Attaining nearly ideal Dicke superradiance in expanded spatial domains

Abstract

<p>Dicke superradiance is essentially a case of correlated dissipation leading to the macroscopic quantum coherence. Superradiance for arrays of inverted emitters in free space requires interactions far beyond the nearest neighbor, limiting its occurrence to small emitter-emitter distances. Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, which exhibit infinite effective wavelengths, can mediate long-range interactions between emitters. We investigate the superradiance properties of two ENZ structures, namely plasmonic waveguides and dielectric photonic crystals, and demonstrate their potential to support near-ideal Dicke superradiance across expanded spatial domains. We employ a general method that we have developed to assess the occurrence of superradiance, which is applicable to various coupling scenarios and relies only on the decoherence matrix. Furthermore, by numerically examining the emission dynamics of the few-emitter systems, we distinguish the roles of quantum coherence at different stages of emission for the case of all-to-all interaction, and demonstrate that the maximum quantum coherence in the system can be determined using the maximum photon burst rate. The findings of this work have prospective applications in quantum information processing and light-matter interaction.</p><ul>​​​​​​​</ul>