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Activity 2

Many-Body Physics with Photons

(MA2) In this Major Activity, we address the fundamental challenges of preparation, control, and measurement of manybody physics in a new system: interacting photons. At present, quantum optics is pushing towards systems with strong interactions at the individual photon level. Indeed, several such systems are just starting to appear in the laboratory. Photon-photon coupling, mediated by an atomic or solid-state medium, is inherently longrange and can be exploited to study novel many-body collective effects and entanglement phenomena. The platforms in this MA feature tunability in both the strength and range of many-body interactions. These features will enable the exploration of the frontiers of collective many-body quantum phenomena in ways that are impossible in traditional, solid statebased systems where the interactions and spin are fixed for a specific material.

We will develop new approaches for designer photonic materials using coupled cavity arrays and photonic crystal techniques, as well as Rydberg-EIT systems.

Related Articles

  • July 5, 2018
Semiconductor quantum transistor opens the door for photon-based computing

Transistors are tiny switches that form the bedrock of modern computing—billions of them route electrical signals around inside a smartphone, for instance.

Quantum computers will need analogous hardware to manipulate quantum information. But the design constraints for this new technology are stringent, and today’s most advanced processors can’t be...

  • February 12, 2018
New hole-punched crystal clears a path for quantum light

Optical highways for light are at the heart of modern communications. But when it comes to guiding individual blips of light called photons, reliable transit is far less common. Now, a collaboration of researchers from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), led by JQI Fellows Mohammad Hafezi and Edo Waks, has created a photonic chip that both generates single photons, and steers them around. The...

  • January 12, 2018
Light may unlock a new quantum dance for electrons in graphene

A team of researchers has devised a simple way to tune a hallmark quantum effect in graphene—the material formed from a single layer of carbon atoms—by bathing it in light. Their theoretical work, which was published recently in Physical Review Letters, suggests a way to realize novel quantum behavior...

  • December 4, 2017
Narrow glass threads synchronize the light emissions of distant atoms

If you holler at someone across your yard, the sound travels on the bustling movement of air molecules. But over long distances your voice needs help to reach its destination—help provided by a telephone or the Internet. Atoms don’t yell, but they can share information through light. And they also need help connecting over long distances.Now, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI)...

  • September 26, 2017
Sensing atoms caught in ripples of light

Optical fibers are ubiquitous, carrying light wherever it is needed. These glass tunnels are the high-speed railway of information transit, moving data at incredible speeds over tremendous distances. Fibers are also thin and flexible, so they can be immersed in many different environments, including the human body, where they are employed for illumination and imaging.Physicists use fibers, too...

  • February 26, 2016
Characterizing quantum Hall light zooming around a photonic chip

When it comes to quantum physics, light and matter are not so different. Under certain circumstances, negatively charged electrons can fall into a coordinated dance that allows them to carry a current through a material laced with imperfections. That motion, which can only occur if electrons are confined to a two-dimensional plane, arises due to a phenomenon known as the quantum Hall effect....

  • February 8, 2016
Nanoscale cavity strongly links quantum particles

Today’s networks use electronic circuits to store information and optical fibers to carry it, and quantum networks may benefit from a similar framework. Such networks would transmit qubits – quantum versions of ordinary bits – from place to place and would offer unbreakable security for the transmitted information. But researchers must first develop ways for qubits that are better at storing...

  • September 9, 2015
JQI Physicists Show ‘Molecules’ Made of Light May Be Possible

From NIST TechBeat--It’s not lightsaber time, not yet. But a team including theoretical physicists from JQI and NIST has taken another step toward building objects out of photons, and the findings, recently published in Physical Review Letters, hint that weightless particles of light can be joined into a sort of “molecule” with its own peculiar force. Researchers show...

  • August 21, 2014
On-chip Topological Light

JQI researchers led by Mohammad Hafezi report detailed measurements of the transmission (how much energy is lost) and delay for edge-state light and for bulk-route light on a photonic chip.

  • October 20, 2013
Topological Light

In this week’s issue of Nature Photonics scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (*) report the first observation of topological effects for light in two dimensions, analogous to the quantum Hall effect for electrons. To accomplish this, they built a structure to guide infrared light over the surface of a room temperature, silicon-on-insulator chip.

Related Publications

Chemical potential for light by parametric coupling, M. Hafezi; P. Adhikari; J.M. Taylor, Phys. Rev. B, 174305, 92 (2015)
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