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Engineering nonlinear collective optical dynamics In nano-arrays of quantum emitters

Helmut Ritsch

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An array of closely spaced dipole-dipole coupled quantum emitters exhibits collective energy shifts as well as super-and sub-radiance with characteristic tailorable spatial radiation patterns.We identify a sub-wavelength sized ring of exactly 9 identical dipoles with an identical absorbing atom at the center as the most efficient configuration to deposit incoming photon energy to the center.

DOI
10.1051/epjconf/202533505003

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An array of closely spaced dipole-dipole coupled quantum emitters exhibits collective energy shifts as well as super-and sub-radiance with characteristic tailorable spatial radiation patterns.We identify a sub-wavelength sized ring of exactly 9 identical dipoles with an identical absorbing atom at the center as the most efficient configuration to deposit incoming photon energy to the center.
Subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters feature unique and largely design-able nonlinear optical properties. As a generic example we study a sub-wavelength sized ring of identical dipoles with an extra identical absorbing emitter at the center. For a 9-ring one finds the most efficient antenna configuration to direct single incoming photons to the center without re-emission. Interestingly, for very tiny structures sizes below a tenth of a wavelength, a full quantum description predicts an even larger absorption enhancement than a mean field model using a classical dipole approximation. We identify the origin of the enhancement in the appearance of a collective dark state with dominant center occupation. By special design of the center absorber one thus can harness the same efficiency enhancement also at different wavelengths and for other geometric structures. On the one hand this idea could be the basis of a new generation of highly efficient and selective nano antennas, while on the other hand, it could be an important piece towards understanding the surprising efficiency of natural light harvesting molecules. Adding gain via active dipoles in such nano ring systems allows to design minimalist laser like classical light sources. In the nonlinear operating regime at stronger pump fields these systems transform to non-classical light sources with tailor-able spatio-temporal emission upon coherent illumination.
An array of N closely spaced dipole coupled quantum emitters exhibits super- and subradiance with characteristic tailorable spatial radiation patterns. Optimizing the emitter geometry and distance with respect to the spatial profile of a near resonant optical cavity mode allows us to increase the ratio between light scattering into the cavity mode and free space emission by several orders of magnitude. This leads to distinct scaling of the collective coherent emitter-field coupling vs the free space decay as a function of the emitter number. In particular, for subradiant states, the effective cooperativity increases much faster than the typical linear ∝N scaling for independent emitters. This extraordinary collective enhancement is manifested both in the amplitude and the phase profile of narrow collective antiresonances appearing at the cavity output port in transmission spectroscopy.
Nanoscopic arrays of quantum emitters can feature highly sub-radiant collective excitations with a lifetime exponentially growing with emitter number. Adding an absorptive impurity as an energy dump in the center of a ring shaped polygon allows to exploit this feature to create highly efficient single photon antennas. Here among regular polygons with an identical center absorbing emitter, a nonagon exhibits a distinct optimum of the absorption efficiency. This special enhancement originates from the unique emergence of a subradiant eigenstate with dominant center occupation. Only for nine emitters the sum of coupling strengths of each emitter to all others matches the center to the ring coupling. Analogous to a parabolic mirror the antenna ring then concentrates incoming radiation at its center without being significantly excited itself. Similar large efficiency enhancements, which even prevail for broadband excitation, can also be engineered for other antenna sizes by tailoring the frequency and magnitude of the central absorber. Interestingly, for very small structures a quantum treatment predicts an even stronger enhancement for the single photon absorption enhancement than a classical dipole model. As natural light harvesting structures are often based on ring shaped structures, the underlying principle might be exploited there as well.
A ring of dipole-coupled quantum emitters positioned at subwavelength distances possesses only a few radiant but many subradiant collective excitations with lifetimes growing exponentially with the atom number. These exhibit a three-dimensionally confined spatial radiation field pattern and form nanoscale high-QQQ optical resonators. Tailoring size, orientation, and distance between two rings allows for increasing the ratio of coherent ring-to-ring energy transfer versus free-space emission by orders of magnitude. In particular, the more dark and delocalized over several sites are excitons, the higher is their fidelity for transport to a second ring.
Photon emission is the hallmark of light-matter interaction and the foundation of photonic quantum science, enabling advanced sources for quantum communication and computing. Although single-emitter radiation can be tailored by the photonic environment, the introduction of multiple emitters extends this picture. A fundamental challenge, however, is that the radiative dipole-dipole coupling rapidly decays with spatial separation, typically within a fraction of the optical wavelength. We realize distant dipole-dipole radiative coupling with pairs of solid-state optical quantum emitters embedded in a nanophotonic waveguide. We dynamically probe the collective response and identify both super- and subradiant emission as well as means to control the dynamics by proper excitation techniques. Our work constitutes a foundational step toward multiemitter applications for scalable quantum-information processing.
Decoherence is mostly detrimental in quantum information and quantum optics applications. However, the interplay between environment-induced incoherent dynamics and unitary evolution can give rise to novel quantum many-body phenomena that can be harnessed as a useful resource. As is well known, in dense subwavelength atomic arrays only a single collective eigenmode in the single-excitation manifold couples strongly to free-space radiation, exhibiting superradiant spontaneous emission. Most of the remaining eigenstates form a manifold of weakly radiative modes, giving rise to long-lived subradiant excitations. Here we demonstrate that populating these subradiant modes via additional decoherence mechanisms, such as dephasing or coupling to phonons, can significantly enhance single-photon absorption in a nanoring of quantum emitters. Such nanoring geometry is particularly appealing due to its unique optical properties and its resemblance to natural light-harvesting complexes, which serve as efficient antennas in photosynthesis. Our findings may shed light on fundamental aspects of energy absorption in nature; despite the much greater complexity of biological systems, they may nonetheless operate according to similar underlying optical principles.