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arXiv:1806.05761 · Physical Review A

Dissipative quantum phase transitions of light in a generalized Jaynes-Cummings-Rabi model

R. Gutiérrez-Jáuregui, H. J. Carmichael

Published Aug 3, 2018• 41 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The dissipative quantum phase transitions experienced by a driven optical system are studied in order to understand the underlying light-matter coupling. The primary system under study is composed of a cavity mode coupled to a two-level system with dissipation being introduced through the interaction with a surrounding environment; an external coherent field is included to drive the system out of the ground state. The coupling is given by a generalized Rabi Hamiltonian, where rotating, gr, and counter-rotating, ngr, couplings are both present and can be adjusted independently. A comprehensive study of the different phases the system can exhibit as gr and n are varied is presented. From this, we construct a bridge between two limiting scenarios: (i) the Jaynes-Cummings limit (n = 0), where the system undergoes a phase transition by means of the breakdown of the photon blockade, and (ii) the driven Dicke limit ( = 1 ), where the normal to super-radiant phase transition is found. Novel behaviour encountered in an intermediate regime (1 > n > 0) is discussed. Attention is drawn towards the strong coupling regime, where changes at the one-photon level induce nonlinear effects and behaviour reminiscent of phase transitions is encountered with just a few photons present. A comparison between weak and strong coupling regimes, and, thus, an exploration of the effect of fluctuations over quantum phase transitions of light, is given through a survey of the phases an auxiliary optical system exhibits. This system is composed of two coupled nonlinear cavities that are driven coherently and damped through the interaction with the environment; it is seen to exhibit three phases. Two phases present high-correlation between the cavities and are differentiated by the photon statistics, transitioning from classical to quantum. The third phase is characterized by a highly localized field in one of the cavities. The departure from mean-field results is highlighted and a new way to characterize the possible phases of the system is proposed. Finally, the crucial role of quantum fluctuations is quantified and used to define the phases at hand.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.98.023804

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The dissipative quantum phase transitions experienced by a driven optical system are studied in order to understand the underlying light-matter coupling. The primary system under study is composed of a cavity mode coupled to a two-level system with dissipation being introduced through the interaction with a surrounding environment; an external coherent field is included to drive the system out of the ground state. The coupling is given by a generalized Rabi Hamiltonian, where rotating, gr, and counter-rotating, ngr, couplings are both present and can be adjusted independently. A comprehensive study of the different phases the system can exhibit as gr and n are varied is presented. From this, we construct a bridge between two limiting scenarios: (i) the Jaynes-Cummings limit (n = 0), where the system undergoes a phase transition by means of the breakdown of the photon blockade, and (ii) the driven Dicke limit ( = 1 ), where the normal to super-radiant phase transition is found. Novel behaviour encountered in an intermediate regime (1 > n > 0) is discussed. Attention is drawn towards the strong coupling regime, where changes at the one-photon level induce nonlinear effects and behaviour reminiscent of phase transitions is encountered with just a few photons present. A comparison between weak and strong coupling regimes, and, thus, an exploration of the effect of fluctuations over quantum phase transitions of light, is given through a survey of the phases an auxiliary optical system exhibits. This system is composed of two coupled nonlinear cavities that are driven coherently and damped through the interaction with the environment; it is seen to exhibit three phases. Two phases present high-correlation between the cavities and are differentiated by the photon statistics, transitioning from classical to quantum. The third phase is characterized by a highly localized field in one of the cavities. The departure from mean-field results is highlighted and a new way to characterize the possible phases of the system is proposed. Finally, the crucial role of quantum fluctuations is quantified and used to define the phases at hand.
Abstract In this paper we analyze properties of the phase transition that appears in a set of quantum optical models; Dicke, Tavis–Cummings, quantum Rabi, and finally the Jaynes–Cummings model. As the light-matter coupling is increased into the deep strong coupling regime, the ground state turns from vacuum to become a superradiant state characterized by both atomic and photonic excitations. It is pointed out that all four transitions are of the mean-field type, that quantum fluctuations are negligible, and hence these fluctuations cannot be responsible for the corresponding vacuum instability. In this respect, these are not quantum phase transitions. In the case of the Tavis–Cummings and Jaynes–Cummings models, the continuous symmetry of these models implies that quantum fluctuations are not only negligible, but strictly zero. However, all models possess a non-analyticity in the ground state in agreement with a continuous quantum phase transition. As such, it is a matter of taste whether the transitions should be termed quantum or not. In addition, we also consider the modifications of the transitions when photon losses are present. For the Dicke and Rabi models these non-equilibrium steady states remain critical, while the criticality for the open Tavis–Cummings and Jaynes–Cummings models is completely lost, i.e. in realistic settings one cannot expect a true critical behaviour for the two last models.
We approach the strong-coupling thermodynamic limit in the response of the open driven Jaynes-Cummings (JC) oscillator. We do so by highlighting the role of quantum fluctuations against the semiclassical response in three distinct regimes of operation. We begin by demonstrating the persistence of photon blockade, predicted in Carmichael [Phys. Rev. X 5, 031028 (2015)], as a manifestation of the inherently quantum and nonlinear JC spectrum revealed for vanishing dissipation. We then proceed to discuss the importance of bistability, which, despite being present in photon blockades, is able to provide an alignment between the semiclassical nonlinearity and quantum dynamics only for a driving amplitude having the same order of magnitude as the light-matter coupling strength. This resolution brings us to the critical point of the well-known quantum-phase transition of second order on resonance, where the quantum and semiclassical pictures are once more contrasted for a varying participation of the two coherent interactions when going through the collapse of the quasienergy spectrum.
We explore the role of quantum fluctuations in the strong-coupling limit of the dissipative Jaynes–Cummings oscillator driven on resonance. For weak excitation, we derive analytical expressions for the spectrum and the intensity correlation function for the photons scattered by the two-state atom coupled to the coherently driven cavity mode. We do so by writing down a birth–death process adding the higher orders in the excitation strength needed to go beyond the pure-state factorization, following the method introduced in Carmichael (2008). Our results for the first and second-order correlation functions are complemented by the numerical investigation of the waiting-time distribution for the photon emissions directed sideways, and the comparison with ordinary resonance fluorescence. To close out our discussion, we increase the driving field amplitude and approach the critical point organizing a second-order dissipative quantum phase transition by depicting the excitation pathways in the intracavity field distribution for a finite system size.
We discuss the physics of the Rabi-Hubbard model describing large arrays of coupled cavities interacting with two level atoms via a Rabi non-linearity. We show that the inclusion of counter-rotating terms in the light-matter interaction, often neglected in theoretical descriptions based on Jaynes-Cumming models, is crucial to stabilize finite-density quantum phases of correlated photons with no need for an artificially engineered chemical potential. We show that the physical properties of these phases and the quantum phase transition occurring between them is remarkably different from those of interacting bosonic massive quantum particles. The competition between photon delocalization and Rabi non-linearity drives the system across a novel Z2Z_2Z2​ parity symmetry-breaking quantum phase transition between two gapped phases, a Rabi insulator and a delocalized super-radiant phase.
We use the mean field approximation method to study the quantum phase transitions of the Jaynes-Cummings lattice model and the Rabi lattice model. The effective Hamiltonians are obtained for the JC and Rabi model including the Kerr nonlinear term. Numerically we diagonalized the Hamiltonian matrix and calculated the superfluidity order parameter and the two-photon correlation function by solving the iteration equations. We have explored the Mott insulating-superfluid quantum phase transition, the bunching-antibunching behavior of light, and the effect of Kerr nonlinear term on the quantum phase transition and photon statistical characteristics. Our results show that in the JC lattice model, by increasing J, a quantum phase transition takes place and the system is driven to a superfluid phase. The phase boundaries of the Mott lobes are N-dependent. However the photon will always be in a bunching statistical behavior irrelevant of the coupling strength between the two-level atom and the phonton and the nonlinear Kerr effect. In the Rabi lattice model, the anti-rotating wave term breaks Mott-lobe structure of the phase diagram and the increase of the two-level atom and photon interaction strength g and the photon transition strength J between the lattices drive the system from the Mott insulating phase to the superfluid phase. The photon statistical behavior changes from the bunching to the antibunching one when considering the anti-rotating wave term, which is important in the strongly coupled systems. Most interestingly, the increase of the Kerr nonlinear coefficient will inhibit the Mott insulating phase-superfluid phase transition, but favor the superfluid phase and the transition from the bunching to anti-bunching statistics.
We establish a new theoretical framework, based on a time-dependent mean field approach, to address the dynamics of the driven Dicke model, describing, e.g., an atomic sample of N teo-level systems coupled to a cavity field, and driven by an external pump. We provide a description of the dynamics that also includes the effects of quantum fluctuations. The joint evolution of both mean fields and quantum fluctuations gives rise to a rich and generally non-linear dynamics, featuring a normal and a super radiant regime, which are the dynamical counterpart of the two static quantum phases. Various dynamical phenomena emerge, such as the spontaneous amplification of vacuum fluctuations, or the appearance of three stable points around which the mean field amplitudes rotate during time evolution. We also provide a characterization of the driving induced photon production by analyzing the average photon number, the Mandel parameter, the work done by the driving agent, and the non-adiabaticity of the process, evaluated in terms of the inner friction. Finally, we discuss the squeezing and the entanglement between the atomic system and the cavity mode.