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arXiv:1908.03096 · Optics Express

Bound state and non-Markovian dynamics of a quantum emitter around a surface plasmonic nanostructure

Sha-Sha Wen, Yong-Gang Huang, Xiao-Yun Wang, Jie Liu, Yun Li, Xiu-E Quan, Hong Yang, Jin-Zhang Peng, Ke Deng, He-Ping Zhao

Published Feb 5, 2020• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A bound state between a quantum emitter (QE) and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be formed, where the excited QE will not relax completely to its ground state and is partially stabilized in its excited state after a long time. We develop some theoretical methods for investigating this problem and show how to form such a bound state and its effect on the non-Markovian decay dynamics. We put forward an efficient numerical approach for calculating the analytical part of the self-energy for frequency below the lower energy threshold. We also propose an efficient formalism for obtaining the long-time value of the excited-state population without calculating the eigenfrequency of the bound state or performing a time evolution of the system, in which the probability amplitude for the excited state in the steady limit is equal to one minus the integral of the evolution spectrum over the positive frequency range. With the above two quantities obtained, we show that the non-Markovian decay dynamics of an initially excited QE can be efficiently obtained by the method based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator when a bound state exists. A general criterion for identifying the existence of a bound state is presented. The performances of the above methods are numerically demonstrated for a QE located around a metal nanosphere and in a gap plasmonic nanocavity. Numerical results show that these methods work well and the QE becomes partially stabilized in its excited state at a long time for the transition dipole moment beyond its critical value. In addition, it is also found that this critical value is heavily dependent on the distance between the QE and the metal surface, but nearly independent on the size of the nanosphere or the rod. Our methods can be utilized to understand the suppressed decay dynamics for a QE in an open quantum system and provide a general picture on how to form such a bound state.

DOI
10.1364/oe.386828

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A bound state between a quantum emitter (QE) and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be formed, where the excited QE will not relax completely to its ground state and is partially stabilized in its excited state after a long time. We develop some theoretical methods for investigating this problem and show how to form such a bound state and its effect on the non-Markovian decay dynamics. We put forward an efficient numerical approach for calculating the analytical part of the self-energy for frequency below the lower energy threshold. We also propose an efficient formalism for obtaining the long-time value of the excited-state population without calculating the eigenfrequency of the bound state or performing a time evolution of the system, in which the probability amplitude for the excited state in the steady limit is equal to one minus the integral of the evolution spectrum over the positive frequency range. With the above two quantities obtained, we show that the non-Markovian decay dynamics of an initially excited QE can be efficiently obtained by the method based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator when a bound state exists. A general criterion for identifying the existence of a bound state is presented. The performances of the above methods are numerically demonstrated for a QE located around a metal nanosphere and in a gap plasmonic nanocavity. Numerical results show that these methods work well and the QE becomes partially stabilized in its excited state at a long time for the transition dipole moment beyond its critical value. In addition, it is also found that this critical value is heavily dependent on the distance between the QE and the metal surface, but nearly independent on the size of the nanosphere or the rod. Our methods can be utilized to understand the suppressed decay dynamics for a QE in an open quantum system and provide a general picture on how to form such a bound state.
Enabling the confinement of light to a scale far below the one of conventional optics, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) induced by an electromagnetic field in a metal-dielectric interface supply an ideal system to explore strong quantized light-matter coupling. The fast matter-SPP population exchange reported in previous works makes it a candidate for spin manipulation, but such reversible dynamics asymptotically vanishes accompanying the quantum matter relaxing completely to its ground state. Here, we study the exact dissipative dynamics of a quantum emitter (QE) coupled to SPPs. It is interesting to find that, qualitatively different from conventional findings, the QE can be partially stabilized in its excited state even in the presence of the lossy metal. Our analysis reveals that it is the formation of a QE-SPP bound state which results in such suppressed dissipation. Enriching the decoherence dynamics of the QE in the lossy medium, our result is helpful to understand QE-SPP interactions and apply plasmonic nanostructures in quantum devices.
We put forward a general approach for calculating the energy level shift of a quantum emitter (QE) in arbitrary-shaped nanostructure. It is expressed by the sum of the real part and a simple integral of the imaginary part of the scattered photon Green's function (GF) in a rather narrow real frequency range without a principal value. Compared with the method of direct evaluation of the principal value integral along the positive frequency axis or the method of transferring the principal value into an integration along the imaginary frequency axis, our method avoids the principal value integral and the evaluation of the scattered GF with imaginary frequency. It is numerically demonstrated for a QE located around a nanosphere and in a gap plasmonic nanocavity. The decay dynamics of an excited QE is calculated using the time-domain method through solving the Schr\"odinger equation in the form of a Volterra integral of the second kind, and using the frequency-domain method based on the Green's function expression for the evolution operator. It is found that the frequency domain method requires much narrower band information of the scattered GF. These findings are instructive in the field of coherent light-matter interactions.
Allowing the generation of effective interactions between distant quantum emitters (QEs) via flying photons, quantum interconnect (QI) is essentially a light-matter interface and acts as a building block in quantum technologies. A surface plasmon polariton (SPP) supported by a metallic waveguide provides an ideal interface to explore strong light-matter couplings and to realize QI. However, the loss of SPP in metal makes the mediated entanglement of the QEs damp with the increase of the distance and time, which hinders its applications. We propose a scheme of non-Markovian QI formed by the SPP of a metallic nanowire. A mechanism to make the generated entanglement of the QEs persistent is discovered. We find that, as long as bound states are formed in the energy spectrum of total QE-SPP system, the damping of the SPP-mediated entanglement is overcome even in the presence of the metal absorption to the SPP. Our finding enriches our understanding of light-matter couplings in absorptive medium and paves the way for using the SPP in designing QI.
We investigate theoretically the non-Markovian dynamics of a degenerate V-type quantum emitter in the vicinity of a metallic nanosphere, a system that exhibits quantum interference in spontaneous emission due to the anisotropic Purcell effect. We calculate numerically the electromagnetic Green's tensor and employ the effective modes differential equation method for calculating the quantum dynamics of the emitter population, with respect to the resonance frequency and the initial state of the emitter, as well as its distance from the nanosphere. We find that the emitter population evolution varies between a gradual total decay and a partial decay combined with oscillatory population dynamics, depending strongly on the specific values of the above three parameters. Under strong-coupling conditions, coherent population trapping can be observed in this system. We compare our exact results with results when the flat continuum approximation for the vacuum modified by the metallic nanosphere is applied. We conclude that the flat continuum approximation is an excellent approximation only when the spectral density of the system under study is characterized by nonoverlapping plasmonic resonances.
We theoretically study the dissipative dynamics of a quantum emitter placed near the planar surface of a metal supporting surface-plasmon excitations. The emitter-metal coupling regime can be tuned by varying some control parameters such as the qubit-surface separation and/or the detuning between characteristic frequencies. By using a Green's-function approach jointly with a time-convolutionless master equation, we analyze the non-Markovian dissipative features on the qubit time evolution in two cases of interest: (i) an undriven qubit initially prepared in its excited state and (ii) the evolution toward a steady state for a system driven by a laser field. For weak to moderate qubit-metal coupling strength, and on time scales large compared to the surface plasmon oscillation time, a Markovian approximation for the master-equation results to be adequate to describe the qubit main optical properties: surface enhancements of rate emission, optical spectra, and time-dependent photon-photon correlation functions. The qubit decay shows a crossover passing from being purely dissipative for small qubit-surface distances to plasmon emission for larger separations.
We investigate the relaxation dynamics of a quantum dipole emitter (QDE), e.g., a molecule or quantum dot, located near a metal nanoparticle (MNP) exhibiting a dipolar localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance at the frequency of the QDE radiative transition. A generic three-level QDE, which is pumped with an external laser pulse and thereby brought into an optically active excited state, is considered to be weakly coupled to the resonant LSP described by a coherent state. It is shown that, under the condition of the QDE-MNP characteristic relaxation time being much shorter than that of the QDE in free space but much longer than the LSP lifetime, the QDE relaxation dynamics can be described analytically and feature, in general, non-exponential decay with complicated transient behaviour. The main physical consequence of this relaxation process is that the emission, being largely determined by the MNP, comes out with a substantial delay. It is also shown that energy dissipation in the QDE-MNP system is relatively weak with the probability of the photon emission being ∼0.75, a number which, rather surprisingly, does not explicitly depend on the metal absorption characteristics. A large number of QDE-MNP system parameters in our analytical description open new possibilities for controlling quantum emitter dynamics.