Simulating quantum light propagation through atomic ensembles using matrix product states. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Manzoni, Marco; Chang, Darrick; Douglas, James
• Is Part Of: Nature communications. Volume 8:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 11
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Biology -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; 505
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01416-4
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-1723

Abstract

Abstract A powerful method to interface quantum light with matter is to propagate the light through an ensemble of atoms. Recently, a number of such interfaces have emerged, most prominently Rydberg ensembles, that enable strong nonlinear interactions between propagating photons. A largely open problem is whether these systems produce exotic many-body states of light and developing new tools to study propagation in the large photon number limit is highly desirable. Here we provide a method based on a "spin model" that maps quasi one-dimensional (1D) light propagation to the dynamics of an open 1D interacting spin system, where all photon correlations are obtained from those of the spins. The spin dynamics in turn are numerically solved using the toolbox of matrix product states. We apply this formalism to investigate vacuum induced transparency, wherein the different photon number components of a pulse propagate with number-dependent group velocity and separate at output. Numerical simulation of light propagation through 1D atomic systems in the many-body limit rapidly saturates hardware capabilities. Here, the authors tackle the problem by mapping the dynamics to an open 1D interacting spin system and solving it using the matrix product state ansatz.