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  • Open Access

Antibunching in locally driven dissipative Lieb lattices

Alex Ferrier1,2,*, Michał Matuszewski2, Piotr Deuar3, and Marzena H. Szymańska1

  • *Contact author: a.ferrier@ucl.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 185306 – Published 22 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/g22d-99w7

Abstract

In Lieb lattices, geometric frustration and destructive interference of hopping cancels the occupation of certain sites, leading to flat-band physics. Here, we show numerically how, in the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model arranged into Lieb lattices and related geometries, specific localized driving schemes can repurpose this interference to generate enhanced antibunching via a mechanism similar to the so-called unconventional photon blockade. Stochastic simulations using the positive-P method allow us to calculate occupations and second-order correlations exactly for extended lattices. We use this to optimize the parameters for the possible observation of this effect in polariton micropillar experiments. This work demonstrates the possibility of using localized driving and interference effects to generate nontrivial quantum correlations in open quantum lattice systems—specifically, producing antibunching in the dark sites of the flat-band system rather than the usual and less useful bunching.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 185306– Published 22 September, 2026
  • Received 7 November 2025
  • Accepted 31 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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