Photonic scattering in 2D waveguide QED: Quantum Goos-H\"anchen shift

Abstract

Quantum emitters coupled to traveling photons in waveguides, known as waveguide quantum electrodynamics (WQED), offer a powerful platform for understanding light-matter interactions and underpinning emergent quantum technologies. While WQED has been extensively studied in one dimension, two-dimensional (2D) WQED remains largely unexplored, where novel photonic scattering phenomena unique to higher dimensions are expected. Here, we present a comprehensive scattering theory for 2D WQED based on the Green function method. We show that the mean displacement between emitted and injected photons serves as a quantum analogue of the Goos-H\"anchen shift. When a photon is injected into a single off-centered port, the quantum Goos-H\"anchen (QGH) shift can be enhanced in backward scattering under resonant conditions with subradiant states. When a photon is injected into the center port, there is no QGH shift due to the mirror symmetry of structure. However, for multiple-port injection with transverse momentum, the QGH shift is recovered and proportional to the derivative of phase with respect to transverse momentum. Unlike the classical Goos-H\"anchen shift, these effects can be flexibly tuned by the injected photon's frequency. Our work provides a general framework for exploring and manipulating photonic scattering in complex WQED networks.