Nonreciprocal quantum router with non-Markovian environments

Abstract: Quantum routers are essential elements of quantum networks, enabling coherent information transfer between distant nodes. While their behavior has been extensively studied under Markovian approximations, investigations in non-Markovian regimes remain limited. In this paper, we study a nonreciprocal quantum router embedded in non-Markovian environments, enabling directional control of single photons, which allows transmission from one side while blocking it from the other. The cascade system under study consists of two quantum nodes: one comprising two coupled coplanar-waveguide resonators and the other featuring a superconducting ring resonator. Each node is respectively coupled to a single Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) disk, with nonreciprocity arising from the selective coupling between magnons and microwave photons in our model. We analytically derive the transmission and reflection spectra of the system when a photon is input respectively from the left and right sides of the transmission line in the non-Markovian regimes. Our results demonstrate that, with appropriate parameters, a single photon can be routed from a given input port to either of the two output ports, while being fully absorbed when incident from the opposite side. We further compare the scattering behavior in non-Markovian and Markovian regimes through numerical simulations. In the non-Markovian case, the transmission spectrum exhibits two unity peaks (two valleys with a minimum value of zero), whereas in the Markovian case, high transmission appears only within a narrow window near zero detuning when the photon is injected from the left. As the environmental bandwidth increases, non-Markovian results converge to the Markovian limit. This formalism may enable new applications in quantum information and communication exploiting non-Markovianity.