-type atom coupled to a T-shaped waveguide. By controlling local coupling phases to engineer quantum interference, perfect directional frequency conversion is achieved without an engineered chiral waveguide structure. The multi-path interference of the giant atom, combined with local phase tuning, enables flexible control over photon transmission direction and frequency, supporting multiple directional conversion channels. In the Markovian limit, the cavity-mediated structure realizes two fully efficient directional channels, while under non-Markovian conditions, retardation effects open several distinct frequency conversion windows. This phase-controlled, multi-frequency directional architecture provides a versatile platform for frequency-multiplexed quantum routing and networking.
-type atom coupled to a T-shaped waveguide. By controlling local coupling phases to engineer quantum interference, perfect directional frequency conversion is achieved without an engineered chiral waveguide structure. The multi-path interference of the giant atom, combined with local phase tuning, enables flexible control over photon transmission direction and frequency, supporting multiple directional conversion channels. In the Markovian limit, the cavity-mediated structure realizes two fully efficient directional channels, while under non-Markovian conditions, retardation effects open several distinct frequency conversion windows. This phase-controlled, multi-frequency directional architecture provides a versatile platform for frequency-multiplexed quantum routing and networking.
Abstract Single-photon frequency conversion in the system composed of a Λ -type three-level giant atom chiral couples to a one-dimensional waveguide is investigated. Two configurations, i.e. one of the atomic transitions couples to the waveguide at two separated points while the other one either directly or indirectly couples to the waveguide at a single point, are considered. The scattering amplitudes for representing the frequency conversion in the two kinds of coupling schematics are obtained analytically with the real-space approach. The results show that perfect nonreciprocal transmission with preserving frequency and ideal directional frequency conversion can be realized due to the time-reversal symmetry broken induced by the chiral coupling as well as the self-interference comes from the giant atom. In particular, in the indirect coupling configuration, the scattering spectra exhibit two directional frequency conversion windows due to the atom-cavity coupling, which enables the present system suitable for the simultaneous manipulation of incident photons with different frequencies. These results may have potential applications in various quantum information processing and quantum network engineering.
This work is to investigate the single-photon scattering in a waveguide quantum electrodynamics system consisting of two dipole-coupled giant atoms, each interacting with a separate one-dimensional infinite waveguide at two distinct coupling points. Our primary objective is to establish a theoretical framework for manipulating photon propagation paths via quantum interference induced by multiple coupling points and local phase engineering. Unlike traditional chiral coupling schemes, an innovative method, in which the coupling phases are designed locally at each atom-waveguide interface, is used to achieve effective chiral coupling, thereby introducing novel quantum interference mechanisms. Using a real-space approach, we derive analytical expressions for four-port scattering amplitudes. We establish the conditions for achieving perfect directional routing to any output port and demonstrate the coherent control mechanisms implemented by geometric and local coupled phases. Continuous frequency tunability is primarily achieved through dipole-dipole interaction, and finely tuned through the accumulated phase and local coupling phases. Local phase differences precisely regulate port-specific probability distributions within the waveguides while preserving total routing efficiency. Furthermore, we elucidate the mechanisms of nonreciprocal transport and chiral scattering. The analysis reveals different governing principles: perfect nonreciprocity arises from the interplay of the accumulated phase, local coupling phases, photon-atom detuning, and dipole-dipole interaction. In contrast, perfect chiral scattering depends entirely on the accumulated phase and local coupling phases, and is independent of detuning. Notably, under the phase-matching conditions, the system achieves both perfect chiral and directional routing, and realizes frequency-selective path-asymmetric photon control. These findings provide a comprehensive framework for manipulating quantum interference in multi-atom waveguide systems, highlighting applications in quantum information processing, including tunable single-photon routers, isolators, and chiral quantum nodes. By implementing superconducting circuits, the local phase can be dynamically adjusted, thus proving the feasibility of the experiment.
Efficient single-photon frequency conversion is investigated in a two-giant-atom waveguide-QED system, where a two-level giant atom and a Λ-type three-level giant atom couple to a common one-dimensional waveguide. While the Λ-type atom provides the inelastic channel, the two-level atom induces secondary coherent coupling, creating multi-path interference for the converted photon. Using the real-space approach and within the Markovian approximation, we derive analytical four-channel scattering amplitudes and reveal that the inelastic transmission spectrum, governed by three complex resonance poles, exhibits a multi-peak interference pattern. By introducing a local single-pole approximation, we reduce this complex spectrum to a local Fano lineshape, decomposing it into a coherent superposition of a local background term and a single-pole resonant term. The interplay between these two terms-controlled by the photon propagation phase between the giant atoms' coupling points-determines the conversion efficiency, with the background suppression condition leading to a Lorentzian reduction. Based on the single-pole resonance weight, we formulate a phase-selection criterion for highly efficient conversion. Compared with both the small-atom and single Λ-type giant-atom models, the two-giant-atom scheme achieves substantially enhanced inelastic transmission over a broader frequency-conversion range. This work reveals how phase-controlled local Fano resonance enables high-efficiency frequency conversion, establishing a general paradigm for engineering resonant light-matter interactions in structured quantum systems.
In this paper, we begin with a model of a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-type atom whose both transitions are chirally coupled to a wave guide and then extend the model to its giant-atom version. We investigate the single-photon scatterings of the giant-atom model in both the Markovian and the non-Markovian regimes. It is shown that the chiral atom-wave-guide couplings enable nonreciprocal, reflectionless, and efficient frequency conversion, while the giant-atom structure introduces intriguing interference effects to the scattering behaviors, such as ultranarrow scattering windows. The chiral giant-atom model exhibits quite different scattering spectra in the two regimes and, in particular, demonstrates non-Markovicity-induced nonreciprocity under specific conditions. These phenomena can be understood from the effective detuning and decay rate of the giant-atom model. We believe that our results have potential applications in integrated photonics and quantum network engineering.
We investigate single-photon scattering in a waveguide-QED setup, where a giant molecule composed of two frequency-detuned giant atoms is coupled to two parallel waveguides via multiple connection points. The competition between coherent atom--atom coupling and the effective decay rates dictates the splitting of a single resonance into a doublet in the transmission (reflection) spectra. By tailoring the asymmetry of the decay rates and the atomic detuning, one can engineer photon-path interference to optimize the transfer between waveguides; under chiral coupling conditions, this interference can be further harnessed to realize fully deterministic routing. In the non-Markovian regime, retardation effects can reshape the spectra and actively drive transitions between the weak- and strong-coupling regimes, converting an unsplit Markovian resonance into a clearly separated doublet, or conversely merging a split doublet back into a single resonance. For sufficiently long time delays, it further generates multiple resonances and avoided crossings, enriching the spectral response. Our results demonstrate how atomic detuning, decay-rate asymmetry, and non-Markovian retardation cooperate to provide versatile, interference-based control over single-photon routing in multi-port quantum networks.
In this work, we utilize a two-level atom and a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-type atom to link two identical waveguides, subsequently extending the model to a giant-atom configuration. Our analytical solutions and numerical simulations demonstrate that this setup can achieve single-photon isolation and nonreciprocal frequency conversion by tuning the atom-waveguide coupling strengths gi, respectively. We also examine single-photon scattering in the giant-atom model within both the Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. The results reveal that ultranarrow scattering windows are induced by the phases ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{1}$ and ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{2}$ under specific conditions, making them well suited for precise frequency conversion and sensing. Additionally, in the non-Markovian regime, the spectra exhibit irregular polygonal shapes, offering enhanced opportunities for exploring nonreciprocal frequency conversion in the off-resonant regime. Our work provides an alternative perspective on achieving optical nonreciprocity at the single-photon level in atom-waveguide systems.