In the multimode regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), light-matter coupling can be strong enough such as to allows a quantum emitter to couple with multiple resonant field modes. This regime leaves distinctive signatures in the behavior of both the field and the emitter, which are already accessible by modern experimental techniques. To model such effects in lossy cavities, effective discrete-mode approaches have been widely employed, despite their accuracy beyond two modes remaining rarely benchmarked. In this work, we demonstrate the necessity of employing multiple modes to describe the multimode signatures by analyzing the dynamics of an atom in a one-dimensional lossy resonator. The atom's dynamics is simulated using the formalism developed in Weitzel et al. (2026) (arXiv:2512.18478), where a resonance quantization prescription is provided. We investigate its dependency with respect to two different parameters: the light-matter coupling strength and the atom's position. In the former case, we find that the minimal number of modes necessary to capture the essential features of the atom's dynamics increases with the coupling strength. In the latter, we further observe that the multimode regime leads to a strong position-dependency of the atom's dynamics. In all cases, we discuss the physical interpretation of our results and further discuss about how the employed formalism can be used to recover physically relevant quantities.
AI Summary
The paper tests whether a previously developed generalized-pseudomode (gPM) resonance-quantization framework reproduces emitter dynamics in a lossy multimode cavity, including position-dependent effects. The model is a two-level emitter inside a one-dimensional, dispersionless, nonabsorbing dielectric slab; losses arise from radiation through its boundaries.
Starting with an excited emitter and vacuum field, the study compares gPM Lindblad simulations using one or 45 modes against numerical integration of a continuum-field Volterra equation with a Gaussian ultraviolet cutoff. The slab has refractive index $n_R=4$, background index $n_B=1$, and emitter frequency $\omega_a=20\pi c/L$, resonant with the 80th cavity resonance. Increasing the coupling produces exponential decay, damped single-mode Rabi oscillations, and then multimode revival pulses. One mode captures the first two regimes but fails in the third; 45 modes reproduce the main revival structure. For a central emitter, revivals are separated by $4L/c$, corresponding to photon return after boundary reflection. Moving the emitter produces distinct left- and right-return times, illustrated by $2L/c$ and $6L/c$ at $x_a=L/4$. These features are interpreted through photon propagation and the spectral-density bandwidth sampled by the emitter.
The calculations retain the rotating-wave approximation and one initial excitation. Finite-mode truncation produces spurious oscillations, increasingly pronounced near cavity boundaries. The underlying gPM construction remains approximate even with infinitely many modes. Dispersive cavities are left for future work; three-dimensional and many-body applications are discussed but not simulated.
Little sign of AI-generated textIncrementalStrong assumptionsUnclear writingPossible error
Error found: The coupling strengths printed in the strong single-mode and position-dependent subsections disagree with their figure captions and intended coupling regimes.
The printed coupling formula gives g ≈ 0.01142 c/L and a weak-coupling decay rate Γ ≈ 0.002044 c/L, inconsistent with the stated values 0.0203 c/L and 0.00646 c/L.
The benchmark section reverses the bandwidth inequality used later to justify the rotating-wave approximation.
The asserted infinite-mode convergence to the continuum benchmark is not established and conflicts with the accompanying qualification that the construction remains approximate even with infinitely many modes.
Written by gpt-6.1-sol from the paper's full text. Automated: it can be wrong.
In the multimode regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), light-matter coupling can be strong enough such as to allows a quantum emitter to couple with multiple resonant field modes. This regime leaves distinctive signatures in the behavior of both the field and the emitter, which are already accessible by modern experimental techniques. To model such effects in lossy cavities, effective discrete-mode approaches have been widely employed, despite their accuracy beyond two modes remaining rarely benchmarked. In this work, we demonstrate the necessity of employing multiple modes to describe the multimode signatures by analyzing the dynamics of an atom in a one-dimensional lossy resonator. The atom's dynamics is simulated using the formalism developed in Weitzel et al. (2026) (arXiv:2512.18478), where a resonance quantization prescription is provided. We investigate its dependency with respect to two different parameters: the light-matter coupling strength and the atom's position. In the former case, we find that the minimal number of modes necessary to capture the essential features of the atom's dynamics increases with the coupling strength. In the latter, we further observe that the multimode regime leads to a strong position-dependency of the atom's dynamics. In all cases, we discuss the physical interpretation of our results and further discuss about how the employed formalism can be used to recover physically relevant quantities.
The paper tests whether a previously developed generalized-pseudomode (gPM) resonance-quantization framework reproduces emitter dynamics in a lossy multimode cavity, including position-dependent effects. The model is a two-level emitter inside a one-dimensional, dispersionless, nonabsorbing dielectric slab; losses arise from radiation through its boundaries.
Starting with an excited emitter and vacuum field, the study compares gPM Lindblad simulations using one or 45 modes against numerical integration of a continuum-field Volterra equation with a Gaussian ultraviolet cutoff. The slab has refractive index nR=4, background index nB=1, and emitter frequency ωa=20πc/L, resonant with the 80th cavity resonance. Increasing the coupling produces exponential decay, damped single-mode Rabi oscillations, and then multimode revival pulses. One mode captures the first two regimes but fails in the third; 45 modes reproduce the main revival structure. For a central emitter, revivals are separated by 4L/c, corresponding to photon return after boundary reflection. Moving the emitter produces distinct left- and right-return times, illustrated by 2L/c and 6L/c at xa=L/4. These features are interpreted through photon propagation and the spectral-density bandwidth sampled by the emitter.
The calculations retain the rotating-wave approximation and one initial excitation. Finite-mode truncation produces spurious oscillations, increasingly pronounced near cavity boundaries. The underlying gPM construction remains approximate even with infinitely many modes. Dispersive cavities are left for future work; three-dimensional and many-body applications are discussed but not simulated.
Here, we report an experimental realization of multimode strong coupling in cavity quantum electrodynamics.This novel regime is achieved when a single artificial atom is simultaneously strongly coupled to a large, but discrete, number of nondegenerate photonic modes of a cavity with coupling strengths comparable to the free spectral range.Our experiment reveals complex quantum multimode dynamics and spontaneous generation of quantum coherence, as evidenced by resonance fluorescence spanning many modes and ultranarrow linewidth emission.This work opens a new avenue for future experiments in light-matter interactions and poses a challenge to current theoretical approaches to its study.
Modern experiments in resonators are moving to ever more extreme quantum regimes, posing major challenges to established theoretical approaches, such as so-called few-mode models. While these models have driven major insights for traditional regimes, they are now hitting their limitations for highly open cavities and extended systems, as encountered in cavity experiments with molecules and solid-state systems. Here, we present a novel method that significantly extends the conceptual underpinning of these discrete-mode models, promoting them to a systematic treatment. We develop an ansatz which allows to quantize the resonator's resonances with position-resolved discrete modes, thus naturally incorporating losses in the formalism. Such a construction effectively unifies key ideas from pseudomodes and quantized quasi-normal modes theory. We further present a criterion for construction of the ansatz parameters at every point in space, and semi-analytically benchmark the resulting solution for a paradigmatic one-dimensional example resonator.
We study the non-Markovian quantum dynamics of an emitter inside an open multimode cavity, focusing on the case where the emitter is resonant with high-frequency cavity modes. Based on a Green's-function technique suited for open photonic structures, we study the crossovers between three distinct regimes as the coupling strength is gradually increased: (i) overdamped decay with a time scale given by the Purcell modified decay rate, (ii) underdamped oscillations with a time scale given by the effective vacuum Rabi frequency, and (iii) pulsed revivals. The final multimode strong-coupling regime (iii) gives rise to quantum revivals of the atomic inversion on a time scale associated with the cavity round-trip time. We show that the crucial parameter to capture the crossovers between these regimes is the nonlinear Lamb shift, accounted for exactly in our formalism.
We numerically investigate the generation and dynamics of tripartite entanglement among qubits (quantum emitters or atoms) in multimode cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). Our cQED architecture features three initially unentangled excited two-level quantum emitters confined within a triangle-shaped multimode optical cavity, which later become entangled due to a Jaynes-Cummings-like interaction. Using the tripartite negativity measure of entanglement and fidelity with respect to the genuine tripartite entangled state (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, to be precise), we analyze the impact of the number of cavity modes, qubit locations, and losses (spontaneous emission from qubits and photon leakage from the cavity mirrors) on the generated entanglement. Our key results include the presence of two kinds of retardation effects: one resulting from the time it takes for photons to propagate from one qubit to another, and the other to complete one round trip in the cavity. We observed these retardation effects only in multimode cavities, with the exciting possibility of controlling the collapse and revival patterns of tripartite entanglement by altering the qubit locations in the cavity. Furthermore, the impact of losses on the generated entanglement and the dependence of maximum entanglement on the total number of modes yield results that surpass those reported for single and two excitations. With recent advances in circuit quantum electrodynamics, these findings hold promise for the development of entanglement-based quantum networking protocols and quantum memories.
A single two-level emitter coupled to a single mode of an electromagnetic resonator constitutes the most fundamental instance of light--matter interaction. Realizations of this type of system are investigated in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). Particularly important are schemes in which the coupling is strong enough to exceed the spontaneous emission rate as well as cavity damping. In this case, the coherent exchange of excitation between source and photon is the dominating process, providing the unique possibility to deterministically control the quantum evolution of the system. Great progress has recently been accomplished, technologically as well as conceptually, and the focus section in this issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics features five articles highlighting important recent developments in the field. Strong coupling between single atoms and the electromagnetic cavity field have been achieved in two distinct regimes, the optical and the microwave region. The latter is represented by the micromaser, a high-Q microwave cavity pumped by a beam of highly excited Rydberg atoms. It has proved to be an almost ideal system for the generation of non-classical field states. A constraint in these experiments is the fact that the field inside the cavity can only be examined indirectly, by analysing the occupation of atoms leaving the cavity. While only two atomic states were previously identified for this purpose, V A Reshetov shows in his article (pages 119--126) that more information on the field may be extracted by taking advantage of the Zeeman substructure of the atomic levels. In the optical domain of cavity QED, by contrast, the state of the resonator field may be probed directly by measuring the light leaking from the cavity using photodetectors. In order to minimize damping, high-quality cavities must be employed. In most optical experiments these are Fabry--Perot resonators with ultra-high reflectivity mirrors, with losses as low as a few parts per million being state of the art. At the same time, the coupling of atoms and photons is enhanced by reducing the length of the cavity, so that strong coupling conditions are reached. A very attractive application of this type of cavity QED setup is the possibility of exerting control over the quantum dynamics of the system. An impressive example is the implementation of quantum feedback, reported in the paper by W P Smith and L A Orozco (pages 127--134). Using information gained from detecting a single photon escaping from the cavity, active feedback is applied to halt the dynamical evolution of the system. This is the first time active feedback has been used to modify the quantum evolution of a system at the single-photon level. The authors discuss how detunings between the subsystems affect the quantum feedback, an issue particularly relevant for ensembles of atoms with a spread in detuning. Perfect quantum feedback in this case requires the use of additional parameters to control the system. The majority of optical cavity QED experiments performed so far have used as a medium atoms traversing the cavity on random trajectories, such as, for example, thermal atomic beams. In this case, the observation of quantum effects is degraded in two ways. The Doppler effect and the finite transit time lead to line broadening, while the spatial structure of the cavity mode results in atoms in different locations experiencing different coupling with the photonic field. J E Reiner et al (pages 135--142) investigate the impact of these effects on quantum fluctuations in their cavity QED system. In order to overcome line broadening, they have developed a continuous cold atomic beam, extracted from a magneto-optical trap. An even better control of broadening effects and fluctuating coupling strength is provided by trapping the atoms inside the cavity and cooling them to temperatures at which their position spread is smaller than the optical wavelength. Much recent activity has been devoted to developing such an ultimate cavity QED system. A Vukics et al (pages 143--153) present a theoretical proposal for dynamically trapping and cooling atoms inside a cavity. By driving the atoms with a standing wave injected from the side of the cavity and by weakly exciting the cavity field itself, they predict three-dimensional trapping of the atom for periods around 1 second, an extremely long time on the typical scale of cavity QED dynamics. The essential component of their scheme is the interference between the two driving fields, determining the temperature of the particle and the stable trapping positions. In the quest for better confinement of radiation, lately, an appealing alternative to the Fabry--Perot cavity has been investigated -- the optical microsphere resonator. A sphere with a diameter of a few tens of microns, it supports so-called whispering gallery modes near its circumference, for which quality factors up to 10 10 have been measured. In order to exploit the correspondingly low field damping rates for cavity QED, a method must be found to couple atomic or solid state emitters to these modes. S Göotzinger et al (pages 154--158) report the coupling of single nanocrystals on the surface of a microsphere through the evanescent field of the mode. Selective excitation of a single nano-emitter was accomplished with a scanning confocal microscope. The system is a promising candidate for cavity QED with single-quantum emitters. The ability to fully control the quantum dynamics of atoms and light is beginning to spawn early applications. The most notable example is quantum information processing. This requires the coherent manipulation of single-quantum systems, which is ideally provided by cavity QED interaction in the strong-coupling limit. The development of practical devices will be among the principal future tasks for research in the field. This will include physical systems, which have not been covered in this issue, such as semiconductors, quantum dots as emitters, or photonic crystals as resonator structures. Cavity QED is therefore guaranteed to remain a vigorous field in the years to come.
Light-matter coupling strength and optical loss are two key physical quantities in cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED), and their interplay determines whether light-matter hybrid states can be formed or not in chemical systems. In this study, by using macroscopic quantum electrodynamics (MQED) combined with a pseudomode approach, we present a simple but accurate method, which allows us to quickly estimate the light-matter coupling strength and optical loss without free parameters. Moreover, for a molecular emitter coupled with photonic modes (including cavity modes and plasmon polariton modes), we analytically and numerically prove that the dynamics derived from the MQED-based wavefunction approach is mathematically equivalent to the dynamics governed by the CQED-based Lindblad master equation when the Purcell factor behaves like Lorentzian functions.