Time-reversal-symmetry breaking in circuit-QED-based photon lattices

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.043811· OSTI ID:21454822

Koch, Jens; Le Hur, Karyn; Girvin, S M ^[1]; Houck, Andrew A ^[2]

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1. Departments of Physics and Applied Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208120, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 (United States)
2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 (United States)

Breaking time-reversal symmetry is a prerequisite for accessing certain interesting many-body states such as fractional quantum Hall states. For polaritons, charge neutrality prevents magnetic fields from providing a direct symmetry-breaking mechanism and, similar to the situation in ultracold atomic gases, an effective magnetic field has to be synthesized. We show that in the circuit-QED architecture, this can be achieved by inserting simple superconducting circuits into the resonator junctions. In the presence of such coupling elements, constant parallel magnetic and electric fields suffice to break time-reversal symmetry. We support these theoretical predictions with numerical simulations for realistic sample parameters, specify general conditions under which time reversal is broken, and discuss the application to chiral Fock-state transfer, an on-chip circulator, and tunable band structure for the Kagome lattice.

• OSTI ID: 21454822
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 82, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.82.043811; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CAVITY RESONATORS
CHIRALITY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COUPLING
ELECTRIC FIELDS
HALL EFFECT
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
PHOTONS
POLARONS
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY BREAKING
T INVARIANCE
BOSONS
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
FIELD THEORIES
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
MASSLESS PARTICLES
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUASI PARTICLES
RESONATORS
SIMULATION