Subradiance-protected excitation transport

We explore excitation transport within a one-dimensional chain of atoms where the atomic transition dipoles are coupled to the free radiation field. When the atoms are separated by distances smaller or comparable to the wavelength of the transition, the exchange of virtual photons leads to the trans...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2019-07, Vol.21 (7), p.73061
Main Authors: Needham, Jemma A, Lesanovsky, Igor, Olmos, Beatriz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decay rate
Dipoles
Energy storage
Excitation
excitation transport
Group velocity
light-matter interactions
open quantum systems
Physics
Transport
Wave dispersion
Wave packets
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We explore excitation transport within a one-dimensional chain of atoms where the atomic transition dipoles are coupled to the free radiation field. When the atoms are separated by distances smaller or comparable to the wavelength of the transition, the exchange of virtual photons leads to the transport of the excitation through the lattice. Even though this is a strongly dissipative system, we find that the transport is subradiant, that is, the excitation lifetime is orders of magnitude longer than the one of an individual atom. In particular, we show that a subspace of the spectrum is formed by subradiant states with a linear dispersion relation, which allows for the dispersionless transport of wave packets over long distances with virtually zero decay rate. Moreover, the group velocity and direction of the transport can be controlled via an external uniform magnetic field while preserving its subradiant character. The simplicity and versatility of this system, together with the robustness of subradiance against disorder, makes it relevant for a range of applications such as lossless energy transport and long-time light storage.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/ab31e8