Reservoir-assisted energy migration in hybrid quantum systems

Recent developments in quantum technology have given us the ability to engineer composite quantum systems and these hybrid quantum systems represent ideal candidates for demonstrating novel and complex phenomena. For example, it has been shown that an ensemble of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond coupled to a resonator exhibits superradiant decay – a collective effect where radiation is enhanced by multiple emitters. It is essential we find new applications that benefit from engineered hybrid systems. One such example could be in the transfer of energy and quantum correlations. The transfer of energy through a network is traditionally thought of as nodes in a network being coupled to channels that connect them; energy is passed from node to channel to node until it reaches its target. We introduce an alternate approach; our channels are replaced by collective reservoirs interacting with pairs of nodes. We show how energy initially located at a specific node can arrive at a target node—even though that environment may be at zero temperature and such a migration occurs on much faster timescales than the damping rate associated with a single spin coupled to a reservoir. Our approach shows the power of being able to tailor both the system and environment and the symmetries associated with them to provide new directions for future quantum technologies.