Studies of Coherent Radiative Dynamics with Matter-Wave Quantum Emitters

利用光与物质之间的相互作用是量子光学和涌现量子技术的中心课题。波导QED（量子电动力学）提供了一个新的框架，其中这种相互作用，即引导光子（光粒子）和基本量子发射体（真实的或人造原子）之间的相互作用，通过两者相互作用的环境的结构和几何形状来控制和设计。在之前NSF支持的工作中，PI引入了一个实验平台，用于研究超冷原子中的波导QED效应，其中光学晶格（即由光制成的晶体）的威尔斯作为量子发射器，而引导的原子物质波扮演光的角色。 该平台还提供了一个自然的连接到辐射耦合凝聚物质系统具有极化激元（准粒子的光和物质）。PI将研究晶格中的隧穿如何影响物质波衰减，物质波如何从量子发射器阵列反射，以及量子发射器的可控特性如何用于控制波的传播。该项目有可能解决基本问题并指导未来的技术努力，同时还为研究生和本科生提供相关的科学和技术培训。 该项目致力于研究原子物质波量子发射器系统中的相干辐射行为。这项工作使用了最近开发的基于光晶格的平台，该平台提供了波导QED的类似物，并通过操纵状态相关光晶格中玻色子原子的相干耦合超精细态混合物而成为可能。该项目的目标包括探索超辐射和次辐射动力学，二能级和三能级发射器的共振散射，以及极化子能带结构对物质波传输的影响。该项目扩展了PI最近在NSF支持的单发射极分数衰变、束缚态和极化激元形成方面的工作，以解决集体动力学效应、散射现象和传输行为。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Harnessing the interaction between light and matter is a central topic in quantum optics and emergent quantum technologies. Waveguide-QED (quantum electrodynamics) provides a recent framework in which such interactions, i.e. those between guided photons (particles of light) and elementary quantum emitters (real or artificial atoms), are controlled and engineered through the structure and geometry of the environment in which the two interact. In prior NSF-supported work, the PI has introduced an experimental platform for studies of waveguide-QED effects in the alternative context of ultracold atoms, in which the wells of an optical lattice (i.e. a crystal made of light) act as quantum emitters, while guided atomic matter waves play the role of light. The platform also provides a natural connection to radiatively coupled condensed-matter systems featuring polaritons (quasiparticles made of light and matter). The PI will investigate how tunneling in a lattice influences matter-wave decay, how matter waves reflect from arrays of quantum emitters, and how the controllable properties of quantum emitters can be used to control wave propagation. The project has the potential to address fundamental questions and guide future technological efforts, while also providing pertinent scientific and technical training to graduate and undergraduate students. The project is devoted to studies of coherent radiative behavior in systems of atomic matter-wave quantum emitters. The work uses a recently developed, optical-lattice based platform that provides analogues to waveguide QED and is made possible through the manipulation of coherently coupled hyperfine-state mixtures of bosonic atoms in state-dependent optical lattices. The goals of the project include explorations of super-and subradiant dynamics, of resonant scattering from two- and three-level emitters, and of the effects of polariton bandstructure on matter-wave transport. The project extends the PI's recent NSF-supported work on single-emitter fractional decay, bound states, and the formation of polaritons to address collective dynamical effects, scattering phenomena, and transport behavior.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.