Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. Here we propose to realize a synthetic giant atom working in the optical regime starting from a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms driven by a coherent field and coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide. Giant-atom effects can be observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution of this atomic pair while (internal) atomic entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an intriguing entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward non-guided vacuum modes and is accompanied by an anti-bunching correlation of the emitted photons. Our findings may be relevant to quantum information processing, besides broadening the giant-atom waveguide physics with optically driven natural atoms.
Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. Here we propose to realize a synthetic giant atom working in the optical regime starting from a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms driven by a coherent field and coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide. Giant-atom effects can be observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution of this atomic pair while (internal) atomic entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an intriguing entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward non-guided vacuum modes and is accompanied by an anti-bunching correlation of the emitted photons. Our findings may be relevant to quantum information processing, besides broadening the giant-atom waveguide physics with optically driven natural atoms.
Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. At variance with the well-known artificial giant atoms for microwave photonics, here we propose the archetype of a giant atom working in the optical regime by considering a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) and also driven by a coherent field. Giant-atom effects are observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution stage while a nontrivial internal entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward nonguided vacuum modes and is accompanied by antibunching in the emitted photons. Our predictions should be observable in current Rydberg-PCW experiments and may open the way toward giant-atom optical photonics for quantum information processing.
In this Letter, we show how to efficiently generate entanglement between two artificial giant atoms with photon-mediated interactions in a waveguide. Taking advantage of the adjustable decay processes of giant atoms into the waveguide and of the interference processes, spontaneous sudden birth of entanglement can be strongly enhanced with giant atoms. Highly entangled states can also be generated in the steady-state regime when the system is driven by a resonant classical field. We show that the statistics of the light emitted by the system can be used as a witness of the presence of entanglement in the system, since giant photon bunching is observed close to the regime of maximal entanglement. Given the degree of quantum correlations incoherently generated in this system, our results open a broad avenue for the generation of quantum correlations and manipulation of photon statistics in systems of giant atoms.
The study of atomic behaviors in a squeezed vacuum reservoir plays an important role in exploring quantum effect and quantum physics. We here propose a scheme to manipulate the dynamics of giant atoms coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide driven by a broadband squeezed field, which acts as a squeezed vacuum reservoir. By tuning the propagating phase of photons, the center-of-mass phase of the giant atom, and the squeezing parameter, both the dephasing dynamics and entanglement dynamics of giant atoms can be effectively controlled. In the single-giant-atom case, we obtain the expressions of the dephasing rates based on the Bloch equations derived from the quantum master equation of the giant atom. Adjusting these two phases enables the dephasing rates to be enhanced, suppressed, or reduced to zero, thereby changing the dephasing dynamics. For the two-giant-atom system, we find that the atomic individual and collective squeezing depend on these two phases simultaneously. The steady-state giant-atom population and entanglement are obtained by working in the collective state representation for the two atoms. Different from small atoms, the steady-state population and entanglement depend on not only the center-mass-of phase, but also the propagating phase. In addition, we identify the condition for achieving larger steady-state entanglement via analyzing the system parameters. This work will facilitate the study of light-matter interaction based on giant-atom waveguide QED systems driven by a squeezed vacuum reservoir and has potential applications in quantum information processing.
We study the generation of quantum entanglement between two giant atoms coupled to a common one-dimensional waveguide. Here each giant atom interacts with the waveguide at two separate coupling points. Within the Wigner-Weisskopf framework for single coupling points, we obtain the time-delayed quantum master equations governing the evolution of the two giant atoms for three different coupling configurations: separated, braided, and nested couplings. For each coupling configuration, we consider both the Markovian and non-Markovian entanglement dynamics of the giant atoms, which are initially in two different separable states: single- and double-excitation states. Our results show that the generated entanglement depends on the phase shift, time delay, atomic initial state, and the coupling configuration. For the single-excitation initial state, there exists the steady-state entanglement for each coupling in both the Markovian and non-Markovian regimes due to the appearance of the dark state. For the double-excitation initial state, we observe entanglement sudden birth via adjusting the phase shift in both regimes. In particular, the maximally achievable entanglement for the nested coupling is about one order of magnitude larger than those of separate and braided couplings. We also find that the maximal entanglement for these three coupling configurations can be enhanced in the case of small time delays. This work can be utilized for the generation and control of entanglement in quantum networks based on giant-atom waveguide-QED systems, which have wide potential applications in quantum information processing.
Spontaneous emission of an excited atom in a featureless continuum of electromagnetic modes is a fundamental process in quantum electrodynamics associated with an exponential decay of the quantum emitter to its ground state accompanied by an irreversible emission of a photon. However, such a simple scenario is deeply modified when considering a "giant" atom, i.e., an atom whose dimension is larger than the wavelength of the emitted photon. In such an unconventional regime, non-Markovian effects and strong deviations from an exponential decay are observed owing to interference effects arising from nonlocal light-atom coupling. Here we suggest a photonic simulation of non-Markovian giant atom decay, based on light escape dynamics in an optical waveguide nonlocally coupled to a waveguide lattice. Major effects, such as nonexponential decay, enhancement, or slowing down of the decay, and formation of atom-field dark states can be emulated in this system.
We study the generation of quantum entanglement between two giant atoms coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide. Since each giant atom interacts with the waveguide at two separate coupling points, there exist three different coupling configurations in the two-atom waveguide system: separated, braided, and nested couplings. Within the Wigner-Weisskopf framework for single coupling points, the quantum master equations governing the evolution of the two giant atoms are obtained. For each coupling configuration, the entanglement dynamics of the two giant atoms is studied, including the cases of two different atomic initial states: single- and double-excitation states. It is shown that the generated entanglement depends on the coupling configuration, phase shift, and atomic initial state. For the single-excitation initial state, there exists steady-state entanglement for these three couplings due to the appearance of the dark state. For the double-excitation initial state, an entanglement sudden birth is observed via adjusting the phase shift. In particular, the maximal entanglement for the nested coupling is about one order of magnitude larger than those of separate and braided couplings. In addition, the influence of the atomic frequency detuning on the entanglement generation is studied. This work can be utilized for the generation and control of atomic entanglement in quantum networks based on giant-atom waveguide-QED systems, which have wide potential applications in quantum information processing.