Quantum emitters coupled to traveling photons in waveguides, known as waveguide quantum electrodynamics (WQED), offer a powerful platform for understanding light-matter interactions and underpinning emergent quantum technologies. While WQED has been extensively studied in one dimension, two-dimensional (2D) WQED remains largely unexplored, where novel photonic scattering phenomena unique to higher dimensions are expected. Here, we present a comprehensive scattering theory for 2D WQED based on the Green function method. We show that the mean displacement between emitted and injected photons serves as a quantum analogue of the Goos-Hänchen shift. When a photon is injected into a single off-centered port, the quantum Goos-Hänchen (QGH) shift can be enhanced in backward scattering under resonant conditions with subradiant states. When a photon is injected into the center port, there is no QGH shift due to the mirror symmetry of structure. However, for multiple-port injection with transverse momentum, the QGH shift is recovered and proportional to the derivative of phase with respect to transverse momentum. Unlike the classical Goos-Hänchen shift, these effects can be flexibly tuned by the injected photon's frequency. Our work provides a general framework for exploring and manipulating photonic scattering in complex WQED networks.
Quantum emitters coupled to traveling photons in waveguides, known as waveguide quantum electrodynamics (WQED), offer a powerful platform for understanding light-matter interactions and underpinning emergent quantum technologies. While WQED has been extensively studied in one dimension, two-dimensional (2D) WQED remains largely unexplored, where novel photonic scattering phenomena unique to higher dimensions are expected. Here, we present a comprehensive scattering theory for 2D WQED based on the Green function method. We show that the mean displacement between emitted and injected photons serves as a quantum analogue of the Goos-Hänchen shift. When a photon is injected into a single off-centered port, the quantum Goos-Hänchen (QGH) shift can be enhanced in backward scattering under resonant conditions with subradiant states. When a photon is injected into the center port, there is no QGH shift due to the mirror symmetry of structure. However, for multiple-port injection with transverse momentum, the QGH shift is recovered and proportional to the derivative of phase with respect to transverse momentum. Unlike the classical Goos-Hänchen shift, these effects can be flexibly tuned by the injected photon's frequency. Our work provides a general framework for exploring and manipulating photonic scattering in complex WQED networks.
One-dimensional confinement in waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED) plays a crucial role to enhance light-matter interactions and to induce a strong quantum nonlinear optical response. In two or higher-dimensional settings, this response is reduced since photons can be emitted within a larger phase space, opening the question whether strong photon-photon interaction can be still achieved. In this study, we positively answer this question for the case of a 2D square array of atoms coupled to the light confined into a two-dimensional waveguide. More specifically, we demonstrate the occurrence of long-lived two-photon repulsive and bound states with genuine 2D features. Furthermore, we observe signatures of these effects also in free-space atomic arrays in the form of weakly subradiant in-band scattering resonances. Our findings provide a paradigmatic signature of the presence of strong photon-photon interactions in 2D waveguide QED.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (wQED) has become a central platform for studying collective light-matter interactions in low-dimensional photonic environments. While conventional wQED systems rely on uniform chirality or reciprocal emitter-waveguide coupling, we propose a structured wQED framework, where the coupling directionality of each emitter can be engineered locally to control excitation transport in an atom-nanophotonic interface. For different combinations of patterned coupling directionalities of the emitters, we identify four representative configurations that exhibit distinct dynamical behaviors: centering, wave-like, leap-frog, and dispersion excitations. Spectral analysis of the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian reveals that these dynamics originate from interferences among subradiant eigenmodes. Variance analysis further quantifies the spreading of excitation as functions of interatomic spacing and global chirality, showing tunable localization-delocalization transitions. Including nonguided losses, we find that the transport characteristics remain robust for realistic coupling efficiencies (beta >= 0.99). These results establish structured wQED as a practical route to manipulate excitation localization, coherence, and transport through programmable directionality patterns, paving the way for controllable subradiant transport and chiral quantum information routing.
In this paper, we introduce a numerical framework designed to solve problems within the emerging field of Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics (WQED). The framework is based on collision quantum optics, where a localized quantum system interacts sequentially with individual time-bin modes. This approach provides a physically intuitive model that allows researchers familiar with tools such as QuTiP in Python, Quantum Optics Toolbox for Matlab, or in Julia to efficiently set up and execute WQED simulations. Despite its conceptual simplicity, we demonstrate the framework's robust ability to handle complex WQED scenarios. These applications include the scattering of single- or two-photon pulses by quantum emitters or cavities, as well as the exploration of non-Markovian dynamics, where emitted photons are reflected back, thereby introducing feedback mechanisms.
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.
Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (WQED) offers a powerful framework for controlling light-matter interactions and realizing collective phenomena such as super- and subradiance. In general waveguide settings, the quantum dynamics spans the full Hilbert space, rendering exact theoretical treatments exponentially difficult and currently out of reach, and only a few models have exact, analytical solutions. Motivated by recent experiments, we treat the thermodynamic limit of the number of atoms, N→∞, while the homogeneous atom-waveguide coupling β→0 keeping the optical depth 4Nβ fixed. In this limit, a second order mean field method is exact, giving analytical solutions for the statistics of the photons emitted in the waveguide both for chiral and symmetric configurations starting from full inversion. As N→∞, the emission in freespace approaches that of an independent ensemble. However, until a special time, ≈1.59× the lifetime of a single-atom, we show an exponentially enhanced superradiance in the waveguide as the optical depth increases. After the special time, the emission into the waveguide exhibits subradiance. We also show that the initial shot-to-shot fluctuations in the rate of emission into the waveguide diminish in a chiral system and vanish in a symmetric system as N approaches ∞. Additionally, the equal-time second-order correlation becomes trivial, showing that finite-size effects are essential to observe the emergence of second-order coherence. Finally, going beyond the thermodynamic limit requires higher order mean field methods. Our results illustrate finite- and infinite-body collective effects in symmetric and symmetry-lacking systems.
This review describes the emerging field of waveguide quantum electrodynamics (WQED) concerned with the interaction of photons propagating in a waveguide with localized quantum emitters. The collective emitter-photon interactions can lead to both enhanced and suppressed coupling compared to the case of independent emitters. Here, we focus on guided photons and ordered arrays, leading to super- and sub-radiant states, bound photon states and quantum correlations with promising quantum information applications. We highlight recent groundbreaking experiments performed with different quantum platforms, including cold atoms, superconducting qubits, semiconductor quantum dots, quantum solid-state defects, and we provide a comprehensive introduction to theoretical techniques to study the interactions and dynamics of these emitters and the photons in the waveguide.