Theory of collective cavity dynamics for cold chemistry and materials science

M. Hemmerling

Eite Tiesinga

Johannes Flick, Michael Ruggenthaler, Heiko Appel +1 more

In this work, we provide an overview of how well-established concepts in the fields of quantum chemistry and material sciences have to be adapted when the quantum nature of light becomes important in correlated matter-photon problems. We analyze model systems in optical cavities, where the matter-photon interaction is considered from the weak- to the strong-coupling limit and for individual photon modes as well as for the multimode case. We identify fundamental changes in Born-Oppenheimer surfaces, spectroscopic quantities, conical intersections, and efficiency for quantum control. We conclude by applying our recently developed quantum-electrodynamical density-functional theory to spontaneous emission and show how a straightforward approximation accurately describes the correlated electron-photon dynamics. This work paves the way to describe matter-photon interactions from first principles and addresses the emergence of new states of matter in chemistry and material science.

Jaime Merino, A. Levy Yeyati

Matthias Degroote, Joonho Lee, Pauline J. Ollitrault

Matthias Degroote, Joonho Lee and Pauline Ollitrault introduce the Digital Discovery themed collection on “Quantum computing for chemistry, material science and biotechnology”.

N Fabbri, M. Inguscio

In recent years, one-dimensional systems have attracted great interest in several fields of research, from condensed-matter physics to material science to chemistry, and more recently in the field of ultracold quantum gases. In our experiments, we produce one-dimensional chains of ultracold atomic gases by means of laser-light induced periodic potentials, modifying interactions in order to realize correlated states, and studying the effect of controlled disorder added on top of the periodic potential. We investigate the dynamical properties of the many-body correlated states with different techniques. In particular, we use inelastic light scattering to study the dynamical structure factor of the collective excitations, or particle-hole spectrum, and the momentum distribution of the system.