The quantum bridge to photonic metamaterials

Nikolay I. Zheludev

Nikolay I. Zheludev

Mikhail Y. Shalaginov, Simeon Bogdanov, Vadim Vorobyov +5 more

Wei Huang, Songyi Liu, Shi-Ting Cao +4 more

In this paper, we present a full quantum description for coupling mechanism of the metamaterial. We start the derivation from quantum master equation to fit the spectrum of THz metamaterial. Therefore we can employ the quantum master equation to describe the coupling of metamaterial, such as the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and bound state in the continuum (BIC). In this paper, we build up a bridge between the quantum mechanism and coupling mechanism of metamaterial, so-called quantum–classical analogies. Based on our theory, we can find the more quantum phenomenon with corresponding to the coupling phenomenon of the metamaterial.

Christophe Couteau

Alexandre M Zagoskin, Didier Felbacq, Emmanuel Rousseau

Quantum metamaterials generalize the concept of metamaterials (artificial optical media) to the case when their optical properties are determined by the interplay of quantum effects in the constituent ‘artificial atoms’ with the electromagnetic field modes in the system. The theoretical investigation of these structures demonstrated that a number of new effects (such as quantum birefringence, strongly nonclassical states of light, etc.) are to be expected, prompting the efforts on their fabrication and experimental investigation. Here we provide a summary of the principal features of quantum metamaterials and review the current state of research in this quickly developing field, which bridges quantum optics, quantum condensed matter theory and quantum information processing.