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Creation of strong cat states by the light-matter interaction of atoms in a photonic time crystal

Lior Bar-Hillel, Alexey Gerlach, Yonatan Plotnik, Ido E. Kaminer, Mordechai Segev

Published Jan 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study light-matter interactions of an atom in a photonic time-crystal, finding how to harness this interaction for the creation of strong cat states.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_fs.2026.fm1d.3

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Over the last few decades, the predominant strategies for controlling spontaneous emission have involved tailoring the spatial surroundings of quantum emitters or atoms to create resonant or spatially periodic photonic structures. However, the rise of time-varying photonics has prompted a reevaluation of spontaneous emission in dynamically changing environments, especially within photonic time crystals, where optical properties undergo time-periodic modulation. Here, we apply classical light-matter interaction theory together with Floquet analysis to reveal a substantial enhancement of the spontaneous emission decay rate at the momentum gap frequency in photonic time crystals. Moreover, our findings suggest that photonic time crystals enable a nonequilibrium light-matter interaction process: the spontaneous excitation of an atom from its ground state to an excited state, accompanied by the concurrent emission of a photon, referred to as spontaneous emission excitation.