Formation of supermodes in atom-microcavity chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates how supermodes form in chains of atom-microcavity systems coupled via a fiber, highlighting the influence of chain geometry and subsystem number on transmission and reflection properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of supermode formation in atom-microcavity chains, emphasizing the effects of geometry and subsystem count on optical transmission and reflection.

Findings

Supermodes enhance transmission as the number of atom-cavity subsystems increases.

Spectral ranges exist where chain geometry determines supermode formation.

Reflection signals can identify atom-cavity coupling in experiments.

Abstract

A chain of atom-microcavity systems coupled by a common fiber is considered. We analyze the formation of supermodes and focus on the dependence of this effect on the chain geometry and the number of atom-cavity subsystems. We show that the significance of supermodes to the transmission increases with the number of atom-cavity subsystems. We identify spectral ranges in which the chain geometry decides whether supermodes are formed, and ranges which are insensitive to the geometry. Furthermore, we show that the reflection signal allows to identify which cavities couple to atoms, which is a crucial information in experimental realizations of longer atom-cavity chain systems.