Controlling chiral atom-photon bound states and spatial adiabatic passage in a photonic topological cold-atom system
Phys. Rev. A 112, 033713 – Published 16 September, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/z8yz-rq26
Abstract
Controlling light-matter interactions has been a long-standing goal in quantum optics, particularly through engineering the dispersion relation of the (structured) baths and tailoring the couplings between fields and emitters. We propose a topological cold-atom system with dynamical modulations to realize chiral atom-photon bound states (APBSs) and controllable spatial adiabatic passage (SAP). The system, modeled as a Rice-Mele chain using a double-well lattice and facilitating giant-atom-like nonlocal interaction, exhibits intriguing phenomena such as subradiance and superradiance. We demonstrate that APBSs with tunable chirality can be realized in the bound states in the continuum (BICs) and quasi-BICs and support the decoherence-free interaction via two distinct schemes. We also reveal the dynamical mechanisms for the topologically protected SAP, where the chiral-APBS fidelity during the adiabatic transfer is highly sensitive to the topology. These findings open possibilities for quantum simulation and information processing with cold atoms, particularly through the integration of topologically protected controllable mechanisms.
