Recovering dark states by non-Hermiticity

Abstract Dark states, which are incapable of absorbing and emitting light, have been widely applied in multiple disciplines of physics. However, the existence of dark states relies on certain strict constraints on the system. For instance, in the fundamental $$\Lambda$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi> </mml:math> system, a perturbation breaking the degeneracy between two energy levels may destroy the destructive interference and demolish the dark state. Here, we show that non-Hermiticity can be exploited as a constructive means to restore a dark state. By compensating for the undesired perturbations, non-Hermiticity produces unidirectional couplings such that the dark state remains decoupled from the rest of the system. Implementing this scheme in many-body systems, flat bands and edge states can be recovered by losses and gains. Further taking into account interactions, a range of novel quantum phases could arise in such non-Hermitian systems.