Controlling the Quantum World of Atoms, Molecules, and Photons

Qiyu Liang, Aditya V. Venkatramani, Sergio Cantu +7 more

Bound states of massive particles, such as nuclei, atoms, or molecules, constitute the bulk of the visible world around us. By contrast, photons typically only interact weakly. We report the observation of traveling three-photon bound states in a quantum nonlinear medium where the interactions between photons are mediated by atomic Rydberg states. Photon correlation and conditional phase measurements reveal the distinct bunching and phase features associated with three-photon and two-photon bound states. Such photonic trimers and dimers possess shape-preserving wave functions that depend on the constituent photon number. The observed bunching and strongly nonlinear optical phase are described by an effective field theory of Rydberg-induced photon-photon interactions. These observations demonstrate the ability to realize and control strongly interacting quantum many-body states of light.

de Araújo, E Luis Eduardo

A. F. J. Levi

Motivation You may ask why one needs to know about quantum mechanics. Possibly the simplest answer is that we live in a quantum world! Engineers would like to make and control electronic, opto-electronic, and optical devices on an atomic scale. In biology there are molecules and cells we wish to understand and modify on an atomic scale. The same is true in chemistry, where an important goal is the synthesis of both organic and inorganic compounds with precise atomic composition and structure. Quantum mechanics gives the engineer, the biologist, and the chemist the tools with which to study and control objects on an atomic scale. As an example, consider the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule shown in Fig. 1.1. The number of atoms in DNA can be so great that it is impossible to track the position and activity of every atom. However, suppose we wish to know the effect a particular site (or neighborhood of an atom) in a single molecule has on a chemical reaction. Making use of quantum mechanics, engineers, biologists, and chemists can work together to solve this problem. In one approach, laser-induced fluorescence of a fluorophore attached to a specific site of a large molecule can be used to study the dynamics of that individual molecule. The light emitted from the fluorophore acts as a small beacon that provides information about the state of the molecule.

Shengwang Du

Bruce W. Shore

The quantum world within an atom or molecule that once attracted explorations only by academic physicists now provides fertile sustenance for chemists seeking control of chemical reactions and for engineers developing ever smaller electronic devices or tools for processing information with greater security. Whereas the first pioneers could only discover the most elementary properties – the discrete energy levels that characterize the internal structures of atoms and the radiative transitions that link these structures to our external world – it is now possible to alter that structure at will, albeit briefly. Objective This monograph presents the physical principles that describe such deliberately crafted changes, namely how single atoms or molecules (or other simple quantum systems) are affected by coherent interactions, primarily laser light – a subject that has been regarded first as a part of quantum electronics and then quantum optics but is most generally described as coherent atomic excitation [Sho90]. This physics has relevance to such basic concerns as the detection and quantitative analysis of trace amounts of chemicals, the catalysis or control of chemical reactions, the alignment of molecules, and the processing of quantum information. The physics necessarily involves elementary quantum mechanics, but it has many associations to the classical dynamics that governs macroscopic objects – waves and particles. The mathematics that quantifies the changes is that of differential equations, specifically coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs), whose parameters incorporate the controls of experimenters and whose solutions, appropriately interpreted, quantify the resulting changes.

Dimitrios Charalambidis, Natalia E. Karapanagioti, D. Xenakis +8 more