Waveguide-coupled atoms: making a simple quantum optical system amaze you (MCQST-Colloquium) (Prof. Arno Rauschenbeutel)
- (in-person)
- Date: Jun 21, 2022
- Time: 02:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Prof. Arno Rauschenbeutel
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Location: Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
- Room: B 0.32
Upon weak
pulsed excitation, we unveil the microscopic dynamics of the system, showing
that collective interactions between the atoms and guided light at the single
photon level gradually build up along the atomic ensemble. Furthermore, we observe
coherent oscillations between super- and fully subradiant states of the ensemble,
leading to sudden, temporary switch-offs of the emitted optical power. We also
explore the regime beyond weak excitation, where we excite about 80% of the
atoms, and study their subsequent radiative decay into the waveguide modes. Finally,
and surprisingly, we demonstrate that even when the system has reached its
steady state transmission for long excitation pulses, the collectively enhanced
nonlinear atom-light interaction induces correlations between simultaneously
arriving photons. As a consequence, depending on the number of atoms, we
experimentally observe strong photon bunching or antibunching of the
transmitted light. Our results contribute to the fundamental understanding of
the collective interaction of light and matter and are relevant for
applications ranging from quantum memories to sources of nonclassical light to
optical frequency standards.