Bound and Subradiant Multi-Atom Excitations in an Atomic Array with Nonreciprocal Couplings

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strongly coupled atomic arrays with nonreciprocal interactions can form bound, subradiant multi-atom excitations that are useful for quantum information storage and photon routing.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of collective atomic excitations with nonreciprocal couplings, revealing stable dimers and trimers for quantum applications.

Findings

Emergence of shape-preserving atomic dimers and trimers in subradiant regimes

Long-lived correlations due to collective decay and coupling

Potential for robust quantum information processing and photon routing

Abstract

Collective decays of multiply-excited atoms become subradiant and bound in space when they are strongly coupled to the guided modes in an atom-waveguide interface. In this interface, we analyze their average density-density and modified third-order correlations via Kubo cumulant expansions, which can arise and sustain for long time. The shape-preserving dimers and trimers of atomic excitations emerge in the most subradiant coupling regime of light-induced dipole-dipole interactions. This leads to a potential application of quantum information processing and quantum storage in the encoded nonreciprocal spin diffusion, where its diffusion speed depends on the initial coherence between the excited atoms and is robust to their relative phase fluctuations. The state-dependent photon routing can be viable as well in this interface.