Dispersion-managed electromagnetic pulse transparency in arrays of coupled microcavities

Abstract

We examine theoretically the transparency of electromagnetic pulses through an infinite one-dimensional array of coupled optical microcavities uniformly filled with superconducting qubits-one per cavity. Two types of hybrid matter-light waves, i.e., polaritons and self-induced transparency solitons, govern the transparency of electromagnetic radiation in these media. The spectrum of linear excitations, i.e., polaritons, consists of two branches separated by a relatively wide forbidden band. In the nonlinear regime, the dispersion relation of the carrier wave is determined by soliton width that is controlled by the reciprocal qubit frequency. The separate dispersion curves lie within the polariton forbidden band. Soliton transparency requires that the carrier wave frequency exceeds a threshold value; the latter depends strongly on the pulse width. We find that for pulses with widths ranging from ultrashort to an intermediate limit, the threshold is of the order of the gap frequency value in the photon spectrum. For wider pulses, the threshold frequency gradually decreases to values that are toward the edge of the polariton lower band, provided the soliton width is larger than a critical value. In the overcritical regime, the bandgap appears in the spectrum of the soliton carrier wave, while a twin transparency window appears in the soliton pulse dispersion law. A possible experimental observation of the predicted effects within the proposed setup would be of interest in understanding the properties of self-induced transparency in general and applications in the design of quantum technological devices.