A vast collection of light-matter interactions are described by the single-frequency Rabi model. However, the physical world is polychromatic, and until now there is no general method to find analytic solutions to the multi-frequency Rabi model. We present the first general method to solve the Rabi model with N frequency modes. Analytic expressions are derived for a spin-half particle in a multi-frequency coherent field, and accurately describe the time evolution even when the interactions are strong. The dynamics are solved in an extended dressed atom picture whereby the spin is progressively dressed by each frequency mode. For weak fields, the closed form expressions for the time evolution of atoms or their analogues take a particularly simple form. These results analytically solve problems in a wide range of fields including quantum information processing, coherent control and resonant nonlinear optics.
A vast collection of light-matter interactions are described by the single-frequency Rabi model. However, the physical world is polychromatic, and until now there is no general method to find analytic solutions to the multi-frequency Rabi model. We present the first general method to solve the Rabi model with N frequency modes. Analytic expressions are derived for a spin-half particle in a multi-frequency coherent field, and accurately describe the time evolution even when the interactions are strong. The dynamics are solved in an extended dressed atom picture whereby the spin is progressively dressed by each frequency mode. For weak fields, the closed form expressions for the time evolution of atoms or their analogues take a particularly simple form. These results analytically solve problems in a wide range of fields including quantum information processing, coherent control and resonant nonlinear optics.
Analytic expressions are derived for the time evolution of a spin half in a multi-frequency coherent field, described by a polychromatic Rabi model. We transform to a picture where the spin is dressed progressively by each frequency component of the field. In this picture the time evolution operator takes a simple approximate form, and can be transformed back to the undressed picture where it contains resonant and off-resonant terms. Furthermore, we simplify these transformations to leading order in the field amplitudes, and describe the some of the dominant effects in such multi-frequency processes.
We present a formalism that enables the analytic calculation of the interaction of a spin-half particle with a polychromatic electromagnetic field. This powerful new approach provides a clear physical picture even for cases with highly degenerate energy levels, which are complicated to interpret in the standard dressed-atom picture. Typically semi-classical methods are used for such problems (leading to equations that are solved by Floquet theory). Our formalism is derived from quantum electrodynamics and thus is more widely applicable. In particular it makes accessible the intermediate regime between quantum and semi-classical dynamics. We give examples of the application to multi-frequency multi-photon processes in strong fields by deriving the Hamiltonians of such systems, and also to the dynamics of weak fields at long times for which semi-classical methods are insufficient.
Monochromatically driven two-level systems (i.e., Rabi models) are ubiquitous in various fields of physics. Though they have been exactly solved, the physical pictures in these exact solutions are not clear. Recently, approximate analytical solutions with neat physics have been obtained by using the counter-rotating hybridized rotating wave (CHRW) method, which has been proven to be effective over a wider range of parameters than the previous analytical solutions. However, the CHRW depends on a parameter $\ensuremath{\xi}$, which has no solution in some regimes. Here, we combine the double-unitary-transformation approach with the generalized Van Vleck nearly degenerate perturbation theory, and present approximate analytical results with clear physics for almost all parameter regimes, which agree well with the numerical solutions and the previous experimental results. Moreover, the dynamic frequencies of the Rabi model are regular, and the frequency with the highest Fourier amplitude changes from the Rabi frequency to $2n\ensuremath{\omega}$ with driving frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ and integer n, as the driving intensity increases from weak to deep-strong. In addition, we further explore the Floquet dynamics of the dissipative open Rabi model. Remarkably, the dissipations are tunable in the rotating frame, and the approximate analytical results obtained by our method are in good agreement with the numerical results in the strong driving regime. These results pave the way to quantum control using strong and deep-strong driving with applications in quantum technologies.
The extended quantum Rabi models make a significant contribution to understanding of the quantum nature of the atom-light interaction. We transform two kinds of extended quantum Rabi model, the anisotropic Rabi model and the asymmetric Rabi model, into the rotating frame and regard them as periodically driven quantum systems. The analytical solutions of the quasienergy spectrum as well as the Floquet modes for both models are constructed by applying the Floquet theory and the high-frequency expansion, which is applied to the nonstroboscopic dynamics of physical observables such as atomic inversion, transverse magnetization, and atom-field correlation. For the anisotropic Rabi model, the quasienergy fits well with the numerical results even when the rotating-wave coupling is in the deep strong-coupling regime $g\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$ if the counter-rotating term is small enough compared to the driving frequency. Avoided level crossing may occur for quasienergy with the same parity when the positive branch spectrum lines for the total excitation number N cross the negative branch lines for N+2, while the high-frequency expansion fails to predict this due to the conservation of the total excitation number. Furthermore, we present analytical and numerical studies of the long-time evolution of population and conclude that the analytical method is credible for the population dynamics. For the asymmetric Rabi model, we find that the external bias field which breaks the parity symmetry of the total excitation number tends to cluster the upper and lower branches into two bundles, and the detuning induced gap in the first temporal Brillouin zone shows a quadratic dependence on the bias. Fourier analysis is applied to extract the frequency composition and two-frequency driving behavior is revealed. Varying the bias strength will change the time-averaged value of the oscillation, which shows how the bias competes with the detuning and atom-field coupling in the driving dynamics. Both models prove that treating the Hamiltonian in the rotating frame by Floquet theory gives an alternative tool in the study of interaction between atom and light.
We considered the semiclassical Rabi model, that is, a two-level system interacting with a single-mode, classical field. In resonance and for an arbitrary initial state of the system, we obtained a simple, approximate, and analytic solution that takes into account the counterrotating terms and that is accurate as long as the Rabi frequency is smaller than or equal to 1/2 (1/4) of the angular frequency of the field and 1 (10) Rabi oscillations are considered. In addition, the approximate solution has the same level of complexity as that obtained with the rotating-wave-approximation (RWA) and allows one to describe the evolution of the Bloch vector of the system in terms of a \textit{slow-precessional} and a \textit{fast-nutational} motion similar to that of a symmetric top with one point fixed. Finally, the approximate solution also leads to a simple criterion that allows one to determine the accuracy of the solution in the RWA.
The quantum Rabi model (QRM), describing a two-level system coupled to a quantum harmonic oscillator, is one of the simplest and most ubiquitous interaction models in quantum mechanics. Despite its simplicity, the QRM has found applications in various fields of physics. The most exciting realization of the QRM nowadays is arguably the circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) system, where an on-chip artificial atom (or a qubit) is coupled to a transmission line or a waveguide. The qubits in circuit QED systems contain a bias term, which breaks the Z_2 symmetry in the QRM. Therefore, the precise model realized in circuit QED systems is referred to as the asymmetric quantum Rabi model (AQRM). This thesis explores theoretical methods to treat the AQRM and develops a complete approach to describe its energy landscape. The hidden symmetry of the AQRM is investigated in detail, and seen to be a rather general phenomenon in light-matter interaction models. The equivalence between the generalised Poschl-Teller potential and the spectrum of the AQRM is also established. Chapter 1 is dedicated to reviewing the analytic solutions and conventional approximations to the QRM/AQRM. Regarding the analytic solutions, the analytic results in terms of the transcendental functions determining the eigenspectrum of the AQRM are collected. Special emphasis is placed on the isolated closed-form exceptional solutions to the AQRM. Due to the lack of simple closed-form expressions for the general eigenvalues, some well-known approximations are considered. In Chapter 2, a generalised adiabatic approximation (GAA) is developed to calculate the eigenvalues of the excited states of the QRM and apply it to the AQRM. The GAA is based on the similarity between the exact exceptional solutions and the Laguerre polynomials. By construction, the GAA always has exact exceptional energy and approximates the regular spectrum with rather good agreement in a large parameter regime. Furthermore, the GAA is applied to the AQRM and shown to correctly recover the conical intersections in the energy landscape. The geometric phases around these conical intersections are calculated analytically as an illustrative example. In Chapter 3, a physically motivated variational wave function is presented for the ground state of the AQRM. The wave function is a weighted superposition of squeezed coherent states entangled with non-orthogonal qubit states and relies only on three variational parameters in the regimes of interest. The variational expansion describes the ground state remarkably well in almost all parameter regimes, especially with arbitrary bias. The results show that the variational expansion is a significant improvement over the existing approximations for the AQRM. In Chapter 4, the hidden symmetry and tunnelling dynamics in the AQRM and several related models are analysed in detail. The AQRM has a broken Z_2 symmetry, with generally a non-degenerate eigenvalue spectrum. In some special cases of the related models, stable level crossings typical of the Z_2-symmetric quantum Rabi model are recovered. It is thus shown that this hidden symmetry is not limited to the AQRM, but exists in various related light-matter interaction models. In Chapter 5, starting with the Gaudin-like Bethe ansatz equations associated with the quasi-exactly solved (QES) exceptional points of the AQRM, a spectral equivalence is established with QES hyperbolic Schrodinger potentials. This leads to particular QES Poschl-Teller potentials. The complete spectral equivalence is then established between the AQRM and generalised Poschl-Teller potentials. Conclusions and future directions are presented in the final Chapter 6.