Dynamical beats of short pulses in waveguide QED

Abstract

We study temporal oscillations, known as dynamical beats, developed by a propagating pulse due to its interaction with a near-resonant collective medium of ${}^{133}$Cs atoms randomly captured by a nanofiber-based optical lattice. A phenomenological theory provides an intuitive explanation and quantitative predictions, which are improved by an input-output theory considering multiple-scattering between the atoms. The results deepen our understanding of light propagation in waveguide QED, essential in time-frequency analysis and light engineering for probing, manipulating, and exploiting many-body quantum systems.