Valley-Hybridized Gate-Tunable 1D Exciton Confinement in MoSe.

Controlling excitons at the nanoscale in semiconductor materials represents a formidable challenge in the quantum photonics and optoelectronics fields. Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer inherent 2D confinement and possess significant exciton binding energies, making them promising candidates for achieving electric-field-based confinement of excitons without dissociation. Exploiting the valley degree of freedom associated with these confined states further broadens the prospects for exciton engineering.

Superradiant Detection of Microscopic Optical Dipolar Interactions.

The interaction between light and cold atoms is a complex phenomenon potentially featuring many-body resonant dipole interactions. A major obstacle toward exploring these quantum resources of the system is macroscopic light propagation effects, which not only limit the available time for the microscopic correlations to locally build up, but also create a directional, superradiant emission background whose variations can overwhelm the microscopic effects. In this Letter, we demonstrate a method to perform "background-free" detection of the microscopic optical dynamics in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble.

Photon propagation through dissipative Rydberg media at large input rates.

We study the dissipative propagation of quantized light in interacting Rydberg media under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. Rydberg blockade physics in optically dense atomic media leads to strong dissipative interactions between single photons. The regime of high incoming photon flux constitutes a challenging many-body dissipative problem.

Geometric Control of Collective Spontaneous Emission.

Dipole spin-wave states of atomic ensembles with wave vector k(ω) mismatched from the dispersion relation of light are difficult to access by far-field excitation but may support rich phenomena beyond the traditional phase-matched scenario in quantum optics. We propose and demonstrate an optical technique to efficiently access these states. In particular, subnanosecond laser pulses shaped by a home-developed wideband modulation method are applied to shift the spin wave in k space with state-dependent geometric phase patterning, in an error-resilient fashion and on timescales much faster than spontaneous emission.

Interaction-Induced Transparency for Strong-Coupling Polaritons.

The propagation of light in strongly coupled atomic media takes place through the formation of polaritons-hybrid quasiparticles resulting from a superposition of an atomic and a photonic excitation. Here we consider the propagation under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency and show that a novel many-body phenomenon can appear due to strong, dissipative interactions between the polaritons. Upon increasing the photon-pump strength, we find a first-order transition between an opaque phase with strongly broadened polaritons and a transparent phase where a long-lived polariton branch with highly tunable occupation emerges.

Optical waveguiding by atomic entanglement in multilevel atom arrays.

The optical properties of subwavelength arrays of atoms or other quantum emitters have attracted significant interest recently. For example, the strong constructive or destructive interference of emitted light enables arrays to function as nearly perfect mirrors, support topological edge states, and allow for exponentially better quantum memories. In these proposals, the assumed atomic structure was simple, consisting of a unique electronic ground state.

Cavity quantum electrodynamics with atom-like mirrors.

It has long been recognized that atomic emission of radiation is not an immutable property of an atom, but is instead dependent on the electromagnetic environment and, in the case of ensembles, also on the collective interactions between the atoms. In an open radiative environment, the hallmark of collective interactions is enhanced spontaneous emission-super-radiance-with non-dissipative dynamics largely obscured by rapid atomic decay. Here we observe the dynamical exchange of excitations between a single artificial atom and an entangled collective state of an atomic array through the precise positioning of artificial atoms realized as superconducting qubits along a one-dimensional waveguide.

Simulating quantum light propagation through atomic ensembles using matrix product states.

A powerful method to interface quantum light with matter is to propagate the light through an ensemble of atoms. Recently, a number of such interfaces have emerged, most prominently Rydberg ensembles, that enable strong nonlinear interactions between propagating photons. A largely open problem is whether these systems produce exotic many-body states of light and developing new tools to study propagation in the large photon number limit is highly desirable.

Designing exotic many-body states of atomic spin and motion in photonic crystals.

Cold atoms coupled to photonic crystals constitute an exciting platform for exploring quantum many-body physics. For example, such systems offer the potential to realize strong photon-mediated forces between atoms, which depend on the atomic internal (spin) states, and where both the motional and spin degrees of freedom can exhibit long coherence times. An intriguing question then is whether exotic phases could arise, wherein crystalline or other spatial patterns and spin correlations are fundamentally tied together, an effect that is atypical in condensed matter systems.

Atom-atom interactions around the band edge of a photonic crystal waveguide.

Tailoring the interactions between quantum emitters and single photons constitutes one of the cornerstones of quantum optics. Coupling a quantum emitter to the band edge of a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) provides a unique platform for tuning these interactions. In particular, the cross-over from propagating fields [Formula: see text] outside the bandgap to localized fields [Formula: see text] within the bandgap should be accompanied by a transition from largely dissipative atom-atom interactions to a regime where dispersive atom-atom interactions are dominant.

Electromechanical control of nitrogen-vacancy defect emission using graphene NEMS.

Despite recent progress in nano-optomechanics, active control of optical fields at the nanoscale has not been achieved with an on-chip nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) thus far. Here we present a new type of hybrid system, consisting of an on-chip graphene NEMS suspended a few tens of nanometres above nitrogen-vacancy centres (NVCs), which are stable single-photon emitters embedded in nanodiamonds. Electromechanical control of the photons emitted by the NVC is provided by electrostatic tuning of the graphene NEMS position, which is transduced to a modulation of NVC emission intensity.

Self-organization of atoms coupled to a chiral reservoir.

Tightly confined modes of light, as in optical nanofibers or photonic crystal waveguides, can lead to large optical coupling in atomic systems, which mediates long-range interactions between atoms. These one-dimensional systems can naturally possess couplings that are asymmetric between modes propagating in different directions. Strong long-range interaction among atoms via these modes can drive them to a self-organized periodic distribution.

Multiplasmon Absorption in Graphene.

We show that graphene possesses a strong nonlinear optical response in the form of multiplasmon absorption, with exciting implications in classical and quantum nonlinear optics. Specifically, we predict that graphene nanoribbons can be used as saturable absorbers with low saturation intensity in the far-infrared and terahertz spectrum. Moreover, we predict that two-plasmon absorption and extreme localization of plasmon fields in graphene nanodisks can lead to a plasmon blockade effect, in which a single quantized plasmon strongly suppresses the possibility of exciting a second plasmon.

Harnessing vacuum forces for quantum sensing of graphene motion.

Position measurements at the quantum level are vital for many applications but also challenging. Typically, methods based on optical phase shifts are used, but these methods are often weak and difficult to apply to many materials. An important example is graphene, which is an excellent mechanical resonator due to its small mass and an outstanding platform for nanotechnologies, but it is largely transparent.

Mimicking interacting relativistic theories with stationary pulses of light.

One of the most well known relativistic field theory models is the Thirring model. Its realization can demonstrate the famous prediction for the renormalization of mass due to interactions. However, experimental verification of the latter requires complex accelerator experiments whereas analytical solutions of the model can be extremely cumbersome to obtain.

Robust-fidelity atom-photon entangling gates in the weak-coupling regime.

We describe a simple entangling principle based on the scattering of photons off single emitters in one-dimensional waveguides (or extremely lossy cavities). The scheme can be applied to polarization- or time bin-encoded photonic qubits, and features a filtering mechanism that works effectively as a built-in error-correction directive. This automatically maps imperfections from the dominant sources of errors into heralded losses instead of infidelities, something highly advantageous, for instance, in quantum information applications.

Graphene plasmonics: a platform for strong light-matter interactions.

Graphene plasmons provide a suitable alternative to noble-metal plasmons because they exhibit much tighter confinement and relatively long propagation distances, with the advantage of being highly tunable via electrostatic gating. Here, we propose to use graphene plasmons as a platform for strongly enhanced light-matter interactions. Specifically, we predict unprecedented high decay rates of quantum emitters in the proximity of a carbon sheet, observable vacuum Rabi splittings, and extinction cross sections exceeding the geometrical area in graphene nanoribbons and nanodisks.

Broadband frequency conversion and shaping of single photons emitted from a nonlinear cavity.

Much recent effort has focused on coupling individual quantum emitters to optical microcavities in order to produce single photons on demand, enable single-photon optical switching, and implement functional nodes of a quantum network. Techniques to control the bandwidth and frequency of the outgoing single photons are of practical importance, allowing direct emission into telecommunications wavelengths and "hybrid" quantum networks incorporating different emitters. Here, we describe an integrated approach involving a quantum emitter coupled to a nonlinear optical resonator, in which the emission wavelength and pulse shape are controlled using the intra-cavity nonlinearity.