Atom-induced nonlinear photonic interactions

• Grant number: 21/04861-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2022
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Atomic and Molecular Physics
• Principal Investigator: Romain Pierre Marcel Bachelard
• Grantee: Patrícia Pinto Abrantes
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/15554-5 - Transport and localization of light in two and three dimensions, AP.JP2

Abstract

This project addresses the nonlinear interactions between photons in clouds of cold neutral atoms. While dipole-dipole interactions are known to lead to non-classical atomic states and potentially entanglement, the possibility to generate non-classical light is essentially unexplored. As a first step, we propose to investigate the anti-blockade mechanism, in analogy with Rydberg atoms, to understand how pairs or triplets of photons may be produced in chains of atoms. As a second step, we aim at stepping in the regime of many-body localization, where multi-excitation states may be sustained by disorder-induced effects, with the objective of seeking beyond-classical signatures in the radiated light. (AU)