Antibunching in locally driven dissipative Lieb lattices

Abstract

In Lieb lattices, geometric frustration and destructive interference of hopping cancels the occupation of certain sites, leading to flat-band physics. Here, we show numerically how, in the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard (DDBH) model arranged into Lieb lattices and related geometries, specific localised driving schemes can repurpose this interference to generate enhanced antibunching via a mechanism similar to the so-called unconventional photon blockade. Stochastic simulations using the positive-P method allow us to calculate occupations and second order correlations exactly for extended lattices. We use this to optimise the parameters for the possible observation of this effect in polariton micropillar experiments. This work demonstrates the possibility of using localised driving and interference effects to generate non-trivial quantum correlations in open quantum lattice systems. Specifically, producing antibunching in the dark sites of the flat band system rather than the usual and less useful bunching.