Chiral doublon bound states in a synthetic topological waveguide

Abstract

Nonlinear waveguide QED serves as a platform for studying correlated photon dynamics, where its interplay with topological bound states can give rise to unconventional phenomena. We investigate a triangular ladder waveguide in which a pair of emitters forms a doublon bound state through strong nearest-neighbor interactions. By mapping the doublon dynamics onto an effective SSH chain, we show that the system is equivalent to an effective emitter coupled to a topological doublon bath. Using the vacancy-like dressed state approach, we demonstrate the existence of a chiral bound state with a node at the coupling site and an exponentially localized wave function inherited from the SSH edge states. Extending this picture to two emitter pairs, we derive an effective four-body interaction whose strength is determined by the relative chirality and the separation parity of the bound states. When the two bound states face each other, coherent Rabi oscillations emerge; when they are arranged back-to-back or have an even separation, the interaction vanishes. Our results provide a route toward engineering tunable many-body interactions between correlated photon pairs and realizing nonlinear quantum networks based on flying doublons.