Coupling slot-waveguide cavities for large-scale quantum optical devices

TL;DR

This paper investigates two-dimensional arrays of slot-waveguide cavities with small modal volumes, demonstrating their potential for strong atom-photon coupling and applications in quantum emulators and phase transition devices.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of coupling mechanisms in slot-waveguide cavities, establishing their suitability for large-scale quantum optical systems.

Findings

Slot-waveguide cavities can be effectively coupled in arrays.

They can be modeled with a tight-binding approach.

Suitable for Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard physics applications.

Abstract

By offering effective modal volumes significantly less than a cubic wavelength, slot-waveguide cavities offer a new in-road into strong atom-photon coupling in the visible regime. Here we explore two-dimensional arrays of coupled slot cavities which underpin designs for novel quantum emulators and polaritonic quantum phase transition devices. Specifically, we investigate the lateral coupling characteristics of diamond-air and GaP-air slot waveguides using numerically-assisted coupled-mode theory, and the longitudinal coupling properties via distributed Bragg reflectors using mode-propagation simulations. We find that slot-waveguide cavities in the Fabry-Perot arrangement can be coupled and effectively treated with a tight-binding description, and are a suitable platform for realizing Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard physics.