Electron-phonon decoupling due to strong light-matter interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strong light-matter interactions in exciton-cavity structures can suppress phonon-induced decoherence, enhancing quantum coherence and photon indistinguishability in solid-state photonics.

Contribution

It reveals a new regime where phonon decoherence is fully suppressed due to strong light-matter coupling, supported by non-perturbative tensor network calculations.

Findings

Decoupling of phonons leads to near-unity photon indistinguishability.

Multiple phonon sidebands appear at high coupling strengths.

Phonon-dressing of polaritons observed in high-Q regimes.

Abstract

Phonon interactions in solid-state photonics systems cause intrinsic quantum decoherence and often present the limiting factor in emerging quantum technology. Due to recent developments in nanophotonics, exciton-cavity structures with very strong light-matter coupling rates can be fabricated. We show that in such structures, a new regime emerges, where the decoherence is completely suppressed due to decoupling of the dominant phonon process. Using a numerically exact tensor network approach, we perform calculations in this non-perturbative, non-Markovian dynamical regime. Here, we identify a strategy for reaching near-unity photon indistinguishability and also discover an interesting phonon-dressing of the exciton-cavity polaritons in the high-Q regime, leading to multiple phonon sidebands when the light-matter interaction is sufficiently strong.