01948nas a2200169 4500008004100000245007300041210006900114260001400183520141700197100002401614700001901638700001801657700001901675700002501694700002201719856003701741 2024 eng d00aUltrastrong light-matter interaction in a multimode photonic crystal0 aUltrastrong lightmatter interaction in a multimode photonic crys c2/21/20243 a

Harnessing the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level has been a central theme in atomic physics and quantum optics, with applications from quantum computation to quantum metrology. Combining complex interactions with photonic synthetic materials provides an opportunity to investigate novel quantum phases and phenomena, establishing interesting connections to condensed matter physics. Here we explore many-body phenomena with a single artificial atom coupled to the many discrete modes of a photonic crystal. This experiment reaches the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime using the circuit quantum electrodynamics paradigm, by galvanically coupling a highly nonlinear fluxonium qubit to a tight-binding lattice of microwave resonators. In this regime, the transport of a single photon becomes a many-body problem, owing to the strong participation of multi-photon bound states arising from interactions that break particle number conservation. Exploiting the effective photon-photon interactions mediated by the qubit, the transport of multiple photons leads to complex multimode dynamics that can be employed for generating a continuous reservoir of strongly-correlated photons, an important resource for quantum networks. This work opens exciting prospects for exploring nonlinear quantum optics at the single-photon level and stabilizing entangled many-body phases of light.

1 aVrajitoarea, Andrei1 aBelyansky, Ron1 aLundgren, Rex1 aWhitsitt, Seth1 aGorshkov, Alexey, V.1 aHouck, Andrew, A. uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2209.1497201706nas a2200193 4500008004100000245008500041210006900126260001400195490000600209520111700215100001901332700001901351700001801370700001601388700002401404700002201428700002501450856003701475 2021 eng d00aFrustration-induced anomalous transport and strong photon decay in waveguide QED0 aFrustrationinduced anomalous transport and strong photon decay i c9/16/20210 v33 a

We study the propagation of photons in a one-dimensional environment consisting of two non-interacting species of photons frustratingly coupled to a single spin-1/2. The ultrastrong frustrated coupling leads to an extreme mixing of the light and matter degrees of freedom, resulting in the disintegration of the spin and a breakdown of the "dressed-spin", or polaron, description. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods, we show that the elastic response becomes increasingly weak at the effective spin frequency, showing instead an increasingly strong and broadband response at higher energies. We also show that the photons can decay into multiple photons of smaller energies. The total probability of these inelastic processes can be as large as the total elastic scattering rate, or half of the total scattering rate, which is as large as it can be. The frustrated spin induces strong anisotropic photon-photon interactions that are dominated by inter-species interactions. Our results are relevant to state-of-the-art circuit and cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments.

1 aBelyansky, Ron1 aWhitsitt, Seth1 aLundgren, Rex1 aWang, Yidan1 aVrajitoarea, Andrei1 aHouck, Andrew, A.1 aGorshkov, Alexey, V. uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2007.0369002064nas a2200181 4500008004100000245007100041210006900112260001300181520150800194100001901702700001901721700001801740700001601758700002401774700002201798700002501820856003701845 2020 eng d00aTransport and dynamics in the frustrated two-bath spin-boson model0 aTransport and dynamics in the frustrated twobath spinboson model c7/7/20203 a

We study the strong coupling dynamics as well as transport properties of photons in the two-bath spin-boson model, in which a spin-1/2 particle is frustratingly coupled to two independent Ohmic bosonic baths. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods, we show that the frustration in this model gives rise to rich physics in a very wide range of energies. This is in contrast to the one-bath spin-boson model, where the non-trivial physics occurs at an energy scale close to the renormalized spin frequency. The renormalized spin frequency in the two-bath spin-boson model is still important, featuring in different observables, including the non-equiblirum dynamics of both the spin and the baths along with the elastic transport properties of a photon. The latter however reveals a much more complex structure. The elastic scattering displays non-monotonic behavior at high frequencies, and is very different in the two channels: intra- and inter-bath scattering. The photon can also be inelastically scattered, a process in which it is split into several photons of smaller energies. We show that such inelastic processes are highly anisotropic, with the outgoing particles being preferentially emitted into only one of the baths. Moreover, the inelastic scattering rate is parameterically larger than in the one-bath case, and can even exceed the total elastic rate. Our results can be verified with state-of-the-art circuit and cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments. 

1 aBelyansky, Ron1 aWhitsitt, Seth1 aLundgren, Rex1 aWang, Yidan1 aVrajitoarea, Andrei1 aHouck, Andrew, A.1 aGorshkov, Alexey, V. uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03690