Dicke materials as a resource for quantum squeezing

TL;DR

This paper explores how certain magnetic materials, called Dicke materials, can exhibit quantum squeezing near a superradiant phase transition, with potential applications in quantum metrology.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Dicke materials can host stable ground state squeezing despite common imperfections, expanding their use in quantum technologies.

Findings

Ground state squeezing is perturbatively stable against temperature, disorder, and local interactions.

Dicke materials can exhibit signatures of a superradiant phase transition.

Quantitative regimes for experimental observation are identified.

Abstract

We study magnetic materials whose low energy physics can be effectively described by a Dicke model, which we term Dicke materials. We show how a Dicke model emerges in such materials due to a coexistence of fast-dispersing and slow-dispersing spins, which are strongly coupled. Analogous to the paradigmatic Dicke model describing light-matter interactions, these materials also exhibit signatures of a superradiant phase transition. The ground state near the superradiant phase transition is expected to be squeezed, making Dicke materials a resource for quantum metrology and witnessing entanglement in solid-state systems. However, as an entanglement measure, squeezing can be sensitive to perturbations that are otherwise irrelevant for usual correlation functions and order parameters. Motivated by the prospect of observing squeezing in such Dicke materials, we study the robustness of ground state squeezing under ubiquitous imperfections such as finite temperature, disorder, and local interactions. Using analytical and numerical techniques, we show that the squeezing obtained is perturbatively stable against these imperfections and quantitatively evaluate regimes promising for experimental observation.