arXiv:1308.3295 · Physical Review Letters
Experimental Realization of a Quantum Phase Transition of Polaritonic Excitations
Kenji Toyoda, Yuta Matsuno, Atsushi Noguchi, Shinsuke Haze, Shinji Urabe
Abstract
We report an experimental realization of the Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model using the internal and radial phonon states of two trapped ions. An adiabatic transfer corresponding to a quantum phase transition from a localized insulator ground state to a delocalized superfluid (SF) ground state is demonstrated. The SF phase of polaritonic excitations characteristic of the interconnected Jaynes-Cummings (JC) system is experimentally explored, where a polaritonic excitation refers to a combination of an atomic excitation and a phonon interchanged via a JC coupling.