Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 38: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics I
Q 38.11: Poster
Tuesday, March 6, 2018, 16:15–18:15, Orangerie
Variable potentials for thermalized light and coupled condensates — •David Dung1, Christian Kurtscheid1, Julian Schmitt2, Tobias Damm1, Frank Vewinger1, Jan Klärs3, and Martin Weitz1 — 1Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn — 2present address: Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom — 3present address: Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Cold atoms in lattice potentials are an attractive platform to simulate phenomena known from solid state theory, as the Mott-insulator transition. In contrast, the field of photonics usually deals with non-equilibrium physics. Recent advances towards photonic equilibrium physics include polariton lattice experiments, as well as the demonstration of a photon condensate in a dye-filled microcavity. Here we report the creation of variable micropotentials for light using thermo-optic imprinting within a supermirror microcavity filled with a dye-polymer solution. The long photon lifetime allows for the thermalization of photons in microsites. Within the generated trapping potentials, photons by repeated absorption-emission cycles thermalize to the temperature of the dye solution, and in a single microsite we observe a photon Bose-Einstein microcondensate. Effective interactions between the otherwise nearly non-interacting photons are observed due to thermooptic effects, and in a double-well system tunnel coupling between sites is demonstrated, as well as the hybridization of eigenstates. Prospects of the findings include photonic lattices in which cooling alone can produce entangled manybody states.