The advancement of speculative platforms that advance the field of quantum science and innovation (QIST) comes with an unique set of benefits and difficulties typical to any emerging technology. Researchers at Stony Brook University, led by Dominik Schneble, PhD, report the formation of matter-wave polaritons in an optical lattice, an experimental discovery that allows research studies of a central QIST paradigm through direct quantum simulation utilizing ultracold atoms. An important obstacle in working with photon-based QIST platforms is that while photons can be ideal providers of quantum details they do not typically connect with each other. The lack of such interactions likewise prevents the regulated exchange of quantum details in between them. This can enable the implementation of photon-based quantum gate operations and eventually of an entire QIST infrastructure.
Researchers report the development of matter-wave polaritons in an optical lattice, an experimental discovery that allows studies of a central quantum science and technology paradigm through direct quantum simulation utilizing ultracold atoms.
Discovery of Matter-Wave Polaritons Sheds New Light on Photonic Quantum Technologies
Research released in the journal Nature Physics supplies a novel platform for the second quantum revolution.
The development of experimental platforms that advance the field of quantum science and technology (QIST) features an unique set of benefits and challenges typical to any emergent technology. Scientists at Stony Brook University, led by Dominik Schneble, PhD, report the development of matter-wave polaritons in an optical lattice, an experimental discovery that permits research studies of a central QIST paradigm through direct quantum simulation utilizing ultracold atoms. The researchers task that their novel quasiparticles, which imitate highly interacting photons in gadgets and products however circumvent a few of the inherent difficulties, will benefit the more advancement of QIST platforms that are poised to transform computing and interaction technology.
The research study findings are detailed in a paper released in the journal Nature Physics.
The study sheds light on basic polariton properties and associated many-body phenomena, and it opens up novel possibilities for research studies of polaritonic quantum matter.
A crucial obstacle in dealing with photon-based QIST platforms is that while photons can be perfect providers of quantum details they do not usually engage with each other. The lack of such interactions also prevents the controlled exchange of quantum information between them. Researchers have found a way around this by coupling the photons to heavier excitations in products, hence forming polaritons, chimera-like hybrids in between light and matter. Crashes between these much heavier quasiparticles then make it possible for the photons to effectively engage. This can allow the implementation of photon-based quantum gate operations and ultimately of an entire QIST infrastructure.
A significant obstacle is the limited lifetime of these photon-based polaritons due to their radiative coupling to the environment, which leads to unchecked spontaneous decay and decoherence.
An artistic making of the research findings in the polariton research study shows the atoms in an optical lattice forming an insulating phase (left); atoms developing into matter-wave polaritons via vacuum coupling mediated by microwave radiation represented by the green color (center); polaritons becoming mobile and forming a superfluid stage for strong vacuum coupling (right). Credit: Alfonso Lanuza/Schneble Lab/Stony Brook University.
According to Schneble and colleagues, their published polariton research prevents such limitations triggered by spontaneous decay totally. The photon elements of their polaritons are entirely carried by atomic matter waves, for which such undesirable decay processes do not exist. This function opens access to specification regimes that are not, or not yet, available in photon-based polaritonic systems.
” The development of quantum mechanics has controlled the last century, and a 2nd quantum revolution toward the development of QIST and its applications is now well underway around the globe, consisting of at corporations such as IBM, Google and Amazon,” states Schneble, a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Our work highlights some fundamental quantum mechanical results that are of interest for emerging photonic quantum systems in QIST varying from semiconductor nanophotonics to circuit quantum electrodynamics.”
The Stony Brook researchers performed their try outs a platform featuring ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, an egg-crate-like prospective landscape formed by standing waves of light. Using a devoted vacuum device featuring various lasers and control fields and running at nanokelvin temperature level, they implemented a situation in which the atoms trapped in the lattice “dress” themselves with clouds of vacuum excitations made of vulnerable, evanescent matter waves.
The team found that, as an outcome, the polaritonic particles end up being far more mobile. The scientists were able to straight penetrate their inner structure by carefully shaking the lattice, therefore accessing the contributions of the matter waves and the atomic lattice excitation. When left alone, the matter-wave polaritons hop through the lattice, interact with each other, and type steady stages of quasiparticle matter.
” With our experiment we carried out a quantum simulation of an exciton-polariton system in an unique regime,” discusses Schneble. “The mission to perform such analogue simulations, which in addition are analog in the sense that the pertinent parameters can be easily called in, by itself constitutes an important direction within QIST.”
Recommendation: “Formation of matter-wave polaritons in an optical lattice” by Joonhyuk Kwon, Youngshin Kim, Alfonso Lanuza and Dominik Schneble, 31 March 2022, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/ s41567-022-01565-4.
The Stony Brook research consisted of college students Joonhyuk Kwon (presently a postdoc at Sandia National Laboratory), Youngshin Kim, and Alfonso Lanuza.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation (grant # NSF PHY-1912546) with additional funds from the SUNY Center for Quantum Information Science on Long Island.