Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 031011 |
| Journal | Physical Review X |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 14 Jul 2020 |
Abstract
We theoretically study the few- and many-body dynamics of photons in chiral waveguides. In particular, we examine pulse propagation through an ensemble of N two-level systems chirally coupled to a waveguide. We show that the system supports correlated multiphoton bound states, which have a well-defined photon number n and propagate through the system with a group delay scaling as 1/n2. This has the interesting consequence that, during propagation, an incident coherent-state pulse breaks up into different bound-state components that can become spatially separated at the output in a sufficiently long system. For sufficiently many photons and sufficiently short systems, we show that linear combinations of n-body bound states recover the well-known phenomenon of mean-field solitons in self-induced transparency. Our work thus covers the entire spectrum from few-photon quantum propagation, to genuine quantum many-body (atom and photon) phenomena, and ultimately the quantum-to-classical transition. Finally, we demonstrate that the bound states can undergo elastic scattering with additional photons. Together, our results demonstrate that photon bound states are truly distinct physical objects emerging from the most elementary light-matter interaction between photons and two-level emitters. Our work opens the door to studying quantum many-body physics and soliton physics with photons in chiral waveguide QED.
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In: Physical Review X, Vol. 10, No. 3, 031011, 14.07.2020.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamics of many-body photon bound states in chiral waveguide QED
AU - Mahmoodian, Sahand
AU - Calajó, Giuseppe
AU - Chang, Darrick E.
AU - Hammerer, Klemens
AU - Sørensen, Anders S.
N1 - Funding information: The authors thank Mantas ?epulkovskis, Peter Lodahl, Sebastian Hofferberth, Hanna le Jeannic, Johannes Bjerlin, L. Henriet, and J. Douglas for fruitful discussions. S. M. and K. H. acknowledge funding from DFG through Grant No. CRC 1227 DQ-mat, Projects No. A05 and A06, and “Niedersächsisches Vorab” through the “Quantum-and Nano-Metrology.” G. C. and D. E. C. acknowledge support from ERC Starting Grant FOQAL, MINECO Severo Ochoa Grant No. SEV-2015-0522, CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, Fundació Privada Cellex, Fundació Mir-Puig, Fundación Ramón Areces Project CODEC, European Quantum Flagship Project QIA, QuantumCAT (funded within the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia), and Plan Nacional Grant ALIQS, funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación, y Universidades (MCIU), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER). A. S. S. acknowledges support from the Danish National Research Foundation (Center of Excellence Hy-Q).
PY - 2020/7/14
Y1 - 2020/7/14
N2 - We theoretically study the few- and many-body dynamics of photons in chiral waveguides. In particular, we examine pulse propagation through an ensemble of N two-level systems chirally coupled to a waveguide. We show that the system supports correlated multiphoton bound states, which have a well-defined photon number n and propagate through the system with a group delay scaling as 1/n2. This has the interesting consequence that, during propagation, an incident coherent-state pulse breaks up into different bound-state components that can become spatially separated at the output in a sufficiently long system. For sufficiently many photons and sufficiently short systems, we show that linear combinations of n-body bound states recover the well-known phenomenon of mean-field solitons in self-induced transparency. Our work thus covers the entire spectrum from few-photon quantum propagation, to genuine quantum many-body (atom and photon) phenomena, and ultimately the quantum-to-classical transition. Finally, we demonstrate that the bound states can undergo elastic scattering with additional photons. Together, our results demonstrate that photon bound states are truly distinct physical objects emerging from the most elementary light-matter interaction between photons and two-level emitters. Our work opens the door to studying quantum many-body physics and soliton physics with photons in chiral waveguide QED.
AB - We theoretically study the few- and many-body dynamics of photons in chiral waveguides. In particular, we examine pulse propagation through an ensemble of N two-level systems chirally coupled to a waveguide. We show that the system supports correlated multiphoton bound states, which have a well-defined photon number n and propagate through the system with a group delay scaling as 1/n2. This has the interesting consequence that, during propagation, an incident coherent-state pulse breaks up into different bound-state components that can become spatially separated at the output in a sufficiently long system. For sufficiently many photons and sufficiently short systems, we show that linear combinations of n-body bound states recover the well-known phenomenon of mean-field solitons in self-induced transparency. Our work thus covers the entire spectrum from few-photon quantum propagation, to genuine quantum many-body (atom and photon) phenomena, and ultimately the quantum-to-classical transition. Finally, we demonstrate that the bound states can undergo elastic scattering with additional photons. Together, our results demonstrate that photon bound states are truly distinct physical objects emerging from the most elementary light-matter interaction between photons and two-level emitters. Our work opens the door to studying quantum many-body physics and soliton physics with photons in chiral waveguide QED.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091827561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevX.10.031011
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevX.10.031011
M3 - Article
VL - 10
JO - Physical Review X
JF - Physical Review X
SN - 2160-3308
IS - 3
M1 - 031011
ER -