Generalized Dicke models can be implemented in hybrid quantum systems built from ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond coupled to superconducting microwave cavities. By engineering cavity assisted Raman transitions between two spin states of the NV defect, a fully tunable model for collective light-matter interactions in the ultrastrong coupling limit can be obtained. Our analysis of the resulting nonequilibrium phases for a single cavity and for coupled cavity arrays shows that different superradiant phase transitions can be observed using existing experimental technologies, even in the presence of large inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble. The phase diagram of the Dicke lattice model displays distinct features induced by dissipation, which can serve as a genuine experimental signature for phase transitions in driven open quantum systems.
Generalized Dicke models can be implemented in hybrid quantum systems built from ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond coupled to superconducting microwave cavities. By engineering cavity assisted Raman transitions between two spin states of the NV defect, a fully tunable model for collective light-matter interactions in the ultrastrong coupling limit can be obtained. Our analysis of the resulting nonequilibrium phases for a single cavity and for coupled cavity arrays shows that different superradiant phase transitions can be observed using existing experimental technologies, even in the presence of large inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble. The phase diagram of the Dicke lattice model displays distinct features induced by dissipation, which can serve as a genuine experimental signature for phase transitions in driven open quantum systems.
Abstract We theoretically investigate the quantum phase transitions of a hybrid quantum system consisting of an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers coupled to two microwave cavity resonators. By leveraging the Zeeman effect with a static magnetic field, we achieve a tunable switch between different three-level Dicke model configurations. We map out the global ground-state phase diagram and identify three distinct operating regimes: (i) a V type regime characterized by the competition between two superradiant phases, (ii) an effective two-level regime emerging near the level-crossing point due to channel decoupling and (iii) a cascade Ξ type regime induced by level inversion. Particularly in the cascade regime, we analyze a mechanism of ‘sequential phase transition’, where the onset of the second superradiant phase is strictly contingent upon the condensation of the first channel. This mechanism leads to a nested structure in the phase diagram, which is fundamentally distinct from the phase competition observed in V type systems. Furthermore, by calculating the excitation spectra, we observe the emergence of soft modes at continuous critical points, establishing the second-order quantum nature of the relevant transitions. Our proposal provides a feasible solid-state platform for simulating multicritical phenomena and realizing controllable light–matter interactions.
Present-day experiments have started to couple traditional simulations of ultracold atom experiments with quantum light-fields in cavities. This has provided a wealth of op- portunities to enlarge the number of interaction potentials: cavity mediated long-range interactions compete with kinetic energies, longitudinal fields, short-ranged collisional or magnetic spin-spin interactions. The intracavity many-body lattice models often have to be maintained far from equilibrium through the presence of external driving lasers that help to boost and engineer the various interaction potentials. The steady influx of energy is compensated by a steady stream of energy out of the atom-cavity system for example by photon losses or atomic spontaneous emission. Several experiments have demonstrated that such environments can give rise to new competing quantum phases. \nBut this long-standing ambition to push for models with tailorable interaction potentials can bring with it also considerable challenges in their theoretical description, since sponta- neous symmetry breaking transitions in many body lattice systems coupled to dynamical light-fields with single-photon character occur in the presence of drive and dissipation for the photonic force carriers. This clearly calls for model systems where the above men- tioned interplay of interactions, drive, dissipation and cooperative many-body behaviour can be theoretically studied to provide simple, experimentally verifiable predictions. \nThe Dicke model is, through its simplicity (an exactly solved ferromagnet with infinite range atom-atom interactions mediated by a single cavity mode), an exceptionally well- suited candidate. As the generic model for atom-light interactions, it has been experimen- tally realized in a variety of modern quantum optical systems, highlighting its relevance for present-day research. The Dicke model is also highly versatile itself. It has been extended into the dissipative realm, was promoted to account for multiple optical light modes and was used to describe multiple, coupled single-mode cavity structures. It was adapted to treat spin-selective coupling to a cavity to describe superradiance phase tran- sitions in multi-level atomic systems. Moreover, it was realised in electronic circuits where the dipole coupling of real atoms to single mode fields is replaced by a capacitive cou- pling of artificial atoms to a resonator mode. This illustrates that the Dicke model and its extended variants are ’future-proof’ and continue to be of relevance for fundamental light-matter interactions and for driven-dissipative phase transitions. \nIn this thesis, we investigate magnetic phase transitions in driven-dissipative atomic en- sembles interacting with quantum light. We present three research projects on variants of cooperative radiation of an ensemble of laser driven two-level atoms in a single mode optical cavity, as described by the Dicke model. \nThroughout the chapters 2,3 and 4 that contain the main body of research of this thesis, we investigate phase transitions between non-equilibrium stationary states in engineered quantum-optical systems each of which extends the conventional Dicke model physics. As a starting point, we map the quantum equations of motion onto a set of semiclassical nonlinear stochastic equations and analyse their stationary states and instabilities with master equations for atomic spin and photon mean-field amplitudes. These are used to obtain experimentally relevant parameters such as critical atom-light couplings for phase transitions, phase diagrams and properties of stationary non-equilibrium states in addition to cavity output spectra that identify the imprint of magnetic correlations in the light-field. \nIn chapter 2, we help resolve a discrepancy between earlier experimental investigations of the critical atom-light coupling strength for the superradiance transition in the Dicke model: higher external pumping strengths than theoretically predicted were needed to observe a coherent, superradiant state of the light field in an optical cavity. By including incoherent spontaneous emission of atomic excitations, we extend the dissipative Dicke model to a two loss channel variant containing both photon leakage and atomic decay that reproduces the experimentally observed critical atom-light coupling. \nRecent experiments have started to interface quantum many body lattice models with coherent cavity fields, thereby allowing to realize new quantum phases through competing atom-cavity and atom-atom interactions. In chapter 3, we consider a simplified model for such a set-up where a single quantized mode of the light-field interacts with an ensemble of Rydberg-dressed atoms inside a high finesse optical cavity. This model provides a base case for further studies of quantum magnets in optical cavities. At the heart of this model is a competition of short- (dipolar atom-atom) and long-range (atom-light) interactions at the Hamiltonian level in the presence of both spontaneous emission and photon leak- age through the cavity mirrors. We show that different magnetic phases can coexist with coherent atomic radiation and provide clear experimental signatures to identify the mag- netic structure and intra-cavity dynamics. We suggest an experimental level-scheme for a quantum optical implementation of our model. \nIn chapter 4 we consider a generic, collective decay for many-body excitations in the paradigmatic Dicke model. This extension drastically enriches the dynamics as it induces a bicritical point and a bistable regime dominated by true non-equilibrium fluctuations that induce a dissipative first-order phase transition that can only be resolved by including finite fluctuation corrections with the help of stochastic Langevin equations. We investigate the hysteretic response to time-dependent ramps of the atom-light coupling. Discontinuous first-order phase transitions where metastable states coexist in a hysteresis domain have been investigated in recent dissipative quantum-optical experiments. We review noise- activation far from thermal equilibrium in chapter 5.
Hybrid quantum systems, which combines the advantages of different quantum systems, play an essential role in the realisation of quantum computation, especially as quantum memory. This thesis discusses the very promising hybrid quantum system based on the ensemble of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centers (NV-centers) in diamond and superconducting microwave cavities. The decoherence of this system, due to the inhomogeneous spin broadening, seems to be the major obstacle of utilising the NV-centers as a quantum information storage. This works focuses on the study of the dynamics of our NV-center spin ensemble strongly coupled to a superconducting resonator driven by pulse sequences with a carrier frequency equaling the cavity frequency. A precise knowledge of the spin broadening, which has a non-Lorentzian distribution, led to the observation of the so called 'cavity protection effect'. Furthermore this work demonstrates the enhancement of the damped Rabi oscillations between the spin ensemble and the cavity mode through appropriate chosing of the microwave pulses, which could change in the order of two magnitudes. Last we also confirmed the theoretical analysis of the crossover from markovian to non-markovian dynamics for our system, which is achieved for increasing coupling strength.
We study a hybrid quantum system consisting of spin ensembles and superconducting flux qubits, where each spin ensemble is realized using the nitrogen-vacancy centers in a diamond crystal and the nearest-neighbor spin ensembles are effectively coupled via a flux qubit. We show that the coupling strengths between flux qubits and spin ensembles can reach the strong and even ultrastrong coupling regimes by either engineering the hybrid structure in advance or tuning the excitation frequencies of spin ensembles via external magnetic fields. When extending the hybrid structure to an array with equal coupling strengths, we find that in the strong-coupling regime, the hybrid array is reduced to a tight-binding model of a one-dimensional bosonic lattice. In the ultrastrong-coupling regime, it exhibits quasiparticle excitations separated from the ground state by an energy gap. Moreover, these quasiparticle excitations and the ground state are stable under a certain condition that is tunable via the external magnetic field. This may provide an experimentally accessible method to probe the instability of the system.
The Dicke model can exhibit quantum phase transition between the normal and the superradiant phases when the strength of the light-matter coupling exceeds the ultrastrong-coupling regime. However, it is challenging to observe this phase transition in practical systems due to limited coupling strength or finite two-photon A2 terms. Here we show that by applying a periodic modulation to the frequency of the two-level systems in a standard Dicke model in the strong-coupling regime, an anisotropic Dicke model with tunable rotating and counter-rotating terms in the ultrastrong-coupling regime can be achieved. We calculate the ground state and the excitation spectrum of this model in terms of the modulation parameters. Our result shows that the superradiant phases can be observed in cavity- or circuit-quantum electrodynamics systems with strong coupling.
We propose a startling hybrid quantum architecture for simulating a localization-delocalization transition. The concept is based on an array of superconducting flux qubits which are coupled to a diamond crystal containing nitrogen-vacancy centers. The underlying description is a Jaynes-Cummings lattice in the strong-coupling regime. However, in contrast to well-studied coupled cavity arrays, the interaction between lattice sites is mediated here by the qubit rather than by the oscillator degrees of freedom. Nevertheless, we point out that a transition between a localized and a delocalized phase occurs in this system as well. We demonstrate the possibility of monitoring this transition in a nonequilibrium scenario, including decoherence effects. The proposed scheme allows the monitoring of localization-delocalization transitions in Jaynes-Cummings lattices by use of currently available experimental technology. Contrary to cavity-coupled lattices, our proposed recourse to stylized qubit networks facilitates (i) investigating localization-delocalization transitions in arbitrary dimensions and (ii) tuning the intersite coupling in situ.