Mesoscopic Superposition States Generated by Synthetic Spin-Orbit Interaction in Fock-State Lattices

Mesoscopic superposition states of photons can be prepared in three cavities interacting with the same two-level atom. By periodically modulating the three cavity frequencies around the transition frequency of the atom with a 2π/3 phase difference, the time reversal symmetry is broken and an optical circulator is generated with chiralities depending on the quantum state of the atom. A superposition of the atomic states can guide photons from one cavity to a mesoscopic superposition of the other two cavities. The physics can be understood in a finite spin-orbit-coupled Fock-state lattice where the atom and the cavities carry the spin and the orbit degrees of freedom, respectively. This scheme can be realized in circuit QED architectures and provides a new platform for exploring quantum information and topological physics in novel lattices.