Hannover 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 55: Poster II

Q 55.65: Poster

Donnerstag, 11. März 2010, 16:00–19:00, Lichthof

Crystallization of photons in optical lattices — •Sergey Grishkevich, Hessam Habibian, and Giovanna Morigi — Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66041 Saarbrücken

Photons can interact with each other in a nonlinear medium. Such a medium could be realized using cold atoms loaded in an one-dimensional optical fibre. In this case the confinement enables the generation of large, tunable optical nonlinearities. In its extreme, the quantum light at the fiber output can behave as it were a gas of fermions [1]. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices (OL) may constitute an alternative system for realizing a similar medium. The OL resembles, in some sense, the periodicity of a crystal potential with interparticle distance of the order of the optical wavelength. In this case, the periodic distribution of atoms modulates the refractive index which may strongly modify the photonic properties.

We study light propagating through a crystal of atoms exhibiting a large Kerr nonlinearity. We show how photon blockade in such a medium, whose index of refraction can be modulated by the atomic spacial density as well as by an external field, may lead to a ``crystallization'' of photons. We focus on a simple 1D OL with atoms well localized at the lattice minima. For this system we develop a full quantum model for the light-matter interactions. These investigations open up the possibility for quantum simulation of matter Hamiltonians using optical systems. Such a system is also supposed to be of great interest for applications in metrology and for quantum information purposes.

[1] D. E. Chang et al., Nature Physics 4, 884 (2008)