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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Extremely Non-adiabatic Switch-off of Deep-strong Light-Matter Coupling

Joshua Mornhinweg, Maike Halbhuber, Viola Zeller, Cristiano Ciuti, Dominique Bougeard, R. Huber, C. Lange

Published Jun 21, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Dressing electrons with the vacuum electromagnetic field of an optical microresonator can lead to the creation of new states of matter. When the rate of energy exchange between the two systems, the vacuum Rabi frequency, Ω R , becomes comparable to the carrier frequency of light, ω 0 , the regime of ultrastrong coupling is reached [1] . Here, anti-resonant interactions result in a modified vacuum ground state and give rise to novel phenomena of cavity quantum electrodynamics (c-QED), such as the vacuum Bloch-Siegert shift [2] . When Ω R even surpasses ω 0 , deepstrong coupling is attained [3] , [4] . While the exploration of the equilibrium properties of this extreme setting has just begun, its subcycle dynamics is expected to reveal qualitatively new quantum phenomena.

DOI
10.1109/cleo/europe-eqec52157.2021.9542068

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Dressing electrons with the vacuum electromagnetic field of an optical microresonator can lead to the creation of new states of matter. When the rate of energy exchange between the two systems, the vacuum Rabi frequency, Ω R , becomes comparable to the carrier frequency of light, ω 0 , the regime of ultrastrong coupling is reached [1] . Here, anti-resonant interactions result in a modified vacuum ground state and give rise to novel phenomena of cavity quantum electrodynamics (c-QED), such as the vacuum Bloch-Siegert shift [2] . When Ω R even surpasses ω 0 , deepstrong coupling is attained [3] , [4] . While the exploration of the equilibrium properties of this extreme setting has just begun, its subcycle dynamics is expected to reveal qualitatively new quantum phenomena.
Interaction of the vacuum field of an optical mode with an electronic two-level system can drive non-perturbative light-matter dynamics, resulting in an exotic quantum ground state containing a sizeable population of virtual excitations. In the deep-strong coupling (DSC) regime, where the Rabi frequency,ΩR\Omega_{\mathrm{R}}ΩR​, exceeds the eigen-frequencies of the coupled systems, this extreme ground state can result in spectacular effects of cavity-QED, such as the expected release of the virtual photon ground state population as vacuum radiation by non-adiabatic modulation of the coupling mechanism [1], [2]. However, for resonant coupling of two single modes [3], the finite oscillator strength of resonant electronic excitation sets a natural limit to the achievable coupling strength, hindering further exploration of this exciting field.
The interaction between quantized electromagnetic fields in cavities and natural or artificial atoms has played a crucial role in developing our understanding of light-matter interactions and quantum technologies.Recently, new regimes beyond the weak and strong light-matter coupling of cavity-QED have been explored in several settings, wherein the light-matter coupling rate becomes comparable to (ultrastrong coupling) or even exceeds (deep-strong coupling) the photon frequency.These ultrastrong coupling regimes can give rise to new physical effects and applications, and they challenge our understanding of cavity QED; fundamental issues like the proper definition of subsystems, their quantum measurements, the structure of light-matter ground states, and the analysis of time-dependent interactions are subject to gauge ambiguities that lead to even qualitatively distinct predictions.The resolution of these ambiguities is important for understanding and designing next-generation quantum devices that can operate in extreme coupling regimes.Here we discuss and provide solutions to these ambiguities by adopting an approach based on operational procedures involving measurements on the individual light and matter components of the interacting system.
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/ωcΩ_\mathrm{R}/ω_\mathrm{c}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/ωcΩ_\mathrm{R}/ω_\mathrm{c}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=3.19Ω_\mathrm{R}/ω_\mathrm{c}=3.19ΩR​/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.
When an atom is strongly coupled to a cavity, the two systems can exchange a single photon through a coherent Rabi oscillation. This process enables precise quantum-state engineering and manipulation of atoms and photons in a cavity, which play a central role in quantum information and measurement. Recently, a new regime of cavity QED was reached experimentally where the strength of the interaction between light and artificial atoms (qubits) becomes comparable to the atomic transition frequency or the resonance frequency of the cavity mode. Here we show that this regime can strongly modify the concept of vacuum Rabi oscillations, enabling multiphoton exchanges between the qubit and the resonator. We find that experimental state-of-the-art circuit-QED systems can undergo two- and three-photon vacuum Rabi oscillations. These anomalous Rabi oscillations can be exploited for the realization of efficient Fock-state sources of light and complex entangled states of qubits.
We explore the nonlinear response of tailor-cut light-matter hybrid states in a novel regime, where both the Rabi frequency induced by a coherent driving field and the vacuum Rabi frequency set by a cavity field are comparable to the carrier frequency of light. In this previously unexplored strong-field limit of ultrastrong coupling, subcycle pump-probe and multiwave mixing nonlinearities between different polariton states violate the normal-mode approximation while ultrastrong coupling remains intact, as confirmed by our mean-field model. We expect such custom-cut nonlinearities of hybridized elementary excitations to facilitate nonclassical light sources, quantum phase transitions, or cavity chemistry with virtual photons.