Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media
Solitons are known to occur in the context of atom-light interaction via the well-known semiclassical phenomenon of self-induced transparency (SIT). Separately, in the regime where both light and atoms are fully treated quantum mechanically, quantum few-photon bound states are known to be a ubiquito...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Research |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023026 |
| _version_ | 1797210828336791552 |
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| author | G. Calajó D. E. Chang |
| author_facet | G. Calajó D. E. Chang |
| author_sort | G. Calajó |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Solitons are known to occur in the context of atom-light interaction via the well-known semiclassical phenomenon of self-induced transparency (SIT). Separately, in the regime where both light and atoms are fully treated quantum mechanically, quantum few-photon bound states are known to be a ubiquitous phenomenon that arises in different systems such as atoms coupled to chiral or bidirectional waveguides, and in Rydberg atomic media. In the specific case of two-level atoms coupled to a chiral waveguide, a recent analysis based on Bethe ansatz has established that SIT emerges from the quantum realm as a superposition of quantum many-photon bound states. Beyond this case, however, the nature of any connection between the full quantum many-body regime and semiclassical behavior has not been established. Here, we employ a general spin-model formulation of quantum atom-light interfaces to numerically investigate this problem, taking advantage of the fact that this approach readily allows for powerful many-body simulations based on matrix product states (MPS). We first analytically derive the two-photon bound state dispersion relation for a variety of atom-light interfaces and then proceed to numerically investigate the multiexcitation bound states dynamics. Interestingly, for all the specific systems studied, we find that the large-photon number limit always coincides with the soliton phenomenon of self-induced transparency or immediate generalizations thereof. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:16:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f26bbf831d8440f6ba89e890666ee920 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2643-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:16:48Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physical Review Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-f26bbf831d8440f6ba89e890666ee9202024-04-12T17:19:45ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642022-04-014202302610.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023026Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear mediaG. CalajóD. E. ChangSolitons are known to occur in the context of atom-light interaction via the well-known semiclassical phenomenon of self-induced transparency (SIT). Separately, in the regime where both light and atoms are fully treated quantum mechanically, quantum few-photon bound states are known to be a ubiquitous phenomenon that arises in different systems such as atoms coupled to chiral or bidirectional waveguides, and in Rydberg atomic media. In the specific case of two-level atoms coupled to a chiral waveguide, a recent analysis based on Bethe ansatz has established that SIT emerges from the quantum realm as a superposition of quantum many-photon bound states. Beyond this case, however, the nature of any connection between the full quantum many-body regime and semiclassical behavior has not been established. Here, we employ a general spin-model formulation of quantum atom-light interfaces to numerically investigate this problem, taking advantage of the fact that this approach readily allows for powerful many-body simulations based on matrix product states (MPS). We first analytically derive the two-photon bound state dispersion relation for a variety of atom-light interfaces and then proceed to numerically investigate the multiexcitation bound states dynamics. Interestingly, for all the specific systems studied, we find that the large-photon number limit always coincides with the soliton phenomenon of self-induced transparency or immediate generalizations thereof.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023026 |
| spellingShingle | G. Calajó D. E. Chang Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media Physical Review Research |
| title | Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| title_full | Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| title_fullStr | Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| title_short | Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| title_sort | emergence of solitons from many body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023026 |
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