Quantum light-matter interactions in structured waveguides
Abstract
We explore special features of quantum light-matter interactions inside structured waveguides due to their finite bandwidth, band edges, and nontrivial topological properties. We model the waveguides as either a tight-binding (TB) chain or a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain. For unstructured waveguides with infinite bandwidth, the transmission and reflection coefficients of a side-coupled two-level emitter (2LE) are the same as the reflection and transmission coefficients of a direct-coupled 2LE. We show that this analogy breaks down for structured waveguides with finite bandwidth due to the appearance of Lamb shift only for the direct-coupled 2LE. We further predict a robust light-emitter coupling at zero collective decay width of a single giant 2LE (with two couplings at different points) near the band edges of the structured waveguides where topological features can be beneficial. Finally, we study single-photon dynamics in a heterojunction of a long TB and short SSH waveguide connected to a 2LE at the SSH end. We show the propagation of a photon from the excited emitter to the TB waveguide only when the SSH waveguide is in the topological phase. Thus, the heterojunction acts as a conditional propagation channel.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- November 2023
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.108.053717
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2304.13306
- Bibcode:
- 2023PhRvA.108e3717B
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Optics;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 15 pages, 11 figures