A quantum photonic dissipative transport theory

In this paper, a quantum transport theory for describing photonic dissipative transport dynamics in nanophotonics is developed. The nanophotonic devices concerned in this paper consist of on-chip all-optical integrated circuits incorporating photonic bandgap waveguides and driven resonators embedded in nanostructured photonic crystals. The photonic transport through waveguides is entirely determined from the exact master equation of the driven resonators, which is obtained by explicitly eliminating all the degrees of freedom of the waveguides (treated as reservoirs). Back-reactions from the reservoirs are fully taken into account. The relation between the driven photonic dynamics and photocurrents is obtained explicitly. The non-Markovian memory structure and quantum decoherence dynamics in photonic transport can then be fully addressed. As an illustration, the theory is utilized to study the transport dynamics of a photonic transistor consisting of a nanocavity coupled to two waveguides in photonic crystals. The controllability of photonic transport through the external driven field is demonstrated.

► Photonic nanodevices are modeled in terms of nanostructured photonic crystals.
► The exact master equation is derived for various driven photonic nanodevices.
► A quantum photonic transport theory is established based on the exact master equation.
► The new transport theory unifies two fundamental nonequilibrium approaches.