InterPol · Interfacing interacting Rydberg polaritons: From few- to many-body interactions
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-04-01 → 2021-03-31
- EU contribution
- €207,312
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
Interfacing interacting Rydberg polaritons: From few- to many-body interactions
Rydberg atoms are atoms in which the valence electron is excited to loosely bound state, which makes their properties highly sensitive to external electric fields, but also the presence of other Rydberg atoms nearby. This results in strong interactions between them, for example a blockade effect that prevents the excitation of more than one Rydberg atom over several micrometers. Thanks to their strong interaction, Rydberg atoms have found many applications, for example in quantum simulation and information processing. Rydberg atoms also find applications in nonlinear quantum optics, that is to make individual photons, which would normally pass each other unnoticed, effectively interact with each other. To this end, photons are mapped into Rydberg polaritons, quasi-particles that carry the strong interactions of Rydberg atoms, as they travel through a gas of ultracold atoms. Alternatively, one can also use Rydberg superatoms, to effectively mediate interactions between photons. Rydberg superatoms are based on ensembles of many atoms that are saturated following the absorption of a single photon due to the blockade mechanism. They act like a single quantum emitter, but photons couple much more strongly to them compared to a single atom. The objective of InterPol has been to study Rydberg polaritons and Rydberg superatoms in systems of increasing size in terms of both fundamental and application aspects and analyse the performance of such systems for future applications in optical quantum technology. For example, we show that a chain of Rydberg superatoms can remove photons from a light pulse one by one, but also identified effects that need to be mitigated to successfully scale systems to larger numbers of superatoms and polaritons.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Rydberg quantum optics (RQO) is a very promising approach to achieve effective interactions at the level of individual photons. It maps the strong interactions between ultracold Rydberg atoms onto light fields to create strongly interacting Rydberg polaritons. RQO enables single photon generation, exotic photon bound states, and effective interactions between spatially separated photons. Based on RQO, various quantum optical devices can be implemented, e.g. a deterministic gate for optical quantum information processing. Experiments to date have mostly used 1D interaction geometries and not yet investigated interactions between more than 2 or 3 polaritons or in a quantum network of interaction nodes. InterPol will implement controlled interactions between multiple Rydberg polaritons based on two complementary approaches. One will cascade multiple devices such as single-photon transistors and subtractors to implement multi-polariton logic circuits and demonstrate a network that coherently interfaces entangled Rydberg excitations with photons for quantum state transfer. The second will use adaptive optics to realize a novel, highly flexible platform to study simultaneous interactions between multiple polaritons in arbitrary spatial geometries to study the transition regime from few- to many-body interactions. This has fundamental impact beyond quantum optics as it will allow highly controlled experimental tests of many-body interactions and non-perturbative effects in quantum field theories with quasi-particles in a tabletop setting. Collaborating with leading theorists to experimentally benchmark field-theoretical descriptions, the applicant will further deepen his theoretical understanding of RQO to complement his excellent experimental skills. In charge of a comprehensive research action, he will enhance his independence and possess the skill set required to develop and conduct innovative quantum optics experiments as an independent researcher at its end.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET · Odense MCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union