ATOMAG · Exploiting pseudo-gauge fields for novel light-matter interfaces
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-08-01 → 2024-11-30
- EU contribution
- €181,153
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Exploiting pseudo-gauge fields for novel light-matter interfaces
Programable tweezer arrays with highly-coherent Rydberg interactions have emerged as one of the leading platforms for quantum information processing and quantum simulation of many-body phenomena in various short-range spin models. In contrast, atom-light interfaces exhibit fundamentally different characteristics. They are inherently open quantum systems and typically suffer from uncontrolled dissipation, which results in a substantial loss of quantum information and renders it difficult to realize strongly-correlated quantum states. Moreover, photons often mediate long-range or even infinite-range interactions between atoms, which means the dynamics if often well captured by mean-field or semi-classical techniques (e.g. Dicke superradiance). To drive atom-light interfaces toward greater complexity, it is essential to identify mechanisms that mitigate unwanted dissipation and to evade mean-field behaviour. ATOMAG is an interdisciplinary project that aims to unveil novel atom-light interfaces for efficient quantum information processing and the exploration of strongly-correlated many-body phenomena. By bridging these fields, ATOMAG aims to push the boundaries of the emerging field of many-body quantum optics, offering new insights and potential breakthroughs in quantum science.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
A central goal within quantum optics is to realize novel light-matter interfaces that enable efficient, controlled, and complex interactions between photons and atoms (or atom-like emitters) which is imperative for many emerging quantum applications. Current state-of-the-art paradigms include waveguide QED systems, where emitters are interfaced with structured photonic environments. Here one has exquisite control over the dimensionality, spatial structure and dispersion of the photonic guided modes, enabling new regimes of light-matter interactions with no analog in free space. However, in a quest for ultimate control, it is unfortunate that one cannot manipulate photons directly with electromagnetic gauge fields due to their lack of charge. This fundamental limitation has inspired various ways of engineering synthetic gauge fields for photons. Among these, one tantalizingly straightforward approach has emerged from graphene physics, where it has been shown that strain deformations of the membrane translate into pseudo-gauge fields in the effective Dirac Hamiltonian. ATOMAG is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to unveil pseudo-magnetic and pseudo-electric fields as fundamentally new elements in the quantum optics toolbox, enabling new regimes of light-matter interactions beyond conventional (periodic) waveguide QED systems. Combining this with the intrinsic nonlinearity of atoms, we will propose novel light-matter interfaces which could have important implications for the processing of quantum information, quantum communication and quantum simulation of many-body physics. Since pseudo-gauge fields can be generated by a simple, static variation of the system parameters, these novel light-matter interfaces should be imminently realizable.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE CIENCIES FOTONIQUES · CastelldefelsCoordinatorSpain
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101068503
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e51394e8dd&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5f710c5ed&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union