Passive Quantum State Transfer in a Dispersion-Engineered Waveguide

High-fidelity state transfer between two qubits is fundamentally limited by time-reversal symmetry: one qubit emits a photon with a certain temporal pulse shape, whereas a second qubit requires the time-reversed pulse shape to efficiently absorb this photon. This limitation is often overcome by introducing active elements. Here, we propose an alternative solution: by tailoring the dispersion relation of a waveguide, the photon pulse emitted by one qubit is passively reshaped into its time-reversed counterpart, thus enabling perfect absorption. We analytically derive the optimal dispersion relations in the limit of small and large qubit-qubit separations and numerically extend our results to arbitrary separations via multiparameter optimization. We further propose a spatially inhomogeneous waveguide that renders the state transfer robust to variations in qubit separations. In all cases, we obtain near-unity transfer fidelity (≥98%) that is robust against imperfections in parameter values and propagation loss. Our dispersion-engineered waveguide provides a compact and passive route toward on-chip quantum networks, highlighting dispersion as a powerful resource in waveguide quantum electrodynamics.