Quantum-engineered Superradiant Phase Transition in the Strong Coupling Regime

The standard Dicke model can exhibit quantum phase transition between the normal and the superradiant phases with macroscopic excitations in the cavity and the qubits when the strength of the light-matter coupling exceeds the ultrastrong coupling regime. However, it is challenging to observe this phase transition in practical systems due to limited coupling strengths or finite two-photon terms in the system. In this work we show that by applying a periodic modulation to the frequency of the two-level systems in a standard Dicke model in the strong coupling regime, where the coupling strength is much less than the qubit and cavity frequencies, an anisotropic Dicke model with tunable rotating and counter-rotating terms in the ultrastrong coupling regime can be achieved. We calculate the ground state and the excitation spectrum of this model in terms of the modulation parameters. Our result shows that the superradiant phases can be observed in cavity- or circuit-quantum electrodynamics systems with only strong coupling.