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arXiv:1912.06234 · Physical Review Research

Atomic-waveguide quantum electrodynamics

Stuart J. Masson, Ana Asenjo-Garcı́a

Published Nov 10, 2020• 95 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Atom arrays are a new type of quantum light-matter interface.Here we propose to employ one-dimensional ordered arrays as atomic waveguides.These arrays support optical guided modes that do not decay into free space.We show that these modes can be harnessed to mediate tunable, long-range interactions between additional "impurity qubits" coupled to the chain, without need for photonic structures.The efficient coupling between qubits and atomic waveguides enables the realization of tunable qubit-qubit interactions, which can be short or long range, dissipative or coherent, as well as chiral.Moreover, owing to the two-level nature of atoms, these waveguides are intrinsically quantum.In contrast to classical waveguides, where photons do not interact with each other, atomic waveguides display strong nonlinearities, which create a tunable dissipative channel for qubit-qubit interactions, and opens the door to the exploration of many-body physics between guided photons.This physics is universal as it only relies on photon interference and can also be observed with other types of quantum emitters, such as those in molecular or solid-state systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.2.043213

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Atom arrays are a new type of quantum light-matter interface.Here we propose to employ one-dimensional ordered arrays as atomic waveguides.These arrays support optical guided modes that do not decay into free space.We show that these modes can be harnessed to mediate tunable, long-range interactions between additional "impurity qubits" coupled to the chain, without need for photonic structures.The efficient coupling between qubits and atomic waveguides enables the realization of tunable qubit-qubit interactions, which can be short or long range, dissipative or coherent, as well as chiral.Moreover, owing to the two-level nature of atoms, these waveguides are intrinsically quantum.In contrast to classical waveguides, where photons do not interact with each other, atomic waveguides display strong nonlinearities, which create a tunable dissipative channel for qubit-qubit interactions, and opens the door to the exploration of many-body physics between guided photons.This physics is universal as it only relies on photon interference and can also be observed with other types of quantum emitters, such as those in molecular or solid-state systems.
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Controlling light photon-by-photon is central to quantum optics. At a fundamental level, photon interactions are mediated by their coupling to atoms, and ultimate control requires deterministic light-matter interfacing of single photons to single atoms. Extending this paradigm to radiatively couple multiple individual atoms in a deterministic and scalable manner opens the arena of many-body quantum optics. Here, we realize such a setting by coherently coupling solid-state artificial atoms to a nanophotonic waveguide and demonstrate higher-order photon correlations that are controlled by the number of quantum emitters. We study the scaling of nonlinear photonic transport induced by emitter-photon scattering and demonstrate that adding a quantum emitter generates higher-order photon correlations. Specifically, we experimentally observe genuine three-photon correlations from a pair of collectively coupled emitters, while contributions from lower photon numbers are suppressed. In addition, we scale to three resonant quantum emitters coupled to the waveguide. These advancements demonstrate the onset of many-body quantum optics in waveguide quantum electrodynamics, enabling new photonic quantum simulators, the creation of many-body entangled states, and the exploration of novel quantum phase transitions.
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Quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide are a paradigm of quantum optics, whose essential properties are described by waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED). We study the possibility of observing the typical features of the conventional waveguide QED scenario in a system where the role of the waveguide is played by a one-dimensional subwavelength atomic array. For the role of emitters, we propose to use antisymmetric states of atomic dimers---a pair of closely spaced atoms---as effective two-level systems, which significantly reduces the effect of free-space spontaneous emission. We solve the dynamics of the system both when the dimer frequency lies inside and when it lies outside the band of modes of the array. Along with well-known phenomena of collective emission into the guided modes and waveguide-mediated long-range dimer-dimer interactions, we uncover significant non-Markovian corrections which arise from both the finiteness of the array and through retardation effects.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics studies photon-mediated interactions of quantum emitters in a one-dimensional radiation channel. Although signatures of such interactions have been observed previously in a variety of physical systems, observation of coherent cooperative dynamics has been obscured by radiative decay of atoms into the waveguide. Employing transmon qubits as artificial atoms coupled to a microwave coplanar waveguide, here we observe dynamical oscillations in an open system where a designated probe qubit interacts with an entangled dark state of an array of qubits which effectively traps radiation as an atomic cavity. The qubit-cavity system is shown to achieve a large cooperativity of C=172\mathcal{C}=172C=172 due to collective enhancement of photon-mediated interactions, entering the strong coupling regime. The quantum coherence of the dark state cavity is also explored through its nonlinear response at the single-excitation level. With realistic refinements, this system is suitable for studying the many-body dynamics of large (N>10N>10N>10) quantum spin chains, synthesizing highly non-classical radiation fields on demand, and implementing universal quantum logic operations with high fidelity on information encoded within decoherence-free subspaces.
New paradigms for optical physics emerge with lattices of atoms trapped in one and two-dimensional photonic crystals [1-4]. Exemplary experimental platforms include photonic crystal waveguides [5-7] and cavities [8, 9]. Owing to their small optical loss and tight field confinement, these nanoscale dielectric devices are capable of mediating long-range atom-atom interactions using photons propagating in their guided modes. In a complimentary fashion, long-range interactions between photons can be mediated by an underlying lattice of atoms. Such systems have the potential to provide new tools for scalable quantum networks, quantum phases of light and matter, and quantum metrology. However, bringing this future of atom nanophotonics to fruition requires the creation of an interdisciplinary toolkit for the control, manipulation, and interaction of atoms and photons with a complexity and scalability not currently possible. I will give an overview of the theoretical prospects for new physics and review experimental progress in this nascent field at the interfaces of nano-photonics, atomic physics, and quantum optics.