Quantum optics with giant atoms has provided a new paradigm to study photon scatterings. In this work, we investigate the nontrivial single-photon scattering properties of giant atoms being an effective platform to realize nonreciprocal and chiral quantum optics. For two-level giant atoms, we identify the condition for nonreciprocal transmission: the external atomic dissipation is further required other than the breaking of time-reversal symmetry by local coupling phases. Especially, in the non-Markovian regime, unconventional revival peaks periodically appear in the reflection spectrum. To explore more interesting scattering behaviors, we extend the two-level giant-atom system to Δ-type and ∇ -type three-level giant atoms coupled to double waveguides with different physical mechanisms to realize nonreciprocal and chiral scatterings. Our proposed giant-atom structures have potential applications of high-efficiency targeted routers that can transport single photons to any desired port deterministically and circulators that can transport single photons between four ports in a cyclic way.

Giant atoms that interact with real-space waveguides at multiple spatial points have attracted extensive attention due to their unique interference effects. Here we propose a feasible scheme for constructing giant atoms in a synthetic frequency dimension with, e.g., a dynamically modulated superconducting resonator and a tailored three-level artificial atom. Both analytical and numerical calculations show good agreement between our scheme and real-space two-level giant atoms. In particular, the symmetry of the model in momentum space can be broken by tuning the phase of the external field applied on the atom, enabling chiral interactions between the atom and the frequency lattice. We further demonstrate the possibility of simulating cascaded interaction and directional excitation transfer in the frequency dimension by directly extending our model to involve more such effective giant atoms.

We study the decay dynamics of a two-level giant atom that is coupled to a waveguide with time-dependent coupling strengths. In the non-Markovian regime where the retardation effect cannot be ignored, we show that the dynamics of the atom depends on the atom-waveguide coupling strengths at an earlier time. This allows one to tailor the decay dynamics of the giant atom and even realize a stationary population revival with appropriate coupling modulations. Moreover, we demonstrate the possibility of simulating the quantum Zeno and quantum anti-Zeno effects in the giant-atom model with periodic coupling quenches. These results have potential applications in quantum information processing and quantum network engineering.

We propose a hybrid cavity magnomechanical system to realize and transfer the bipartite entanglements and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steerings between magnons, photons, and phonons in the regime of stability of the system. As a parity-time-symmetric-like structure exhibiting the natural magnetostrictive magnon-phonon interaction, our passive-active cavity system can be explored to enhance the robust distant quantum entanglement and generate the relatively obvious asymmetric (even directional) EPR steering that is useful for the task with the highly asymmetric trusts of the bidirectional local measurements between two entangled states. It is of great interest that, based on such a tunable magnomechanical system, the perfect transfer between near and distant entanglements and steerings of different mode pairs is realized by adjusting the coupling parameters; in particular, we propose a perfect transfer scheme of steerings. These transferring processes suggest indeed an alternative method for quantum information storage and manipulation. In addition, the entanglements and steerings can also be exchanged between different mode pairs by adjusting the detunings between different modes. This work may provide a potential platform for distant and asymmetric quantum modulation.

Giant emitters derive their name from nonlocal field-emitter interactions and feature diverse self-interference effects. Authors of most of the existing works on giant emitters have considered Hermitian waveguides or photonic lattices. In this letter, we unveil how giant emitters behave if they are coupled to a non-Hermitian bath, i.e., a Hatano-Nelson (HN) model which features the non-Hermitian skin effect due to the asymmetric intersite tunneling rates. We show that the behaviors of the giant emitters are closely related to the stability of the bath. In the convectively unstable regime, where the HN model can be mapped to a pseudo-Hermitian lattice, a giant emitter can either behave as in a Hermitian bath or undergo excitation amplification, depending on the relative strength of different emitter-bath coupling paths. Based on this mechanism, we can realize protected nonreciprocal interactions between giant emitters, with nonreciprocity opposite to that of the bath. Such giant-emitter effects are not allowed, however, if the HN model enters the absolutely unstable regime, where the coupled emitters always show secular energy growth. Our proposal provides a paradigm of non-Hermitian quantum optics, which may be useful for, e.g., engineering interactions between quantum emitters and performing many-body simulations in the non-Hermitian framework.

Giant atoms are attracting interest as an emerging paradigm in the quantum optics of engineered waveguides. At variance with the well-known artificial giant atoms for microwave photonics, here we propose the archetype of a giant atom working in the optical regime by considering a pair of interacting Rydberg atoms coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) and also driven by a coherent field. Giant-atom effects are observed as a phase-dependent decay of the double Rydberg excitation during the initial evolution stage while a nontrivial internal entanglement is exhibited at later times. Such an entanglement onset occurs in the presence of intrinsic atomic decay toward nonguided vacuum modes and is accompanied by antibunching in the emitted photons. Our predictions should be observable in current Rydberg-PCW experiments and may open the way toward giant-atom optical photonics for quantum information processing.