We propose a time-delayed, coherent feedback scheme for open quantum-optical systems that can dramatically speed up convergence to steady state. We apply the scheme to a cavity QED implementation of the open Dicke model.
We propose a time-delayed feedback control scheme for open quantum systems that can dramatically reduce the time to reach steady state. No measurement is performed in the feedback loop, and we suggest a simple all-optical implementation for a cavity QED system. We demonstrate the potential of the scheme by applying it to a driven and dissipative Dicke model, as recently realized in a quantum gas experiment. The time to reach steady state can be reduced by two orders of magnitude for the parameters taken from the experiment, making previously inaccessible long time attractors reachable within typical experimental run times. The scheme also offers the possibility of slowing down the dynamics, as well as qualitatively changing the phase diagram of the system.
The emergence of integrated (or solid state) photonic systems, including quantum dots, waveguides, and cavities, has provided a base to harness quantum optic phenomena for use in current and future quantum technologies. These systems also provide opportunities for exploring fundamentally new regimes in quantum optics. In order to fully realize the potential of these systems, many figures of merit need to be improved, for example by increasing the stability and coherent lifetimes of these systems. Following the notable improvements using measurement-based feedback, time-delayed coherent optical feedback has been proposed as one such method of stabilizing and improving these systems. Furthermore, modelling coherent feedback itself presents an interesting fundamental problem due to its non-Markovian nature. In this thesis, we use quantum trajectory (QT) theory to derive two models for simulating cavity quantum electrodynamic (cavity-QED) systems with time-delayed coherent feedback. First, an explanation of QT theory is given and the related time discretized waveguide (TDW) model is derived. Next we present a model for feedback using the frequency modes of the waveguide and results are presented in the ``one photon in the loop" approximation. We demonstrate how the photon lifetime can be improved in typical cavity-QED with coherent feedback and we explore some nonlinear effects. We then expand the system to allow for two photons in the feedback loop which requires us to use the TDW model. Lastly, this new approach is used to model two two-level systems coupled via a waveguide and connected to a feedback loop. These findings have implications on improving quantum optic systems by creating a new degree of control, as well as for modelling non-Markovian features in quantum optics.
We describe an efficient approach to modeling cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) with a time-delayed coherent feedback using quantum trajectory simulations. An analytical set of equations is derived to exploit the advantages of trajectories in the presence of the non-Markovian dynamics, where adjustments to the standard stochastic dynamics are discussed. In the weak excitation regime, we first verify that our approach recovers known results obtained with other simulation methods and demonstrate how a coherent feedback loop can increase the photon lifetime in typical cavity-QED systems. We also highlight the underlying stochastic dynamics. We then explore the nonlinear few-photon regime of cavity QED, under the restriction of at most one photon at a time in the feedback loop. In particular, we show how feedback affects the cavity photoluminescence (populations versus laser detuning) and describe how one must account for conditioning in the presence of feedback; specifically, the system observables must be conditioned on no photon detections at the feedback output channel occurring.
Quantum feedback in strongly coupled systems can probe a regime where one quantum of excitation is a large fluctuation. We present theoretical and experimental studies of quantum feedback in an optical cavity QED system. The time evolution of the conditional state, following a photodetection, can be modified by changing the drive of the cavity. For the appropriate feedback, the conditional state can be captured in a new steady state and then released. The feedback protocol requires resonance operation, and proper amplitude and delay for the change in the drive. We demonstrate the successful use of feedback in the suppression of the vacuum Rabi oscillations for the length of the feedback pulse and their subsequent return to steady state. The feedback works only because we have an entangled quantum system, rather than an analogous correlated classical system.
A theory of time-delayed coherent quantum feedback is developed. More specifically, we consider a quantum system coupled to a bosonic reservoir creating a unidirectional feedback loop. It is shown that the dynamics can be mapped onto a fictitious series of cascaded quantum systems, where the system is driven by past versions of itself. The derivation of this model relies on a tensor network representation of the system-reservoir time propagator. For concreteness, this general theory is applied to a driven two-level atom scattering into a coherent feedback loop. We demonstrate how delay effects can qualitatively change the dynamics of the atom and how quantum control can be implemented in the presence of time delays.
Quantum Coherent Feedback Control of an N-Level Atom With Multiple Excitations
The purpose of this article is to study the dynamics of a quantum coherent feedback network, where anN-level atom is coupled with a cavity and the cavity is also coupled with a single or multiple parallel waveguides. When the atom is initialized at the highest energy level, it can emit multiple photons into the cavity, and the photons can be further transmitted to the waveguides and reinteract with the cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity-QED) system. The transmission of photons in the waveguide can construct a feedback channel with a delay determined by the length of the waveguide. We model the dynamics of the atomic and photonic states of the cavity-QED system as a linear control system with delay. By tuning the control parameters such as the coupling strengths among the atom, cavity and waveguide, the eigenstates of the quantum system can be exponentially stable or unstable, and the exponential stability of the linear quantum control system with delay is related with the generation of single- and multiphoton states. Besides, when the cavity-QED system is coupled with multiple parallel waveguides, the emitted photons oscillate among different waveguides and the stability of quantum states is influenced by the feedback loop length and coupling strengths among waveguides.