In this paper, we begin with a model of a $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-type atom whose both transitions are chirally coupled to a wave guide and then extend the model to its giant-atom version. We investigate the single-photon scatterings of the giant-atom model in both the Markovian and the non-Markovian regimes. It is shown that the chiral atom-wave-guide couplings enable nonreciprocal, reflectionless, and efficient frequency conversion, while the giant-atom structure introduces intriguing interference effects to the scattering behaviors, such as ultranarrow scattering windows. The chiral giant-atom model exhibits quite different scattering spectra in the two regimes and, in particular, demonstrates non-Markovicity-induced nonreciprocity under specific conditions. These phenomena can be understood from the effective detuning and decay rate of the giant-atom model. We believe that our results have potential applications in integrated photonics and quantum network engineering.

• Received 12 September 2021
• Accepted 11 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043226

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society