off-resonant with the qubit transition frequency and a nonperfect photonic band-gap, respectively. We find that revivals and retardation of entanglement loss may occur by adjusting the cavity-qubit detuning, in the first case, while partial entanglement trapping occurs in non-ideal photonic-band gap.
Encryption is a vital tool of information technology protecting our data in the world with ubiquitous computers. While photons are regarded as ideal information carriers, it is a must to implement such data protection on all-optical storage. However, the intrinsic risk of data breaches in existing schemes of photonic memory was never addressed. We theoretically demonstrate the first protocol using spatially disordered laser fields to encrypt data stored on an optical memory, namely, encrypted photonic memory. Compare with a digital key, a continuous disorder encrypts stored light pulses with a…
Spontaneous emission of an excited atom in a featureless continuum of electromagnetic modes is a fundamental process in quantum electrodynamics associated with an exponential decay of the quantum emitter to its ground state accompanied by an irreversible emission of a photon. However, such a simple scenario is deeply modified when considering a $^{\prime}$giant$^{\prime}$ atom, i.e an atom whose dimension is larger than the wavelength of the emitted photon. In such an unconventional regime, non-Markovian effects and strong deviations from an exponential decay are observed owing to interference…
We discuss a point model for the collective emission of light from N two-level atoms in a photonic bandgap material, each with an atomic resonant frequency near the edge of the gap. In the limit of a low initial occupation of the excited atomic state, our system is shown to possess novel atomic spectra and population statistics. For a high initial excited state population, mean field theory suggests a fractionalized inversion and a macroscopic polarization for the atoms in the steady state, both of which can be controlled by an external d.c. field. This atomic steady state is accompanied by a …
The decoherence of two initially entangled qubits in anisotropic band gap photonic crystal has been studied analytically without Born or Markovian approximation. It is shown that the decoherence dynamics of two qubits in photonic crystal is greatly different from that of two qubits in vacuum or subjected to usual non-Markovian reservoir. The results also show that the finite time decoherence invoked by spontaneous emission could be suppressed efficiently and the entanglement of the Bell state possesses odd parity is more easily preserved in photonic crystal than that of the Bell state possesse…
Hyperuniform disordered photonic materials have recently been shown to display large, complete photonic band gaps and isotropic optical properties, and are emerging as strong candidates for a plethora of optoelectronic applications, making them competitive with many of their periodic and quasiperiodic counterparts. In this work, high quality factor optical cavities in hyperuniform disordered architectures are fabricated through semiconductor slabs and experimentally addressed by scanning near-field optical microscopy. The wide range of confined cavity modes that we detect arise from carefully …
A comparative study of a qutrit (three-level atomic system) coupled to a classical field in a typical Markovian reservoir (free space) and in a photonic band-gap (PBG) crystal is carried out. The aim of the study is to assess the collective impact of structured environment and classical control of the system on the dynamics of quantum coherence, non-Markovianity, and estimation of parameters which are initially encoded in the atomic state. We show that the constructive interplay of PBG material as a medium and classical driving field as a part of system results in a significant enhancement of …
The formation of gaps -- forbidden ranges in the values of a physical parameter -- is a ubiquitous feature of a variety of physical systems: from energy bandgaps of electrons in periodic lattices and their analogs in photonic, phononic, and plasmonic systems to pseudo energy gaps in aperiodic quasicrystals. Here, we report on a `thermalization' gap for light propagating in finite disordered structures characterized by disorder-immune chiral symmetry -- the appearance of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors in skew-symmetric pairs. In this class of systems, the span of sub- thermal photon statistic…
In this work I will discuss some numerical results on the stability of the many-body localized phase to thermal inclusions. The work simplifies a recent proposal by Morningstar et al. [arXiv:2107.05642] and studies small disordered spin chains which are perturbatively coupled to a Markovian bath. The critical disorder for avalanche stability of the canonical disordered Heisenberg chain is shown to exceed W>20. In stark contrast to the Anderson insulator, the avalanche threshold drifts considerably with system size, with no evidence of saturation in the studied regime. I will argue that the res…
We investigate the non-Markovian dynamics of quantum correlation between two initially entangled nitrogen-vacancy centers (NVC) embedded in photonic crystal cavities (PCC). We find that a finite quantum correlation is preserved even asymptotically when the transition frequency of the NVC is within the band gap of the PCC, which is quantitatively different from the result of approaching zero under the Born-Markovian approximation. In addition, once the transition frequency of NVC is far beyond the band gap of the PCC, the quantum correlation initially prepared in NVC will be fully transferred t…
Optical nanostructures have proven to be meritorious for tailoring the emission properties of quantum emitters. However, unavoidable fabrication imperfections may represent a nuisance. Quite remarkably, disorder offers new opportunities since light can be efficiently confined by random multiple scattering leading to Anderson localization. Here we investigate the effect of such disorder-induced cavities on the emission dynamics of single quantum dots embedded in disordered photonic-crystal waveguides. We present time-resolved measurements of both the total emission from Anderson-localized cavit…
We study the dynamics of chiral quantum networks consisting of nodes coupled by unidirectional or asymmetric bidirectional quantum channels. In contrast to familiar photonic networks where driven two-level atoms exchange photons via 1D photonic nanostructures, we propose and study a setup where interactions between the atoms are mediated by spin excitations (magnons) in 1D $XX$ spin chains representing spin waveguides. While Markovian quantum network theory eliminates quantum channels as structureless reservoirs in a Born-Markov approximation to obtain a master equation for the nodes, we are i…
We propose an efficient numerical method to compute configuration averages of observables in disordered open quantum systems whose dynamics can be unraveled via stochastic trajectories. We prove that the optimal sampling of trajectories and disorder configurations is simply achieved by considering one random disorder configuration for each individual trajectory. As a first application, we exploit the present method to the study the role of disorder on the physics of the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model in two different regimes: (i) for strong interactions, we explore the dissipative physi…
As discovered by P. W. Anderson, excitations do not propagate freely in a disordered lattice, but, due to destructive interference, they localise. As a consequence when an atom interacts with a disordered lattice one indeed observes, a non-trivial excitation exchange between atom and lattice. Such non-trivial atomic dynamics will in general be characterised also by a non-trivial quantum information backflow, a clear signature of non-Markovian dynamics. To investigate the above scenario we consider a quantum emitter, or atom, weakly coupled to a uniform coupled-cavity array (CCA). If initially …
We explore the dynamics of $N$ coupled atoms to a generic bosonic reservoir under specific system symmetries. In the regime of multiple atoms coupled to a single reservoir with identical couplings, we identify remarkable effects, notably that the initial configuration of the atomic excited state amplitudes strongly impacts the dynamics of the system and can even fully sever the system from its environment. Additionally, we find that steady state amplitudes of the excited states become independent of the choice of the reservoir. The framework introduced is applied to a structured photonic reser…
The simulation of quantum processes is a key goal for the grand programme aiming at grounding quantum technologies as the way to explore complex phenomena that are inaccessible through standard, classical calculators. Some interesting steps have been performed in this direction and this scenario has recently been extended to open quantum evolutions, marking the possibility to investigate important features of the way a quantum system interacts with its environment. Here we demonstrate experimentally the (non-)Markovianity of a process where system and environment are coupled through a simulate…
We introduce the first designs for high-Q photonic cavities in slab architectures in hyperuniform disordered solids displaying isotropic band gaps. Despite their disordered character, hyperuniform disordered structures have the ability to tightly confine the TE-polarised radiation in slab configurations that are readily fabricable. The architectures are based on carefully designed local modifications of otherwise unperturbed hyperuniform dielectric structures. We identify a wide range of confined cavity modes, which can be classified according to their approximate symmetry (monopole, dipole, q…
Protecting quantum correlation from decoherence is one of the crucial issues in quantum information processing. It has been commonly recognized that any initial quantum correlation of a composite system diminishes asymptotically or abruptly to zero under local Markovian decoherence. Here we show that, contrary to this recognition, a noticeable Gaussian quantum discord of a continuous-variable bipartite system can be frozen in the steady state in the non-Markovian dynamics if each of the subsystems forms a localized mode with its local reservoir. The condition for this frozen quantum discord ca…
We experimentally investigate the evolution of linear and nonlinear waves in a realization of the Anderson model using disordered one dimensional waveguide lattices. Two types of localized eigenmodes, flat-phased and staggered, are directly measured. Nonlinear perturbations enhances localization in one type, and induce delocalization in the other. In a complementary approach, we study the evolution on short time scales of $δ$-like wavepackets in the presence of disorder. A transition from ballistic wavepacket expansion to exponential (Anderson) localization is observed. We find an intermediate…
A structured electromagnetic reservoir can result in novel dynamics of quantum emitters. In particular, the reservoir can be tailored to have a memory of past interactions with emitters, in contrast to memory-less Markovian dynamics of typical open systems. In this Article, we investigate the non-Markovian dynamics of a superconducting qubit strongly coupled to a superconducting slow-light waveguide reservoir. Tuning the qubit into the spectral vicinity of the passband of this waveguide, we find non-exponential energy relaxation as well as substantial changes to the qubit emission rate. Furthe…
We present the experimental control of Non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems simulated with photonic entities. The polarization of light is used as the system, whereas the surrounding environment is represented by light's spatial structure. The control of the dynamics is achieved by the engineering of the environment via spatial interference. Using the behavior of the trace distance, we are able to identify each dynamics and characterize the position of maximum revival of information.
Quantum speed limit (QSL) under noise has drawn considerable attention in real quantum computational processes and quantum communication. Though non-Markovian noise is proven to be able to accelerate quantum evolution for a damped Jaynes-Cummings model, in this work we show that non-Markovianity may even slow down the quantum evolution of an experimentally controllable photon system. As an important application, QSL time of a photon can be well controlled by regulating the relevant environment parameter properly, which is close to reach the currently available photonic experimental technology.
Monochromatic coherent light traversing a disordered photonic medium evolves into a random field whose statistics are dictated by the disorder level. Here we demonstrate experimentally that light statistics can be deterministically tuned in certain disordered lattices, even when the disorder level is held fixed, by controllably breaking the excitation symmetry of the lattice modes. We exploit a lattice endowed with disorder-immune chiral symmetry in which the eigenmodes come in skew-symmetric pairs. If a single lattice site is excited, a "photonic thermalization gap" emerges: the realm of sub-…
The gaps separating two different states widely exist in various physical systems: from the electrons in periodic lattices to the analogs in photonic, phononic, plasmonic systems, and even quasicrystals. Recently, a thermalization gap, an inaccessible range of photon statistics, was proposed for light in disordered structures [Nat. Phys. 11, 930 (2015)], which is intrinsically induced by the disorder-immune chiral symmetry and can be reflected by the photon statistics. The lattice topology was further identified as a decisive role in determining the photon statistics when the chiral symmetry i…
We provide an experimental study of the relationship between the action of different classical noises on the dephasing dynamics of a two-level system and the non-Markovianity of the quantum dynamics. The two-level system is encoded in the photonic polarization degrees of freedom and the action of the noise is obtained via a spatial light modulator, thus allowing for an easy engineering of different random environments. The quantum non-Markovianity of the dynamics driven by classical Markovian and non-Markovian noise, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian, is studied by means of the trace distance. Ou…
The study of memory effects in quantum channels helps in developing characterization methods for open quantum systems and strategies for quantum error correction. Two main sets of channels exist, corresponding to system dynamics with no memory (Markovian) and with memory (non-Markovian). Interestingly, these sets have a non-convex geometry, allowing one to form a channel with memory from the addition of memoryless channels and vice-versa. Here, we experimentally investigate this non-convexity in a photonic setup by subjecting a single qubit to a convex combination of Markovian and non-Markovia…
We review recent theoretical developments on the stabilization of strongly correlated quantum fluids of light in driven-dissipative photonic devices through novel non-Markovian reservoir engineering techniques. This approach allows to compensate losses and refill selectively the photonic population so to sustain a desired steady-state. It relies in particular on the use of a frequency-dependent incoherent pump which can be implemented, e.g., via embedded two-level systems maintained at a strong inversion of population. As specific applications of these methods, we discuss the generation of Mot…
Quantum emitters coupled to structured photonic reservoirs experience unconventional individual and collective dynamics emerging from the interplay between dimensionality and non-trivial photon energy dispersions. In this work, we systematically study several paradigmatic three dimensional structured baths with qualitative differences in their bath spectral density. We discover non-Markovian individual and collective effects absent in simplified descriptions, such as perfect subradiant states or long-range anisotropic interactions. Furthermore, we show how to implement these models using only …
The fluorescence intensity and quadrature spectra from a two-level atom embedded in a photonic bandgap crystal and resonantly driven by a classical pump light are calculated. The non-Markovian nature of the problem caused by the non-uniform distribution of the photonic density of states is handled by linearizing the generalized optical Bloch equations with the Liouville operator expansion. Unlike the case in free space, we find that the bandgap effects will not only modify the fluorescence spectral shape but also cause squeezing in the in-phase quadrature spectra.
We study the quantum dynamics of relaxation, decoherence and entropy of a qubit embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal (PhC) through fractional calculus. These quantum measurements are investigated by analytically solving the fractional Langevin equation. The qubit with frequency lying inside the photonic band gap (PBG) exhibits the preserving behavior of energy, coherence and information amount through the steady values of excited-state probability, polarization oscillation and von Neumann entropy. This preservation does not exist in the Markovian system with qubit frequency lying outsid…
Transport inhibition via Anderson localization is ubiquitous in disordered periodic lattices. However, in crystals displaying only flat bands disorder can lift macroscopic band flattening, removing geometric localization and enabling transport in certain conditions. Such a striking phenomenon, dubbed inverse Anderson transition and predicted for three-dimensional flat band systems, has thus far not been directly observed. Here we suggest a simple quasi one-dimensional photonic flat band system, namely an Aharonov-Bohm photonic cage, in which correlated binary disorder induces an inverse Anders…
In this paper, we provide a mechanism of decoherence suppression for open quantum systems in general, and that for "Schrodinger cat-like" state in particular, through the strong couplings to non-Markovian reservoirs. Different from the usual strategies of suppressing decoherence by decoupling the system from the environment in the literatures, here the decoherence suppression employs the strong back-reaction from non-Markovian reservoirs. The mechanism relies on the existence of the singularities (bound states) of the nonequilibrium retarded Green function which completely determines the dissi…
Placing a quantum dot close to a metal nanowire leads to drastic changes in its radiative decay behavior because of evanescent couplings to surface plasmons. We show how two non-Markovian effects, band-edge and retardation, could be observed in such a system. Combined with a quantum dot p-i-n junction, these effects could be readout via current-noise measurements. We also discuss how these effects can occur in similar systems with restricted geometries, like phononic cavities and photonic crystal waveguides. This work links two previously separate topics: surface-plasmons and current-noise mea…
We propose to detect non-Markovian decay of an exciton qubit coupled to multi-mode bosonic reservoir via shot-noise measurements. Non-equilibrium current noise is calculated for a quantum dot embedded inside a \QTR{it}{p-i-n} junction. An additional term from non-Markovian effect is obtained in the derivation of noise spectrum. As examples, two practical photonic reservoirs, photon vacuum with the inclusion of cut-off frequency and surface plasmons, are given to show that the noise may become super-Poissonian due to this non-Markovian effect. Utilizing the property of super-radiance is further…
In the last two decades, considerable advances have been made in the investigation of nano-photonics in photonic crystals. Previous theoretical investigations of photon dynamics were carried out at zero temperature. Here, we investigate micro/nano cavity photonics in photonic crystals at finite temperature. Due to photonic-band-gap-induced non-Markovian dynamics, we discover that cavity photons in photonic crystals do not obey the standard Bose-Einstein statistical distribution. Within the photonic band gap and in the vicinity of the band edge, cavity photons combine nontrivial quantum dissipa…
We consider a quantum emitter ("atom") radiating in a one-dimensional (1D) photonic waveguide in the presence of a single mirror, resulting in a delay differential equation for the atomic amplitude. We carry out a systematic analysis of the non-Markovian (NM) character of the atomic dynamics in terms of refined, recently developed notions of quantum non-Markovianity such as indivisibility and information back-flow. NM effects are quantified as a function of the round-trip time and phase shift associated with the atom-mirror optical path. We find, in particular, that unless an atom-photon bound…
