Quantum electron transport controlled by cavity vacuum fields

Abstract: We explore theoretically how the coupling to cavity vacuum fields affects the electron transport in quantum conductors due to the counter-rotating-wave terms of light-matter interaction. We determine the quantum conductance in terms of the transmission coefficients predicted by an effective electron Hamiltonian. The coupling between bare electronic states is mediated by virtual processes involving intermediate states with one electron (or one hole) on top of the Fermi sea and one virtual cavity photon. We study the behavior of the quantum conductance in the presence of artificial or disordered single-particle potentials, as well as a spatially varying cavity mode. As illustrative examples, we apply our theory to 1D conductors and to disordered 2D quantum Hall systems. We show how the cavity vacuum fields can lead to both large enhancement or suppression of electron conductance in the ballistic regime, as well as modification of the conductance quantization and fluctuations.