Scientific Reports (Jul 2017)

Dark state with counter-rotating dissipative channels

  • Zheng-Yang Zhou,
  • Mi Chen,
  • Lian-Ao Wu,
  • Ting Yu,
  • J. Q. You

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06157-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Dark state as a consequence of interference between different quantum states has great importance in the fields of chip-scale atomic clock and quantum information. For the Λ-type three-level system, this dark state is generally regarded as being dissipation-free because it is a superposition of two lowest states without dipole transition between them. However, previous studies are based on the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) by neglecting the counter-rotating terms in the system-environment interaction. In this work, we study non-Markovian quantum dynamics of the dark state in a Λ-type three-level system coupled to two bosonic baths and reveal the effect of counter-rotating terms on the dark state. In contrast to the dark state within the RWA, leakage of the dark state occurs even at zero temperature, as a result of these counter-rotating terms. Also, we present a method to restore the quantum coherence of the dark state by applying a leakage elimination operator to the system.