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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Quantum properties of an atom in a cavity constructed by topological insulators

Wei Fang, Zixin Yang, Gao‐xiang Li

Published Nov 3, 2015• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the spontaneous decay of an atom in a cavity constructed by topological insulators. The method of Green’s function in stratified cavities has been used and expressions of atomic decay rates in two directions parallel and perpendicular to cavity mirrors are derived. It is shown that when an atom is embedded closely to a topological insulator with a strong axion field, the spontaneous decay of the dipole parallel to the surface will be suppressed due to the high anisotropy of the vacuum. The appearance of indirect quantum interference of two orthogonal dipoles representing the different decay channels of a Zeeman atom has also been revealed. It is found that when the cavity length is less than half the wave length in a vacuum—wherever the Zeeman atom is located in the cavity—spontaneous decay of the dipole parallel to the mirror is deeply suppressed while decay through the dipole perpendicular to the mirror is enhanced. As expected, strong quantum interference between the two decay channels is observed. In particular, when the axion field is strong enough, the maximum quantum interference can be generated between two orthogonal dipoles, which is consistent with the phenomenon that appears in cavities constructed by perfect mirrors. By taking loss of material into account, the results show that atomic decay through dissipation dominates when the atom is quite close to the mirror and leads to the destruction of quantum interference in a small region.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/48/24/245504

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Abstract We investigate the spontaneous decay of an atom in a cavity constructed by topological insulators. The method of Green’s function in stratified cavities has been used and expressions of atomic decay rates in two directions parallel and perpendicular to cavity mirrors are derived. It is shown that when an atom is embedded closely to a topological insulator with a strong axion field, the spontaneous decay of the dipole parallel to the surface will be suppressed due to the high anisotropy of the vacuum. The appearance of indirect quantum interference of two orthogonal dipoles representing the different decay channels of a Zeeman atom has also been revealed. It is found that when the cavity length is less than half the wave length in a vacuum—wherever the Zeeman atom is located in the cavity—spontaneous decay of the dipole parallel to the mirror is deeply suppressed while decay through the dipole perpendicular to the mirror is enhanced. As expected, strong quantum interference between the two decay channels is observed. In particular, when the axion field is strong enough, the maximum quantum interference can be generated between two orthogonal dipoles, which is consistent with the phenomenon that appears in cavities constructed by perfect mirrors. By taking loss of material into account, the results show that atomic decay through dissipation dominates when the atom is quite close to the mirror and leads to the destruction of quantum interference in a small region.
The spontaneous emission interference of a V-type three-level atom located in a topological insulator (TI) multilayer structure is investigated. Based on the reflection coefficients of the TI multilayer derived by the transfer matrix method, the atomic spontaneous emission rate is expressed in terms of the dyadic Green’s function. Due to the accumulation of polarization conversion at each interface in the multilayer structure, the anisotropy of the electromagnetic environment around the atom can be improved and thereby the spontaneous emission is effectively suppressed and quantum interference enhanced. The quantum interference enhancement effect tends to a saturation value with the increasing layer number. The quantum interference of the atom inside the TI multilayer cavity can be stronger than that in front of a TI multilayer within a large range of cavity length for the case of parallel magnetization on TI surfaces.
Spontaneous emission of an atom with two close upper levels and one lower level in a multilayer dielectric medium, and quantum interference between transitions from the upper levels to the lower one, are considered. Since the medium is inhomogeneous along the direction normal to the interfaces of the dielectric layers, the vacuum has an anisotropic spatial structure, and quantum intereference between the two decay channels can appear even if the two dipole matrix elements are orthogonal to each other. If the atom is placed in a three-layer dielectric plate cavity, a strong quantum interference similar to that for an atom with two nearly parallel dipole moments in free space arises due to the influence of anisotropic vacuum. Putting the atom in a three-layer dielectric waveguide and a one-dimensional photonic crystal, there appears a strong quantum interference similar to that for an atom with nearly antiparallel dipole moments.
We investigate the generation of quantum interference induced by spontaneous emission from two transitions of a V-type three-level atom embedded between two parallel plates (one or both the plates have infinite permeability, i.e. μ→ ∞ ). The result shows that, due to the anisotropy of vacuum, quantum interference still exists although the two dipole matrix elements of the atom are orthogonal to each other. When the atom is located very close to one of the plates, the quantum interference effect is particularly prominent. The strength of quantum interference displays oscillating behaviour with the position of the atom. With the increase of the distance between the plates, the oscillation becomes dense.
We address quantum interference of the Zeeman atom embedded in two kinds of structures containing left-handed materials (LHM), which are a single LHM layer mounted on a single mirror (SLSM) and Fabry-P\'erot cavity filled with a LHM layer by half (FPCLH). Especially, the influence of the dissipation of LHM on quantum interference has been studied in detail. Though dissipation weakens quantum interference in general, it holds nearly complete quantum interference when the thickness of the cavity is small for FPCLH. Moreover, with equivalence of left- and right- rotation polarized dipoles to two spatial orthogonal dipoles, we found the optimum orientation of two orthogonal dipoles which can realize the maximum quantum interference in a certain anisotropic environment. Our research may have potential applications in the designing of microsize devices.
Quantum interference between Zeeman levels of atom placed in the structure containing left-handed materials (LHMs) and zero-index metamaterials (ZIMs) is investigated. Because of the existence of the LHM and ZIM, dipole radiation becomes highly anisotropic which is embodied by the high contrast between decay rates of the dipole component parallel to the surface and that normal to the surface. Furthermore, both decay rates are suppressed compared with those in free vacuum. Therefore, we propose the quantum interference between Zeeman levels accompanied by long lifetime. Two structures are designed to achieve such purpose. For the idealized LHM and ZIM without dissipation, a double-layer structure comprised of them is the right candidate. However, when we consider the dissipation of materials, a Fabry-P\'erot cavity made of matched ZIM slabs and LHM slabs is required. Results show that we get a high degree of quantum interference and low decay rates simultaneously.
The spontaneous decay and quantum interference of a V\mathsf{V}V-type Zeeman atom placed near a $\ensuremath{\mu}$-negative metamaterial (MNG) slab are investigated. Based on the fact that MNG slab supports only TE-polarized surface-plasmon polariton (SPP) modes, the decay rate of the dipole component parallel to the interface would be much larger than that normal to the interface, because one can couple while another decouple to TE modes. Consequently, high-level anisotropic environment is created and the two dipoles can interfere with each other strongly by sharing such SPP modes even if they are orthogonal. In our work, we analyze the influence of the parameters of the MNG slab as well as the atomic location on the interference intensity in detail. In addition, the dissipation of the slab is considered, and the quantum interference is still excellent even with large absorption.