Manipulating quantum fluid of light with artificial and reconfigurable potential
Since the 2006 introduction of cavity exciton-polariton condensates, a novel type of quantum fluid based on light, there has been significant progress in applying these condensates within artificially designed potential landscapes. This is to investigate and emulate complex many-body Hamiltonians in an innovative, large-scale, and optically accessible environment.
In a recent study published in Nature Physics in January 2024, the i-Lum team at INL demonstrated a remarkable ability to manipulate these quantum fluids of light, which consist of half-light, half-matter quasiparticles, using optically engineered potential landscapes on demand. This manipulation leads to the formation of artificially generated bonded and antibonded macroscopic polariton orbitals, resembling those in atomic molecules. Additionally, this optical control technique can be efficiently expanded to create one-dimensional arrays, enabling the simulation of Bloch energy bands and subbands, which are fundamental to the understanding of crystalline solids and electron transport mechanisms. This research, a product of an international collaborative effort, marks a significant stride in the field of quantum fluids of light, offering new avenues in quantum simulation and topological physics for the scientific community with a background in physics.
Contact: Hai Son NGUYEN
“Reconfigurable quantum fluid molecules of bound states in the continuum.”
Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02281-3 (2024)
Collaborations:
– CNR Nanotec, Institute of Nanotechnology, Lecce, Italy
– Science Institute, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
– Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
– Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät, Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany
– Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
– Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
