Engineering quantum states of light is at the basis of many quantum technologies such as quantum cryptography, teleportation, or metrology among others. Though, single photons can be generated in many scenarios, the efficient and reliable generation of complex single-mode multiphoton states is still a long-standing goal in the field, as current methods either suffer from low fidelities or small probabilities. Here we discuss several protocols which harness the strong and long-range atomic interactions induced by waveguide QED to efficiently load excitations in a collection of atoms, which can then be triggered to produce the desired multiphoton state. In order to boost the success probability and fidelity of each excitation process, atoms are used to both generate the excitations in the rest, as well as to herald the successful generation. Furthermore, to overcome the exponential scaling of the probability of success with the number of excitations, we design a protocol to merge excitations that are present in different internal atomic levels with a polynomial scaling.
Engineering quantum states of light is at the basis of many quantum technologies such as quantum cryptography, teleportation, or metrology among others. Though, single photons can be generated in many scenarios, the efficient and reliable generation of complex single-mode multiphoton states is still a long-standing goal in the field, as current methods either suffer from low fidelities or small probabilities. Here we discuss several protocols which harness the strong and long-range atomic interactions induced by waveguide QED to efficiently load excitations in a collection of atoms, which can then be triggered to produce the desired multiphoton state. In order to boost the success probability and fidelity of each excitation process, atoms are used to both generate the excitations in the rest, as well as to herald the successful generation. Furthermore, to overcome the exponential scaling of the probability of success with the number of excitations, we design a protocol to merge excitations that are present in different internal atomic levels with a polynomial scaling.
Single- and two-mode multiphoton states are the cornerstone of many quantum technologies, e.g., metrology. In the optical regime, these states are generally obtained combining heralded single photons with linear optics tools and post-selection, leading to inherent low success probabilities. In a recent paper [A. Gonz\'alez-Tudela et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 213601 (2017)], we design several protocols that harness the long-range atomic interactions induced in waveguide QED to improve fidelities and protocols of single-mode multiphoton emission. Here, we give full details of these protocols, revisit them to simplify some of their requirements, and also extend them to generate two-mode multiphoton states, such as Yurke or NOON states.
Waveguide QED offers the possibility of generating strong coherent atomic interactions either through appropriate atomic configurations in the dissipative regime or in the bandgap regime.In this work, we show how to harness these interactions in order to herald the generation of highly entangled atomic states, which afterwards can be mapped to generate single mode multi-photonic states with high fidelities.We introduce two protocols for the preparation of the atomic states, we discuss their performance and compare them to previous proposals.In particular, we show that one of them reaches high probability of success for systems with many atoms but low Purcell factors.The key resource of these protocols is the long-range dissipative coupling induced by the waveguide which enforces effective unitary dynamics through the quantum Zeno effect.In this work, we present two protocols that harness long-range coherent interactions induced by the guided modes to generate collective atomic excitations within an ensemble of atoms.• The first protocol ('double mirrors') is designed for emitters, whose resonance frequency corresponds to some guided mode in the band, see figure 1(a), and which is, e.g., well suited for optical fiber setups.In this case, the
Waveguide QED offers the possibility of generating strong coherent atomic interactions either through appropriate atomic configurations in the dissipative regime or in the bandgap regime. In this work, we show how to harness these interactions in order to herald the generation of highly entangled atomic states, which afterwards can be mapped to generate single mode multi-photonic states with high fidelities. We introduce two protocols for the preparation of the atomic states, we discuss their performance and compare them to previous proposals. In particular, we show that one of them reaches high probability of success for systems with many atoms but low Purcell factors.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (waveguide QED) describes the interaction between an electromagnetic field confined to a one-dimensional waveguide with atom-like quantum emitters close by. The characteristics of these kinds of systems are the possibility for strong and even ultrastrong interactions between the photonic and atom-like systems, and practically infinite range interactions between the emitters. These properties are valuable for a wide range of quantum optical applications, like quantum communication, quantum networks and quantum metrology. In this thesis we focus on two challenges in quantum optics, namely the generation and scattering of multiphoton states. In the first part of this thesis we demonstrate how waveguide QED systems can be exploited for the generation of multiphoton states, in particular of single-mode Fock states and superpositions thereof as well as multi-mode photonic states with metrological applications. The basic setup for this goal is an ensemble of quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide. In the so-called atomic mirror configuration symmetric Dicke states (or a superposition thereof) decay superradiantly to the ground state and emit the desired multiphoton state, which can be efficiently collected at the ends of the waveguide. We propose various protocols for the preparation of these Dicke states in waveguide QED systems and characterize the emitted photonic state. It turns out that in the low excitation regime, that is, if the number of photons is much lower than the ensemble size, the photonic state is emitted into a single mode. This single-mode structure is fundamental to current proposals for applications in quantum metrology with optical interferometers. Outside the low excitation regime, a multi-mode photonic state is generated, for which the metrological capabilities were unknown. We were able to show that these states still lead to quantum-enhanced optical interferometry. In the second part of this thesis we demonstrate how the scattering of multiphoton states on a single quantum emitter coupled to the waveguide can be used for testing the limits of the light-matter interaction strength. In particular, we investigate systems in the so-called ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength between the photonic and atom-like system is of the order of the emitter's transition energy. In this regime, many methods and approximations used in quantum optics, especially the Rotating Wave Approximation, break down and one needs to develop new analytical and numerical methods to study these systems. One approach is the so-called polaron Transformation. We show how this transformation can be applied for predicting the scattering amplitude of few photons scattering on the emitter. The comparison of these results with numerical simulations using matrix product states shows a good agreement for moderate coupling strengths. Both parts together show that waveguide QED systems are promising candidates for the generation of multiphoton states as well as for the investigation of fundamental limits probed through the scattering of multiphoton states. The latter also finds application in the implementation of photon-photon nonlinearities induced by the interaction with the quantum emitters. Apart from these and many other theoretical predictions, waveguide QED systems are also undergoing rapid progress in experiments. Therefore, we expect these kinds of systems to bring forth several advances in the field of quantum optics.
We propose an efficient, scalable, and deterministic scheme to generate multiple indistinguishable photons over independent channels, on demand. Our design relies on multiple single-photon sources, each coupled to a waveguide, all interacting with a common cavity mode. The cavity synchronizes and triggers the simultaneous emission of one photon by each source, which are collected by the waveguides. In a state-of-the-art circuit QED implementation, this scheme supports the creation of single photons with 99 % purity, indistinguishability, and efficiency at rates of ∼ MHz . We also discuss conditions to produce up to 100 photons simultaneously with generation rates of hundreds of kHz. This is orders of magnitude more efficient than previous demultiplexed sources for boson sampling and enables the realization of deterministic multiphoton sources and scalable quantum information processing with photons. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract The future of quantum information processing hinges on chip-scale nanophotonics, specifically cavity QED and waveguide QED. One of the foremost processes underpinning quantum photonic technologies is the phenomenon of Rabi oscillations, which manifests when a qubit is irradiated by an intense laser source. Departing from the conventional semiclassical framework, we explore the more general, quantum theoretical case where the optical excitation takes the form of a multiphoton Fock state, and the qubit couples to a continuum of radiation modes. By employing the real-space formalism, we analytically explore the scattering dynamics of the photonic Fock state as it interfaces with a two-level emitter. The resulting amplitude for atomic excitation features a linear superposition of various independent scattering events that are triggered by the potential of sequential, time-delayed photon absorptions and emissions. The lowest-order excitation event, initiated by the stochastic scattering of one of the several photons, appropriately characterizes the dynamics in a weak-field environment. This event is complemented by a multitude of higher-order scattering events ensuing from repeated atom–photon interactions. The temporal evolution of the qubit excitation in our configuration closely mirrors the semiclassical predictions, particularly in the strong-pumping limit where Rabi oscillations unfold. Notably, this compatibility with the semiclassical paradigm transcends beyond the strong-excitation regime and applies both to the weak-driving and large-detuning limits. In a nutshell, our analysis extends the existing results on quantum Rabi oscillations pertinent to single-mode cavity QED, to the multimode, waveguide-QED configurations wherein flying photons are the information carriers. Additionally, we delve into the dynamics of pulsed wave packets, shedding light on the potential to substantially enhance excitation efficiency, even in scenarios involving just a few photons. Beyond their theoretical merit, these findings should hold practical relevance for future Fock-state-based quantum computing and emerging waveguide-integrated photonic technologies such as those involving superconducting circuitry.