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arXiv:2411.17907 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Polaron effect in waveguide quantum optomechanics

Denis Ilin, Alexander S. Solntsev, Ivan V. Iorsh

Published Apr 18, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate the impact of the quantized mechanical motion of optically trapped atoms, arranged in proximity to a one-dimensional waveguide, on the propagation of polariton modes. Our study identifies a regime of resonant phonon-assisted mixing between lower and upper polaritons, resulting in a pronounced polaron effect. This effect is characterized by the formation of new band gaps and the appearance of weakly dispersive states within the original polariton band gap. The polaron spectrum, which can be directly probed via resonant elastic scattering, provides novel opportunities for quantum optical applications. These findings open avenues for enhanced control in state-of-the-art waveguide quantum electrodynamics experiments with cold atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.111.155424

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•Jan 1, 2018•1 citation
We investigate the impact of the quantized mechanical motion of optically trapped atoms, arranged in proximity to a one-dimensional waveguide, on the propagation of polariton modes. Our study identifies a regime of resonant phonon-assisted mixing between lower and upper polaritons, resulting in a pronounced polaron effect. This effect is characterized by the formation of new band gaps and the appearance of weakly dispersive states within the original polariton band gap. The polaron spectrum, which can be directly probed via resonant elastic scattering, provides novel opportunities for quantum optical applications. These findings open avenues for enhanced control in state-of-the-art waveguide quantum electrodynamics experiments with cold atoms.
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We explore the quantum dynamics of heteronuclear atomic collisions in waveguides and demonstrate the existence of a novel mechanism for the resonant formation of polar molecules. The molecular formation probabilities can be tuned by changing the trap frequencies that characterize the transverse modes of the atomic species. The origin of this effect is the confinement-induced mixing of the relative and center of mass motions in the atomic collision process leading to a coupling of the diatomic continuum to the center of mass excited molecular states in closed transverse channels.
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A lattice of trapped atoms strongly coupled to a one-dimensional nanophotonic waveguide is investigated in exploiting polaritons as natural collective eigenstates. We derive polariton-polariton kinematic interactions by applying a bosonization procedure to transform excitation spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ operators into interacting bosons. In solving the scattering problem we extract the effective potential, which is shown to be modulated by using the excitation-photon detuning as a control parameter. We examine the regime in which polaritons behave as a dilute degenerate boson gas and in the limit where polaritons can be treated as weakly interacting photons we propose the system for realizing superfluidity of photons. We implement the kinematic interaction as a mechanism for nonlinear optical processes that provide an observation tool for the system properties, e.g., the interaction strength produces a blue shift in pump-probe experiments.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (waveguide QED) describes the interaction between an electromagnetic field confined to a one-dimensional waveguide with atom-like quantum emitters close by. The characteristics of these kinds of systems are the possibility for strong and even ultrastrong interactions between the photonic and atom-like systems, and practically infinite range interactions between the emitters. These properties are valuable for a wide range of quantum optical applications, like quantum communication, quantum networks and quantum metrology. In this thesis we focus on two challenges in quantum optics, namely the generation and scattering of multiphoton states. In the first part of this thesis we demonstrate how waveguide QED systems can be exploited for the generation of multiphoton states, in particular of single-mode Fock states and superpositions thereof as well as multi-mode photonic states with metrological applications. The basic setup for this goal is an ensemble of quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide. In the so-called atomic mirror configuration symmetric Dicke states (or a superposition thereof) decay superradiantly to the ground state and emit the desired multiphoton state, which can be efficiently collected at the ends of the waveguide. We propose various protocols for the preparation of these Dicke states in waveguide QED systems and characterize the emitted photonic state. It turns out that in the low excitation regime, that is, if the number of photons is much lower than the ensemble size, the photonic state is emitted into a single mode. This single-mode structure is fundamental to current proposals for applications in quantum metrology with optical interferometers. Outside the low excitation regime, a multi-mode photonic state is generated, for which the metrological capabilities were unknown. We were able to show that these states still lead to quantum-enhanced optical interferometry. In the second part of this thesis we demonstrate how the scattering of multiphoton states on a single quantum emitter coupled to the waveguide can be used for testing the limits of the light-matter interaction strength. In particular, we investigate systems in the so-called ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength between the photonic and atom-like system is of the order of the emitter's transition energy. In this regime, many methods and approximations used in quantum optics, especially the Rotating Wave Approximation, break down and one needs to develop new analytical and numerical methods to study these systems. One approach is the so-called polaron Transformation. We show how this transformation can be applied for predicting the scattering amplitude of few photons scattering on the emitter. The comparison of these results with numerical simulations using matrix product states shows a good agreement for moderate coupling strengths. Both parts together show that waveguide QED systems are promising candidates for the generation of multiphoton states as well as for the investigation of fundamental limits probed through the scattering of multiphoton states. The latter also finds application in the implementation of photon-photon nonlinearities induced by the interaction with the quantum emitters. Apart from these and many other theoretical predictions, waveguide QED systems are also undergoing rapid progress in experiments. Therefore, we expect these kinds of systems to bring forth several advances in the field of quantum optics.