Strongly Extended Superradiance in Diamond Meta-Materials

金刚石超常材料中强烈扩展的超辐射度

• 批准号: 1720438
• 负责人: Eric Mazur
• 金额: $ 46万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1720438&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Strongly; Extended; Superradiance; Diamond; Meta

20th century technological applications of materials, such as semiconductors used in electronics and mechanical sensors, rely on a classical or semi-classical understanding of their properties. In more recent and emerging research, scientists and engineers seek to exploit the quantum properties of atoms, materials, and light to increase measurement sensitivity, advance communications technologies, and develop approaches to quantum computation that are scalable to large numbers. Interactions of light, or photons, with atoms serve as the foundation for quantum information and quantum computation experiments, and over time the fields of quantum information and nanoscale optics have merged together to demonstrate a variety of light-matter interactions. However, for most systems these interactions are limited to relatively small numbers of atoms and over small spatial extents relative to wavelengths of light. This project will combine the relatively large density of atoms in many tabletop atomic experiments with the scalability of quantum nanoscale platforms. The group has recently demonstrated a set of metamaterials, fabricated composite materials with exotic properties, with the special property of having zero refractive index at certain wavelengths. The research team will use its expertise in nanoscale optics to explore how the tunable properties of these materials can enhance atom-light interactions and open the door to new applications in quantum information processing and computing. The group collaborates closely with industry partners in order to efficiently transfer fundamental insights from academia into commercial applications. This project will contribute to the group's effort on education and outreach in two aspects: first, these novel metamaterials will be used as a platform in education to demonstrate the exotic material properties and interesting physical phenomena of metamaterials and quantum optics; second, this work will directly involve students at many different levels, providing hands-on research experience. Superradiance is a many-body phenomenon in which atoms radiate coherently with one another, and the effect of constructive interference leads to an N-fold increase in the spontaneous emission rate, where N is the number of atoms. The key requirement for this effect in most setups is that the atoms need to be within one wavelength from one another. If the atoms are not within a wavelength, the phase matching conditions for perfect coherence become increasingly complex in large systems with more than one dimension. Extended superradiance occurs when it is possible to obtain cooperative enhancement both in power and in decay rate in regions greater than a wavelength. Because of the lack of spatial phase advance in zero-index metamaterials, one can obtain perfect superradiance throughout space with low radiative loss in zero-index metamaterials. The group will use the metamaterial platform to achieve superradiance of many atoms in a highly extended two-dimensional sample. The project introduces a metamaterial platform that permits very large cooperative spontaneous emission enhancement and opens the door to potentially transformative applications to scalable quantum information processes. It will lay the groundwork for a wide range of applications in sub-linewidth microlasers, low-decoherence quantum information processes, and scalable quantum memories.

20世纪材料的技术应用，如用于电子和机械传感器的半导体，依赖于对其性质的经典或半经典理解。在最近和新兴的研究中，科学家和工程师寻求利用原子，材料和光的量子特性来提高测量灵敏度，推进通信技术，并开发可扩展到大量的量子计算方法。光或光子与原子的相互作用是量子信息和量子计算实验的基础，随着时间的推移，量子信息和纳米级光学领域已经融合在一起，展示了各种光与物质的相互作用。然而，对于大多数系统，这些相互作用仅限于相对较少的原子数量和相对于光波长的小空间范围。这个项目将把许多桌面原子实验中相对较大的原子密度与量子纳米级平台的可扩展性结合起来。该小组最近展示了一组超材料，具有奇异特性的合成材料，在某些波长具有零折射率的特殊特性。该研究团队将利用其在纳米级光学方面的专业知识，探索这些材料的可调特性如何增强原子-光相互作用，并为量子信息处理和计算的新应用打开大门。该小组与行业合作伙伴密切合作，以便有效地将学术界的基本见解转化为商业应用。该项目将在两个方面为本小组的教育和推广工作做出贡献：首先，这些新颖的超材料将作为一个教育平台，展示超材料和量子光学的奇异材料特性和有趣的物理现象；其次，这项工作将直接涉及到许多不同层次的学生，提供动手研究经验。超辐射是原子相互相干辐射的多体现象，构造干涉的作用导致自发发射率增加N倍，其中N为原子数。在大多数装置中，这种效应的关键要求是原子之间需要在一个波长内。如果原子不在一个波长内，则在一维以上的大系统中，完美相干的相位匹配条件变得越来越复杂。当有可能在大于波长的区域内获得功率和衰减率的合作增强时，就会发生扩展超辐射。由于零折射率超材料缺乏空间相位推进，因此零折射率超材料可以在低辐射损耗的情况下获得完美的全空间超辐射。该小组将使用超材料平台在高度扩展的二维样品中实现许多原子的超辐射。该项目引入了一种超材料平台，该平台允许非常大的协同自发发射增强，并为可扩展量子信息处理的潜在变革性应用打开了大门。它将为亚线宽微激光器、低退相干量子信息处理和可扩展量子存储器的广泛应用奠定基础。