Cooperative Breakdown of the Oscillator Blockade in the Dicke Model

Florentin Reiter, Thanh Long Nguyen, Jonathan P. Home, and Susanne F. Yelin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 233602 – Published 30 November 2020
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Abstract

The Dicke model, which describes the coupling of an ensemble of spins to a harmonic oscillator, is known for its superradiant phase transition, which can both be observed in the ground state in a purely Hamiltonian setting, as well as in the steady state of an open-system Dicke model with dissipation. We demonstrate that, in addition, the dissipative Dicke model can undergo a second phase transition to a nonstationary phase, characterized by unlimited heating of the harmonic oscillator. Identifying the mechanism of the phase transition and deriving the scaling of the critical coupling with the system size we conclude that the novel phase transition can be understood as a cooperative breakdown of the oscillator blockade which otherwise prevents higher excitation of the system. We discuss an implementation with trapped ions and investigate the role of cooling, by which the breakdown can be suppressed.

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  • Received 20 July 2018
  • Revised 30 March 2020
  • Accepted 2 October 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.233602

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Florentin Reiter1,2,*, Thanh Long Nguyen2, Jonathan P. Home2, and Susanne F. Yelin1,3

  • 1Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, Otto-Stern-Weg 1, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA

  • *Corresponding author. freiter@phys.ethz.ch

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Issue

Vol. 125, Iss. 23 — 4 December 2020

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