LEAPS-MPS: Entanglement, Transport and Collective Effects in Few-Photon Many-Emitter Chiral Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The requirement of establishing a strong coupling between light (quantized electromagnetic radiation) and single atoms (quantum emitters) is ubiquitous in the fundamental studies of light-matter interaction at the smallest scale. Typically, this interaction is simplified to a scenario of single-mode fields trapped inside optical cavities and coupled with a single atom.

However, the recent advancements in quantum computing and quantum networking are requiring the coherent control of 100-1000 quantum bits (qubits) with the possibility of reliable quantum communication over 100s kilometers. In this context, multiple-emitter waveguide quantum electrodynamics (one-dimensional waveguides/fibers strongly coupled with a chain of atoms) has emerged as a fascinating platform due to its ability to host several useful quantum effects (such as quantum correlations e.g., entanglement, atom-photon bound state formation, one-way light-matter interaction or chirality, controlled photon transport, and collective photon emission, etc.) in a single setup.

This project aims to study one-way or chiral waveguide quantum electrodynamics architectures as a testbed to investigate many-body quantum optical effects under the influence of environmental interactions. The completion of this project will result in the development of more powerful theoretical and numerical tools that will go beyond the typical single-atom single-mode field interaction paradigm of quantum optics and will be suitable for the examination of the state-of-the-art and futuristic quantum technological devices.

The project includes the development of a two-year program of integrating research and education in quantum optics and quantum information science (QIS) in the Physics Department at Miami University. With the growing interest and investment in the National Quantum Initiative, there is a demand for training the next generation of workforce in QIS. This award will offer such training opportunities by engaging historically underrepresented students through direct outreach at the high school and undergraduate levels.

To further extend the outreach program, the PI will develop online and face-to-face modules accessible to high school students through the Miami University Summer Scholar Program and undergrad students through the Miami University eLearning department.

In particular, the proposed research here aims to: (1) perform an in-depth theoretical study of the quantum transport properties of few (one, two, or three)-photon Fock states in chiral waveguides that are simultaneously coupled with several noisy quantum emitters, and to (2) analyze the generation and control of several types of quantum effects such as entanglement between emitters, collective emitter effects (superradiance, subradiance, selective radiance), and emitter-cavity bound states, etc. Open quantum system approaches (Markovian and non-Markovian master equations, real-space quantization technique, and quantum jump approach) will be utilized to quantify the photon transport in terms of reflection and transmission spectra, second-order correlation functions as well as to predict the time evolution of emitter- waveguide systems.

At every stage of the project, the connection of the results obtained with the experimentally feasible applications in quantum information transfer, storage, and processing protocols will also be emphasized. Additionally, while accomplishing the goals of the project, the PI will train a group of two graduate and six undergraduate students in quantum information science at Miami University.

The PI will also introduce concepts of quantum computation in various undergraduate-level physics courses and will offer quantum computing modules for underrepresented groups of high school students through the Miami University Summer Scholar Program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.