Self-protected polariton states in photonic quantum metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper studies how a single qubit in a 1D cavity array creates long-lived, self-protected polariton states that significantly enhance photon transmission stability, even with weak coupling.

Contribution

It reveals the existence of ultra-narrow, long-lived polaritonic states in a coupled cavity array with a qubit, demonstrating exponential lifetime growth with array size.

Findings

Ultra-narrow resonances indicate long-lived polaritonic states.

Lifetimes increase exponentially with array length.

Protection of states occurs even in weak light-matter coupling regimes.

Abstract

We investigate the single-photon transport properties of a one-dimensional coupled cavity array (CCA) containing a single qubit in its central site by coupling the CCA to two transmission lines supporting propagating bosonic modes with linear dispersion. We find that even in the nominally weak light-matter coupling regime, the transmission through a long array exhibits two ultra-narrow resonances corresponding to long-lived self-protected polaritonic states localized around the site containing the qubit. The lifetime of these states is found to increase exponentially with the number of array sites in sharp distinction to the polaritonic Bloch modes of the cavity array.