Single Atoms and Condensates Strongly Coupled to an Optical Cavity on an Atom Chip

AbstractEngineering non-linear hybrid light-matter states in tailored lattices is a central research strategy for the simulation of complex Hamiltonians. Excitons in atomically thin crystals are an ideal active medium for such purposes, since they couple strongly with light and bear the potential to harness giant non-linearities and interactions while presenting a simple sample-processing and room temperature operability. We demonstrate lattice polaritons, based on an open, high-quality optical cavity, with an imprinted photonic lattice strongly coupled to excitons in a WS2 monolayer. We experimentally observe the emergence of the canonical band-structure of particles in a one-dimensional lattice at room temperature, and demonstrate frequency reconfigurability over a spectral window exceeding 85 meV, as well as the systematic variation of the nearest-neighbour coupling, reflected by a tunability in the bandwidth of the p-band polaritons by 7 meV. The technology presented in this work is a critical demonstration towards reconfigurable photonic emulators operated with non-linear photonic fluids, offering a simple experimental implementation and working at ambient conditions.

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Selective Crystallization via Vibrational Strong Coupling

10.26434/chemrxiv.13191617 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kenji Hirai ◽

Hiroto Ishikawa ◽

JAMES HUTCHISON ◽

Hiroshi Uji-i

Keyword(s):

Strong Coupling ◽

Self Assembly ◽

Optical Cavity ◽

Materials Synthesis ◽

Strongly Coupled ◽

Chemical Reaction Kinetics ◽

Optical Microcavities ◽

Important Solution ◽

Stretching Vibration ◽

Vacuum Fields

The coupling of (photo)chemical processes to optical cavity vacuum fields is an emerging method for modulating molecular and material properties. Recent reports have shown that strong coupling of the vibrational modes of solvents to cavity vacuum fields can influence the chemical reaction kinetics of dissolved solutes. This suggests that vibrational strong coupling might also effect other important solution-based processes, such as crystallization from solution. Here we test this hither-to unexplored notion, investigating pseudopolymorphism in the crystallization from water of ZIF metal-organic frameworks inside optical microcavities. We find that ZIF-8 crystals are selectively obtained from solution inside optical microcavities, where the OH stretching vibration of water is strongly coupled to cavity vacuum fields, whereas mixtures of ZIF-8 and ZIF-L are obtained otherwise. This work suggests that cavity vacuum fields might become a tool for materials synthesis, biasing molecular self-assembly and driving macroscopic material outcomes.

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Vacuum-Induced Transparency

Science ◽

10.1126/science.1208066 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 333 (6047) ◽

pp. 1266-1269 ◽

Cited By ~ 102

Author(s):

Haruka Tanji-Suzuki ◽

Wenlan Chen ◽

Renate Landig ◽

Jonathan Simon ◽

Vladan Vuletić

Keyword(s):

Cold Atoms ◽

Quantum Information Processing ◽

Condensed Matter ◽

Optical Cavity ◽

Photon Number ◽

Vacuum Field ◽

Strongly Coupled ◽

Strongly Nonlinear ◽

Pass Through ◽

Induced Transparency

Photons are excellent information carriers but normally pass through each other without consequence. Engineered interactions between photons would enable applications as varied as quantum information processing and simulation of condensed matter systems. Using an ensemble of cold atoms strongly coupled to an optical cavity, we found that the transmission of light through a medium may be controlled with few photons and even by the electromagnetic vacuum field. The vacuum induces a group delay of 25 nanoseconds on the input optical pulse, corresponding to a light velocity of 1600 meters per second, and a transparency of 40% that increases to 80% when the cavity is filled with 10 photons. This strongly nonlinear effect provides prospects for advanced quantum devices such as photon number–state filters.

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