Chiral quantum optics in photonic sawtooth lattices

  1. Eduardo Sánchez-Burillo,
  2. Chao Wan,
  3. David Zueco,
  4. and Alejandro González-Tudela
Chiral quantum optics has become a burgeoning field due to its potential applications in quantum networks or quantum simulation of many-body physics. Current implementations are based
on the interplay between local polarization and propagation direction of light in nanophotonic structures. In this manuscript, we propose an alternative platform based on coupling quantum emitters to a photonic \emph{sawtooth} lattice, a one-dimensional model with an effective flux per plaquette introduced by complex tunnelings. We study the dynamics emerging from such structured photonic bath and find the conditions to obtain quasi-perfect directional emission when the emitters are resonant with the band. In addition, we find that the photons in this bath can also mediate complex emitter-emitter interactions tunable in range and phase when the emitters transition frequencies lie within a band-gap. Since these effects do not rely on polarization they can be observed in platforms beyond nanophotonics such as matter-waves or circuit QED ones, of which we discuss a possible implementation.

Nonlinear quantum optics in the (ultra)strong light-matter coupling

  1. Eduardo Sánchez-Burillo,
  2. Juanjo García-Ripoll,
  3. Luis Martín-Moreno,
  4. and David Zueco
The propagation of N photons in one dimensional waveguides coupled to M qubits is discussed, both in the strong and ultrastrong qubit-waveguide coupling. Special emphasis is placed
on the characterisation of the nonlinear response and its linear limit for the scattered photons as a function of N, M, qubit inter distance and light-matter coupling. The quantum evolution is numerically solved via the Matrix Product States technique. Both the time evolution for the field and qubits is computed. The nonlinear character (as a function of N/M) depends on the computed observable. While perfect reflection is obtained for N/M≅1, photon-photon correlations are still resolved for ratios N/M=2/20. Inter-qubit distance enhances the nonlinear response. Moving to the ultrastrong coupling regime, we observe that inelastic processes are \emph{robust} against the number of qubits and that the qubit-qubit interaction mediated by the photons is qualitatively modified. The theory developed in this work modelises experiments in circuit QED, photonic crystals and dielectric waveguides