First-order superfluid-Mott-insulator transition for quantum optical switching in cavity QED arrays with two cavity modes

Abstract

We theoretically investigated the ground states of coupled arrays of cavity quantum electrodynamical (cavity QED) systems in presence of two photon modes. Within the Gutzwiller-type variational approach, we found the first-order quantum phase transition between Mott insulating and superfluid phases as well as the conventional second-order one. The first-order phase transition was found only for specific types of emitter models, and its physical origin is clarified based on the analytic arguments which are allowed in the perturbative and semiclassical limits. The first-order transition of the correlated photons is accompanied with discontinuous change in the emitter states, not only with the appearance of inter-cavity coherence in the superfluid phase. We also discuss the condition for the first-order transition to occur, which can lead to a strategy for future design of quantum optical switching devices with cavity QED arrays.

11 pages, 11 figures (corrected typos, added references, added discussions in section 2, results unchanged.)

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Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Cavity-loss induced plateau in coupled cavity QED array
• Superfluid-Mott insulator quantum phase transition in a cavity optomagnonic system
• Superfluid-Mott-insulator phase transition of light in a two-mode cavity array with ultrastrong coupling
• Thermal effects on bipartite and multipartite correlations in fiber coupled cavity arrays
• Bimodal phase transition in a periodically modulated $\Lambda$-type three-level system