2019/12/31 by Zhihai Wang, Tuomas Jaako, Peter Kirton +1
Computer Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Channel (broadcasting) #Excited state #Interference (communication) #Nanophotonics #Nonlinear system #Optoelectronics #Photon #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photonics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics #Resonator #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Waveguide #cond-mat.mes-hall #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.124.213601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 213601 (2020) · 6+13 pages 4+7 figures, more details are discussed
arxiv created 2020/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2020/05/27 · arxiv updated 2020/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We study the collective decay of two-level emitters coupled to a nonlinear waveguide, for example, a nanophotonic lattice or a superconducting resonator array with strong photon-photon interactions. Under these conditions, a new decay channel into bound photon pairs emerges, through which spatial correlations between emitters are established by regular interference as well as interactions between the photons. We derive an effective Markovian theory to model the resulting decay dynamics of an arbitrary distribution of emitters and identify collective effects beyond the usual phenomena of super- and subradiance. Specifically, in the limit of many close-by emitters, we find that the system undergoes a supercorrelated decay process where all the emitters are either in the excited state or in the ground state but not in any of the intermediate states. The predicted effects can be probed in state-of-the-art waveguide QED experiments and provide a striking example of how the dynamics of open quantum systems can be modified by many-body effects in a nonharmonic environment.