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Quantum Fluids of Light

Cristiano Ciuti

Published Jan 1, 2014• 0 citations
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Abstract

This tutorial reviews recent advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical media. Perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon systems are outlined.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_qels.2014.fm3b.1

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This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems. In the presence of effective photon-photon interactions induced by the optical nonlinearity of the medium, a many-photon system can behave collectively as a quantum fluid with a number of novel features stemming from its intrinsically nonequilibrium nature. A rich variety of recently observed photon hydrodynamical effects is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds, to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles. While the review is mostly focused on a specific class of semiconductor systems that have been extensively studied in recent years (planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong light-matter coupling regime having cavity polaritons as elementary excitations), the very concept of quantum fluids of light applies to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals, to atomic clouds embedded in optical fibers and cavities, to photonic crystal cavities, to superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions. The conclusive part of the article is devoted to a review of the future perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon gases and of artificial gauge fields for photons. In particular, several mechanisms to obtain efficient photon blockade are presented, together with their application to the generation of novel quantum phases.
In this Chapter, we give a brief review of the state of the art of theoretical and experimental studies of quantum fluids of light. Such systems consist of ensembles of photons that acquire a finite mass from spatial confinement or diffraction and finite binary interactions from the optical nonlinearity of the optical medium. The peculiar properties of these fluids are highlighted in comparison with standard condensed matter systems, with a special emphasis on the novel possibilities that they offer for the generation, the manipulation and the diagnostics of the fluid, as well as on their intrinsically non-equilibrium and/or dynamical nature. Perspectives towards a new generation of experiments on strongly correlated fluids of light and towards opto-electronic applications are finally sketched.
The control of the group velocity of optical signals has been widely demonstrated using various optical phenomena and different media. Slow and fast light is achieved in a controllable manner by modifying the refractive index dispersion through light induced modifications of the material or the structural properties of the medium. The potential for a continuous tuning of the phase or time delay of broadband microwave signals modulating the optical carrier opens previously unexplored horizons. The talk will review the recent advancements and the future directions of slow and fast light research with an emphasis on microwave-photonics applications.