Emergent cavity-QED dynamics along the edge of a photonic lattice

Abstract:We investigate qubits coupled to the boundary of a two dimensional photonic lattice that supports dispersionless edge modes, unlike conventional edge modes that sustain propagating photons. As a case study, we consider a honeycomb lattice (photonic graphene) of coupled resonators with a zigzag edge, where the edge modes form a flat band defined only over a restricted region of momentum space. We show that light matter interactions are effectively captured by a dissipative cavity QED model, wherein the emitter coherently couples to a fictitious cavity mode emerging as a superposition of edge modes. This mode has support on only one sublattice and, most notably, displays an unconventional power law localization around the qubit, yet remaining normalizable in the thermodynamic limit, with a spatial range that can be tuned by introducing lattice anisotropy We predict occurrence of vacuum Rabi oscillations and efficient state transfer between distant emitters. An experimental demonstration using superconducting circuits is proposed.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

arXiv:2507.13444 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2507.13444v3 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.13444 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Quantum Sci. Technol. 11 045055 (2026)

https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/aea2c7 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources

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