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Physical Review Research

Controllable spontaneous emission spectrum in an artificial giant atom: Dark lines and bound states

Yiying Yan, Zhiguo Lü

Published Mar 19, 2024• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the spontaneous emission spectra of a few-level giant atom strongly coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide by employing variational and analytical approaches, which are beyond the rotating-wave approximation and the Markovian approximation. We show that the interference effects due to the multiple coupling points result in dark lines in spontaneous emission spectra of either two-level or three-level giant atoms regardless of whether there is a bound state or not. We illustrate that the generation of dark lines depends on the distance between the coupling points and their number. In the absence of a bound state, the dark lines can be used to suppress emission at a certain frequency in the spectrum. In the presence of a bound state, the total intensity of the emission spectrum can be significantly suppressed. The present results offer the possibility of control over the spontaneous emission with the dark lines due to the destructive interference in giant atoms. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.6.013301

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We study the spontaneous emission spectra of a few-level giant atom strongly coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide by employing variational and analytical approaches, which are beyond the rotating-wave approximation and the Markovian approximation. We show that the interference effects due to the multiple coupling points result in dark lines in spontaneous emission spectra of either two-level or three-level giant atoms regardless of whether there is a bound state or not. We illustrate that the generation of dark lines depends on the distance between the coupling points and their number. In the absence of a bound state, the dark lines can be used to suppress emission at a certain frequency in the spectrum. In the presence of a bound state, the total intensity of the emission spectrum can be significantly suppressed. The present results offer the possibility of control over the spontaneous emission with the dark lines due to the destructive interference in giant atoms. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We employ a time-dependent variational approach with the multiple Davydov D2{D}_{2}D2​ ansatz and two approximate analytical methods to study the spontaneous emission of a V-type artificial atom in the strong-coupling regime, where the decay rate of the emitter becomes a considerable fraction of its transition frequencies, and focus on quantum-interference-induced effects. The variational approach is found to be accurate in certain strong-coupling regimes and is used as the benchmark to address the validity of the analytical methods: the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) and the transformed RWA (TRWA). It is found that the TRWA is fairly accurate in the strong-coupling regime where the RWA breaks down. By using the numerical and analytical methods, we illustrate that there are dark lines and line narrowing in the emission spectra in the strong-coupling regime and in a wide accessible range of the emitter parameters. We also illustrate how the emission spectrum is altered by the counter-rotating couplings. The present results offer insights into the experimental observation of the quantum-interference-induced effect in the strong-coupling regime and in the context of artificial atoms.
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We investigate the collective non-Markovian dynamics of two fully excited two-level atoms coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide in the presence of delay. We demonstrate that analogous to the well-known superfluorescence phenomena, where an inverted atomic ensemble synchronizes to enhance its emission, there is a “subfluorescence” effect that synchronizes the atoms into an entangled dark state depending on the interatomic separation. The phenomenon can lead to a two-photon bound state in the continuum. Our results are pertinent to long-distance quantum networks, presenting a mechanism for spontaneous entanglement generation between distant quantum emitters. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The quantum interference in the spontaneous-emission spectrum of a driven atom, when the upper level of the atomic transition is coupled to a third level via a classical driving field, results in a dark line in the absence of the atomic decays. The existence of the dark line is independent of the Rabi frequency associated with the driving field. There is no such dark line in the spontaneous-emission spectrum when, instead of the upper level, the lower level is coupled to a third level via a driving field. In this paper, we include the level decays, incoherent pumping, and the finite bandwidth of the driving field in our analysis and study their role in the spontaneous-emission spectrum in the two configurations.
We investigated the spontaneous emission of a giant atom coupled with a semi-infinite waveguide. Our model considers the giant atom a two-level system coupled to the semi-infinite waveguide at two points. Based on the Hamiltonian in real space, the first-order delay-differential equation for the atomic excitation amplitude is obtained using the Schrödinger equation. Furthermore, the dynamics of spontaneous emission controlled by quantum coherent feedback due to the semi-infinite waveguide in the non-Markov regime are discussed in two cases, with the coupling strengths between the giant atom and the semi-infinite waveguide at the two coupling points being identical in one case and having a phase difference in the other case. The spontaneous emission exhibits partial decay due to multiple excitations from the quantum feedback and two-point coupling. When the coupling strengths are identical, the decay of the atomic excitation can be either increased or inhibited substantially, even forming a steady state, due to the self-interference due to the two-point coupling. The quantum coherent feedback can either further increase the decay of the excited state or maintain the steady state formed by self-interference. Moreover, a new steady state can be built due to quantum coherent feedback, which cannot exist in the self-interference system. The decay rates can also be increased or decreased by manipulating the phase difference between the coupling strengths at the two coupling points. It can destroy the steady state formed by self-interference or build a steady state based on the chosen phase difference. One can leverage quantum coherent feedback to manipulate the steady state value of the population of the excited states by adjusting the phase difference. The dissipation can increase the decay rates of the excited states. Furthermore, it also destroys steady states. Our results may find applications in developing quantum devices such as quantum memory based on giant atom-waveguide systems.
Describing systems of superconducting atoms coupled to a continuum of photonic modes at multiple separated locations in a waveguide, waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED) with giant atoms has emerged as a promising platform for realizing quantum interconnect. Such systems have been reported to exhibit rich phenomena that differ from those of natural atoms. Going beyond the widely used Born-Markov and Wigner-Weisskopf approximations, we investigate the non-Markovian dynamics of one and two giant atoms interacting with a waveguide formed by an array of coupled resonators. We discover that the diverse dynamical behaviors of the giant atoms are intrinsically determined by the energy spectrum of the composite system consisting of the giant atoms and the photonic modes in the waveguide. As long as one and more bound states are present in the energy spectrum, their excited-state probabilities, respectively, tend to stable finite values and lossless Rabi-like oscillations with frequencies proportional to the differences of the bound-state eigenenergies. Our result provides an insightful guideline for suppressing the decoherence of giant atoms and facilitates the development of quantum interconnect devices using giant-atom waveguide QED.