Effects of retardation on many-body superradiance in chiral waveguide QED
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学数学科学系）
Bennet Windt, Miguel Bello, Daniel Malz, J. Ignacio Cirac
We study the superradiant decay of a chain of atoms coupled to a chiral waveguide, focusing on the regime of non-negligible photon propagation time. Using an exact master equation description which accounts for delay effects, we obtain evidence to suggest that competition between collective decay and retardation leads to the emergence of an effective maximum number of atoms able to contribute to the superradiant dynamics, resulting in a plateau of the peak emission rate. To develop this analysis further, we investigate the inter-atomic correlations to find features consistent with the formation of individual superradiant domains. Moreover, we find that retardation can also result in persistent oscillatory atomic dynamics accompanied by a periodic sequence of emission bursts.
We develop a formalism for modelling exact time dynamics in waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED) using the real-space approach. The formalism does not assume any specific configuration of emitters and allows the study of Markovian dynamics fully analytically and non-Markovian dynamics semi-analytically with a simple numerical integration step. We use the formalism to study subradiance, superradiance and bound states in continuum. We discuss new phenomena such as subdivision of collective decay rates into symmetric and anti-symmetric subsets and non-Markovian superradiance effects that can l…
The Markovian approximation is widely applied in the field of quantum optics due to the weak frequency dependence of the vacuum field amplitude, and in consequence non-Markovian effects are typically regarded to play a minor role in the optical electron-photon interaction. Here, we give an example where non-Markovianity changes the qualitative behavior of a quantum optical system, rendering the Markovian approximation quantitatively and qualitatively insufficient. Namely, we study a multiple-emitter, multiple-excitation waveguide quantum-electrodynamic (waveguide-QED) system and include propag…
We present two different methods for modelling non-Markovian quantum light-matter interactions in waveguide QED systems, using matrix product states (MPSs) and a space-discretized waveguide (SDW) model. After describing the general theory and implementation of both approaches, we compare and contrast these methods directly on three topical problems of interest in waveguide-QED, including (i) a two-level system (TLS) coupled to an infinite (one-dimensional) waveguide, (ii) a TLS coupled to a terminated waveguide with a time-delayed coherent feedback, and (iii) two spatially separated TLSs coupl…
By modeling the coupling of multiple superconducting qubits to a single cavity in the circuit-quantum electrodynamics (QED) framework we find that it should be possible to observe superradiance and phase multistability using currently available technology. Due to the exceptionally large couplings present in circuit-QED we predict that superradiant microwave pulses should be observable with only a very small number of qubits (just three or four), in the presence of energy relaxation and non-uniform qubit-field coupling strengths. This paves the way for circuit-QED implementations of superradian…
Superradiance, the enhanced collective emission of light from a coherent ensemble of quantum systems, has been typically studied in atomic ensembles. In this work we study the enhanced emission of energy from coherent ensembles of harmonic oscillators. We show that it should be possible to observe harmonic oscillator superradiance in a variety of physical platforms such as waveguide arrays in integrated photonics and resonator arrays in circuit QED. We find general conditions specifying when emission is superradiant and subradiant and find that superradiant, subradiant and dark states take the…
Continuous Narrow-Linewidth Superradiance in Waveguide QED
University of Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学和量子信息研究所）；Leibniz Universität Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学）；Department of Physics, Harvard University（哈佛大学物理系）
Waveguides allow for direct coupling of emitters separated by large distances, offering a path to connect remote quantum systems. However, when facing the distances needed for practical applications, retardation effects due to the finite speed of light are often overlooked. Previous works studied the non-Markovian dynamics of emitters with retardation, but the properties of the radiated field remain mostly unexplored. By considering a toy model of two distant two-level atoms coupled through a waveguide, we observe that the spectrum of the radiated field exhibits non-Markovian features such as …
We introduce a three qubit waveguide QED system to mimic the cavity-QED strong coupling regime of a probe qubit embedded in atom-like mirrors, which was realized in recent experiments. We then extend this system into the deep non-Markovian regime and demonstrate the profound role that retardation plays on the dressed resonances, allowing one to significantly improve the polariton lifetimes (by many orders of magnitude), tune the resonances, as well as realize Fano-like resonances and simultaneous coupling to multiple cavity modes. Exact Green function solutions are presented for the spectral r…
We study a quantum electrodynamics (QED) system made of an two-level atom and a semi-infinite rectangular waveguide, which behaves as a perfect mirror in one end. The spatial dependence of the atomic spontaneous emission has been included in the coupling strength relevant to the eigenmodes of the waveguide. The role of retardation is studied for the atomic transition frequency far away from the cutoff frequencies. The atom-mirror distance introduces different phases and retardation times into the dynamics of the atom interacting resonantly with the corresponding transverse modes. It is found t…
We show how the dynamics of collisions between cold atoms can be manipulated by a modification of spontaneous emission times. This is achieved by placing the atomic sample in a resonant optical cavity. Spontaneous emission is enhanced by a combination of multiparticle entanglement together with a higher density of modes of the modified vacuum field, in a situation akin to superradiance. A specific situation is considered and we show that this effect can be experimentally observed as a large suppression in trap-loss rates.
Recent experiments on spontaneous emission of atomic matter waves open a new window into the behavior of quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide. Here we develop an approach based on infinite products to study this system theoretically, without the need to approximate the band dispersion relation of the waveguide. We solve the system for a one-dimensional array of one, multiple and an infinite number of quantum emitters and compare with the experiments. This leads to a detailed characterization of the decay spectrum, with a family of in-gap bound states, new mechanisms for enhanced Markovian e…
We study the disentanglement dynamics of two giant atoms coupled to a common one-dimensional waveguide. We focus on the non-Markovian retarded effect in the disentanglement of the two giant atoms by taking the photon transmission time into account. By solving the time-delayed equations of motion for the probability amplitudes, we obtain the evolution of the entanglement of the two giant atoms, which are initially in the maximally entangled states in the single-excitation space. It is found that the retardation-induced non-Markovianity leads to non-exponential decay and revivals of entanglement…
Starting from the paradigmatic spin-boson model (SBM), we investigate the static and dynamical properties of a system of two distant two-level emitters coupled to a one-dimensional Ohmic waveguide beyond the rotating wave approximation. Employing static and dynamical polaron Ansätze we study the effects of finite separation distance on the behavior of the photon-mediated Ising-like interaction, qubit frequency renormalization, ground-state magnetization, and entanglement entropy of the two-qubit system. Based on previous works we derive an effective approximate Hamiltonian for the two-impurity…
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (C-QED) effects, such as Rabi splitting, Rabi oscillations and superradiance, have been demonstrated with nitrogen vacancy center spins in diamond in microwave resonators at cryogenic temperature. In this article we explore the possibility to realize strong collective coupling and the resulting C-QED effects with ensembles of spins at room temperature. Thermal excitation of the individual spins by the hot environment leads to population of collective Dicke states with low symmetry and a reduced collective spin-microwave field coupling. However, we show with simul…
We study the effect of spontaneous emission and incoherent atomic pumping on the nonlinear semiclassical dynamics of the unbalanced Dicke model -- a generalization of the Dicke model that features independent coupling strengths for the co- and counter-rotating interaction terms. As well as the ubiquitous superradiant behavior the Dicke model is well-known for, the addition of spontaneous emission combined with the presence of strong counter-rotating terms creates laser-like behavior termed counter-lasing. These states appear in the semiclassical model as stable periodic orbits. We perform a co…
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；ICFO—Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（ICFO-光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学数学科学系）；Department of Physics, University of Basel（巴塞尔大学物理系）；Google Quantum AI（谷歌量子人工智能）
In this note we report on some new results \cite{SHP} on corrections to the Casimir-Polder \cite{caspol} retardation force due to atomic motion and present a preliminary (unpublished) critique on one recently proposed cavity QED detection scheme of Unruh effect \cite{Unr76}. These two well-known effects arise from the interaction between a moving atom or detector with a quantum field under some boundary conditions introduced by a conducting mirror/cavity or dielectric wall. The Casimir-Polder force is a retardation force on the atom due to the dressing of the atomic ground state by the vacuum …
Multiple emitters coherently interacting with an electromagnetic mode give rise to collective effects such as correlated decay and coherent exchange interaction, depending on the separation of the emitters. By diagonalizing the effective non-Hermitian many-body Hamiltonian we reveal the complex-valued eigenvalue spectrum encoding the decay and interaction characteristics. We show that there are significant differences in the emerging effects for an array of interacting anharmonic oscillators compared to those of two-level systems and harmonic oscillators. The bosonic decay rate of the most sup…
The possibility of a superradiant phase transition in light-matter systems is the subject of much debate, due to numerous apparently conflicting no-go and counter no-go theorems. Using an arbitrary gauge approach we show that a unique phase transition does occur in archetypal many-dipole cavity QED systems, and that it manifests unambiguously via a macroscopic gauge-invariant polarisation. We find that the gauge choice controls the extent to which this polarisation is included as part of the radiative quantum subsystem and thereby determines the degree to which the abnormal phase is classed as…
Photonic states with large and fixed photon numbers, such as Fock states, enable quantum-enhanced metrology but remain an experimentally elusive resource. A potentially simple, deterministic and scalable way to generate these states consists of fully exciting $N$ quantum emitters equally coupled to a common photonic reservoir, which leads to a collective decay known as Dicke superradiance. The emitted $N$-photon state turns out to be a highly entangled multimode state, and to characterise its metrological properties in this work we: (i) develop theoretical tools to compute the Quantum Fisher I…
