Transparency, Nonclassicality and Nonreciprocity in Chiral Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum properties like transparency and nonreciprocity in a chiral waveguide coupled to qubits, revealing conditions for quantum nonclassicality and a new quantum criticality that enhances nonreciprocal effects.

Contribution

It introduces novel conditions for transparency and nonreciprocity in chiral waveguide QED, including a new quantum criticality phenomenon for controlling quantum fluctuations.

Findings

Transparency in forward transmission for antisymmetric detuned qubits at specific phase separations.

Achieving $g^{(2)}(0)<1$ indicating nonclassical light even with damping.

Discovery of quantum criticality enabling complete suppression of forward transmission.

Abstract

We examine quantum statistical properties of transmission and reflection from a chiral waveguide coupled to qubits for arbitrary input powers. We report on several remarkable features of output fields such as transparency, quantum nonreciprocity and the second-order correlation function $g^{(2)}(0)$ values less than unity. In particular, for two qubits detuned antisymmetrically with respect to the central waveguide frequency, we find transparency in forward transmission and in photon numbers for arbitrary values of the input powers provided the phase separation between qubits is an integer multiple of $\pi$. Values of $g^{(2)}(0)$ less than unity can be reached even for nonzero value of the intrinsic damping by using phase separation different from integer multiple of $\pi$, marking the transition from classical to quantum light. We also uncover a new type of quantum criticality that enables complete suppression of forward-propagating amplitude transmission at specific driving powers, giving rise to enhanced nonreciprocal effects in both transmission and quantum fluctuations in amplitudes. Forward propagation amplifies the quantum fluctuations in amplitudes, while backward propagation significantly suppresses them. These findings open new pathways for controlling light-matter interactions in chiral quantum electrodynamics, with potential applications in quantum information and nonreciprocal quantum devices.