Few-photon diode effects in a chiral waveguide coupled to a dissipative giant atom
Phys. Rev. A 114, 033721 – Published 15 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8j4h-1vfp
Abstract
Nonreciprocal transport at the few-photon level is important for integrated quantum optics and quantum information processing. Unlike conventional small atoms, giant atoms interact with a waveguide through multiple discrete coupling points, allowing photons to accumulate phases along different coupling paths. In this paper, we theoretically investigate few-photon diode effects in a one-dimensional waveguide chirally coupled to a dissipative giant atom. By solving the Schrödinger equation, we obtain analytical solutions for both single-photon and two-photon scattering processes. Our results show that the two-point coupling structure of the giant atom allows diode effects to occur in multiple frequency regions, rather than only near resonance. By tuning the distance between the two coupling points, one can modify the propagation phase and the interference condition. This provides a geometric way to control the operating frequency range of the diode effect. For the chiral coupling configuration considered here, the optimal diode performance is obtained when the atom-waveguide coupling rate and the dissipation rate satisfy . The two-photon diode effect further shows a clear dependence on . For , the nonreciprocal response mainly appears in the bound-state-dominated region. In contrast, for , the transport tends to become reciprocal. These results indicate that nonlocal giant-atom coupling, chiral coupling, and dissipation can work together to realize frequency-tunable few-photon nonreciprocal transport.