Abstract
Quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide are a paradigm of quantum optics, whose essential properties are described by waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED). We study the possibility of observing the typical features of the conventional waveguide QED scenario in a system where the role of the waveguide is played by a one-dimensional subwavelength atomic array. For the role of emitters, we propose to use antisymmetric states of atomic dimers---a pair of closely spaced atoms---as effective two-level systems, which significantly reduces the effect of free-space spontaneous emission. We solve the dynamics of the system both when the dimer frequency lies inside and when it lies outside the band of modes of the array. Along with well-known phenomena of collective emission into the guided modes and waveguide-mediated long-range dimer-dimer interactions, we uncover significant non-Markovian corrections which arise from both the finiteness of the array and through retardation effects.
Highlights
The interaction between quantum emitters and a structured reservoir leads to a rich phenomenology
Quantum emitters coupled to a waveguide are a paradigm of quantum optics, whose essential properties are described by waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED)
We study the possibility of observing the typical features of the conventional waveguide QED scenario in a system where the role of the waveguide is played by a one-dimensional subwavelength atomic array
Summary
The interaction between quantum emitters and a structured reservoir leads to a rich phenomenology. The dynamics of the emitters shows signs of non-Markovian effects, which spoil some of the interesting phenomena of conventional waveguide QED Some of these difficulties may be overcome by reducing the interatomic separation of the waveguide and by placing the impurity atoms extremely close to the array [40,41], but it is challenging to achieve the required deep subwavelength regime experimentally. We derive simple models for our setup that predict collective emission from the impurity dimers into an array’s subradiant mode, and coherent long-range interactions between impurity dimers mediated by the array We verify both observations numerically for the case of an atomic array with interatomic separation of a quarter wavelength, a regime where the simpler case of single atoms coupled to an atomic waveguide is hampered by free-space decay and non-Markovian effects [40].
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