Fast and high excitation transport in waveguide quantum electrodynamics

Abstract Waveguide quantum electrodynamics (wQED) with underlying collective and long-range atom-atom interactions has led to many distinct dynamical phenomena, including modified collective radiations and intriguing quantum correlations. It stands out as a unique platform to illustrate correlated photon transport, as well as to promise applications in quantum information processing. Here we manifest a fast and high atomic excitation transport by employing two separated chirally-coupled atomic arrays. This enhanced waveguide-mediated transport of excitations emerges due to the dominance of few subradiant right eigenstates that are spectrally isolated and spatially localized in the system’s dynamics. Contrary to the instinct of applying the cascaded systems with unidirectional couplings to expedite direct and high excitation transport, the optimal system configurations in open wQED systems demand slight or finite nonreciprocal decay channels to facilitate energy transport by exploiting waveguide-mediated couplings. We also investigate the effect of the couplings’ directionality and the scaling of atom number on the transport properties. Our results showcase the wide applicability in wQED platforms and provide insights into quantum engineering and quantum information applications.