Chirality and the photon transport in disordered waveguide quantum electrodynamics

Few-level emitters coupled to optical waveguides (waveguide QED) has emerged as a fascinating platform to observe several quantum optical effects in a single setup [1]. In the many-emitter waveguide QED, almost all of the studies to date have considered a periodic arrangement of atoms. In our recent work [2], by relaxing this condition we have studied the transport of single photons in the presence of disorder (either in the position of emitters or in their transition frequencies). A key focus of this work is to analyze how preferential emission directions in the waveguide (chirality) [3] impacts the formation of photon localized and extended states in the presence of disorder.

[1] D. Roy et. al, Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 021001 (2017)

[2] Imran M. Mirza, John C. Schotland, JOSA B, 35 (5), 1149-1158 (2018)

[3] P. Lodhal et al., Nature, 541, 473-480 (2017)