Virtual excitations, inherent to ultrastrongly coupled light-matter systems, induce measurable modifications in system properties, offering a novel resource for quantum technologies. In this Letter, we demonstrate how these virtual excitations and their correlations can be harnessed to enhance precision measurements, without the need to extract them. Building on the paradigmatic Dicke model, which describes the interaction between an ensemble of two-level atoms and a single radiation mode, we propose a method to harness hybridized light-matter modes whose renormalized frequencies encode the effects of virtual excitations for quantum metrology. Remarkably, we find that, for a fixed squeezing parameter ξ, exploiting virtual squeezing through oscillator frequency shifts yields a quadratic enhancement in estimation precision-scaling as exp(4ξ)-compared to the conventional exp(2ξ) scaling of real squeezed states. These results show that virtual excitations, though unobservable, can drive metrological performance beyond the standard quantum limit. Our approach establishes a broadly applicable framework for high-precision measurements across a wide class of ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems.
Virtual excitations, inherent to ultrastrongly coupled light-matter systems, induce measurable modifications in system properties, offering a novel resource for quantum technologies. In this Letter, we demonstrate how these virtual excitations and their correlations can be harnessed to enhance precision measurements, without the need to extract them. Building on the paradigmatic Dicke model, which describes the interaction between an ensemble of two-level atoms and a single radiation mode, we propose a method to harness hybridized light-matter modes whose renormalized frequencies encode the effects of virtual excitations for quantum metrology. Remarkably, we find that, for a fixed squeezing parameter ξ, exploiting virtual squeezing through oscillator frequency shifts yields a quadratic enhancement in estimation precision-scaling as exp(4ξ)-compared to the conventional exp(2ξ) scaling of real squeezed states. These results show that virtual excitations, though unobservable, can drive metrological performance beyond the standard quantum limit. Our approach establishes a broadly applicable framework for high-precision measurements across a wide class of ultrastrongly coupled quantum systems.
High precision macroscopic quantum control in interacting light–matter systems remains a significant goal toward novel information processing and ultra-precise metrology. We show that the out-of-equilibrium behavior of a paradigmatic light–matter system (Dicke model) reveals two successive stages of enhanced quantum correlations beyond the traditional schemes of near-adiabatic and sudden quenches. The first stage features magnification of matter-only and light-only entanglement and squeezing due to effective nonlinear self-interactions. The second stage results from a highly entangled light–matter state, with enhanced superradiance and signatures of chaotic and highly quantum states. We show that these new effects scale up consistently with matter system size, and are reliable even in dissipative environments.
The major goal of quantum metrology (QM) is to exploit the quantum resources to raise the measurement precision (MP) as high as possible. When the quantum resources such as squeezing has been widely explored, light-mater interaction systems set up a highly controllable platform applicable for QM in novel pursuit of high MP. However, critical QM by the conventional linear interaction is confronted with the restriction of low-frequency-limit condition and the detrimental problem of diverging preparation time of the probe state (PTPS). This work shows that mixed interactions by linear and nonlinear light-matter couplings in the presence of bias field can provide various quantum resources, including squeezing, degeneracy lifting, displacement and quantum phase transition. These resources manifest high sensitivity for QM as demonstrated by analytically obtained critical components or exponential behavior of quantum Fisher information. We find that these sensitivity resources can be combined to upgrade the upper bound of MP by many orders over the widely-applied squeezing resource. As further advantages, such an upgraded metrology protocol not only breaks the frequency-limit restrictions but also avoids the detrimental problem of diverging PTPS which were both encountered in linear interaction. Our work paves a way to exploit and combine all the resources in momentum, position and spin spaces to maximize the MP and expand the applicable conditions simultaneously.
Dressing quantum states of matter with virtual photons can create exotic effects ranging from vacuum-field modified transport to polaritonic chemistry, and may drive strong squeezing or entanglement of light and matter modes. The established paradigm of cavity quantum electrodynamics focuses on resonant light-matter interaction to maximize the coupling strength ΩR/ωc, defined as the ratio of the vacuum Rabi frequency and the carrier frequency of light. Yet, the finite oscillator strength of a single electronic excitation sets a natural limit to ΩR/ωc. Here, we demonstrate a new regime of record-strong light-matter interaction which exploits the cooperative dipole moments of multiple, highly non-resonant magnetoplasmon modes specifically tailored by our metasurface. This multi-mode coupling creates an ultrabroadband spectrum of over 20 polaritons spanning 6 optical octaves, vacuum ground state populations exceeding 1 virtual excitation quantum for electronic and optical modes, and record coupling strengths equivalent to ΩR/ωc=3.19. The extreme interaction drives strongly subcycle exchange of vacuum energy between multiple bosonic modes akin to high-order nonlinearities otherwise reserved to strong-field physics, and entangles previously orthogonal electronic excitations solely via vacuum fluctuations of the common cavity mode. This offers avenues towards tailoring phase transitions by coupling otherwise non-interacting modes, merely by shaping the dielectric environment.
Ultrastrong coupling between light and matter has, in the past decade, transitioned from a theoretical idea to an experimental reality. It is a new regime of quantum light–matter interaction, which goes beyond weak and strong coupling to make the coupling strength comparable to the transition frequencies in the system. The achievement of weak and strong coupling has led to increased control of quantum systems and to applications such as lasers, quantum sensing, and quantum information processing. Here we review the theory of quantum systems with ultrastrong coupling, discussing entangled ground states with virtual excitations, new avenues for nonlinear optics, and connections to several important physical models. We also overview the multitude of experimental setups, including superconducting circuits, organic molecules, semiconductor polaritons, and optomechanical systems, that have now achieved ultrastrong coupling. We conclude by discussing the many potential applications that these achievements enable in physics and chemistry.
In the last decades, the experimental and theoretical study of light-matter interactions in confined quantum systems has allowed to considerably widen and deepen our understanding of the quantum world.The simplest fully-quantized light-matter interaction is the quantum Rabi model (QRM), where a two-level system is coupled to a single bosonic mode.The implementation of quantum-optical systems in which the interaction strength overcomes losses brought a revolution to this research area.Under this condition, dubbed strong coupling (SC) regime, quantum processes can be observed at the single-photon level, and even exploited to perform Quantum Information tasks.Recent developments in solid-state Quantum Technologies have made possible to push the line further, achieving the ultrastrong coupling (USC) regime of the QRM, in which the interaction strength is comparable with the bare frequencies of the interacting systems.In the USC regime of the QRM, light and matter degrees of freedom merge into collective bound states called polaritons, the system ground state is not the vacuum and excitations are not conserved.The growing interest in USC-related phenomena is mainly motivated by the fundamental counterintuitive modifications to light-matter interactions entailed by this regime.At the same time, the USC regime is also expected to provide computational benefits in terms of operational speed, coherence time, and noise protection.In this Thesis, we theoretically analyze novel quantum phenomena emerging in the USC regime, which can be observed using nowadays technology and can motivate foreseeable improvements.The results here presented have been derived using two conceptually different approaches.On one side, we have analyzed interesting models that can be implemented in superconducting circuits, a quantum platform where the USC regime can be naturally achieved.In particular, we focused on excitation transfer across USC impurities, entanglement generation via modulation of electrical boundary conditions and quantum state engineering in ultrastrongly-coupled systems.On the other hand, we have developed methods to reproduce the physics of light-matter interactions in the USC regime, by tailoring the Hamiltonian of atomic systems, like trapped ions and cold atoms.These proposals take profit of the specific features of such quantum platforms, in order to implement regimes and measurements that are not directly accessible.We believe that this Thesis will contribute to develop a thorough understanding of quantum phenomena related to the USC regime of light-matter interaction, and that it will foster the dialog between experimental and theoretical research in this area.I would like to thank first my PhD supervisor Prof. Enrique Solano, for his constant support and invaluable guidance.Countless thought-provoking discussions held with him during my PhD studies have contributed to develop my critical skills, and his advice has covered all facets of nowadays top-level research.
Quantum metrology leverages quantum resources to surpass classical limits in measurement sensitivity, enabling new capabilities across fields ranging from fundamental physics to sensing, imaging, and navigation. As these techniques mature, an increasing emphasis is being placed on translating quantum-enhanced performance into practical, robust systems that can operate outside controlled laboratory environments. The overarching objective of the work presented in this dissertation is to develop sensing platforms that achieve improved performance by leveraging quantum resources in realistic, noisy environments. In particular, this work focuses on the use of squeezed states of light, and investigates how two-mode squeezed states generated through four-wave mixing can be developed into compact sources and integrated with practical fiber-optic and plasmonic sensing platforms. Squeezed states of light, and in particular two-mode squeezed states (twin beams), constitute a powerful resource in quantum metrology. Their reduced quantum noise enables measurements below the noise level that can be achieved with classical resources, know as the shot-noise limit, offering genuine quantum advantages in precision sensing and measurement. Beyond their fundamental interest, such states provide a pathway toward practical quantum technologies capable of outperforming classical approaches in real-world applications. For many practical implementations, it is therefore highly advantageous to demonstrate squeezed light sources that are compact, stable, and compatible with existing photonic infrastructures. This is needed to lower the barrier to incorporate quantum resources into experiments and sensing platforms, particularly in environments where bulky or delicate optical setups are impractical. To demonstrate a pathway toward practical quantum sensing with squeezed light, this dissertation presents experimental studies spanning both the development of deployable squeezed-light sources and their application in practical or real-world sensing platforms. We present the development of a compact, narrowband, fiber-coupled source of squeezed light based on four-wave mixing in hot Rb 85 vapor. The system achieves more than 4 dB of intensity-difference squeezing after propagation through polarization-maintaining fibers, demonstrating that strong quantum correlations can be preserved even when fiber coupled. This platform serves as a standalone proof-of-principle demonstration of a deployable, low–size, weight, and power (low-SWaP) squeezed-light source that is well suited for applications where fiber delivery of quantum-correlated light can be readily integrated into existing experimental and sensing platforms. In addition to this source development, the dissertation investigates two distinct applications of twin-beam for quantum-enhanced sensing. The first one focuses on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, which are widely used to monitor strain, vibration, and temperature in applications ranging from civil infrastructure and aerospace systems to oil and gas pipeline monitoring. By coupling the squeezed light into separate FBGs and employing differential detection, common-mode noise is suppressed while localized perturbations are retained. This work provides a feasibility study for using twin-beams to enhance the sensitivity of FBG-based sensors beyond classical limits while providing robustness against environmental noise. The second application examines plasmonic sensors based on surface plasmon resonances in metallic nanostructures, which enable highly sensitive detection of small changes in refractive index. Such plasmonic sensors are particularly useful for applications in chemical and biological sensing, environmental monitoring, and lab-on-chip platforms, where compactness and high sensitivity to refractive index changes are critical. A dual-probing scheme is introduced in which both beams of a two-mode squeezed state interact with a polarization-dependent plasmonic nanostructure. By exploiting opposite spectral response for orthogonal polarizations, this approach improves measurement sensitivity relative to our previous technique of using one beam to probe the plasmonic sensor and the other to serve as a reference. This new technique takes advantage of transducing information into both the beams while preserving the benefits of differential detection for noise cancellation. Taken together, these studies illustrate complementary approaches for leveraging quantum correlations for practical sensing problems. Through the development of a compact, fiber-compatible squeezed-light source and independent demonstrations of enhanced performance in both fiber-optic and plasmonic sensors, this dissertation advances pathways for translating quantum sensing approaches based on quantum states of light from laboratory demonstrations into deployable metrology tools.