Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. At variance with the well-known artificial giant atoms for microwave photonics, here we propose the archetype of a giant atom working in the optical regime by considering a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) and also driven by a coherent field. Giant-atom effects are observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution stage while a nontrivial internal entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward nonguided vacuum modes and is accompanied by antibunching in the emitted photons. Our predictions should be observable in current Rydberg-PCW experiments and may open the way toward giant-atom optical photonics for quantum information processing.

Giant-atom effects on population and entanglement dynamics of Rydberg atoms in the optical regime

DU, Lei;ARTONI, MAURIZIO;LA ROCCA, Giuseppe Carlo
2023

Abstract

Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. At variance with the well-known artificial giant atoms for microwave photonics, here we propose the archetype of a giant atom working in the optical regime by considering a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) and also driven by a coherent field. Giant-atom effects are observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution stage while a nontrivial internal entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward nonguided vacuum modes and is accompanied by antibunching in the emitted photons. Our predictions should be observable in current Rydberg-PCW experiments and may open the way toward giant-atom optical photonics for quantum information processing.
2023
Settore FIS/03 - Fisica della Materia
   National Quantum Science and Technology Institute
   NQSTI
   MUR
   PNRR
   PE0000023-NQSTI
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11384/139303
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