arXiv subjects

Atac Imamoglu

Publications and source records attributed to Atac Imamoglu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Interacting Polaron-Polaritons

Two dimensional semiconductors provide an ideal platform for exploration of linear exciton and polariton physics, primarily due to large exciton binding energy and strong light-matter coupling. These features, however, generically imply reduced exciton-exciton interactions, hindering the realisation of active optical devices such as lasers or parametric oscillators. Here, we show that electrical injection of itinerant electrons into monolayer molybdenum diselenide allows us to overcome this limitation: dynamical screening of exciton-polaritons by electrons leads to the formation of new quasi-particles termed polaron-polaritons that exhibit unexpectedly strong interactions as well as optical amplification by Bose-enhanced polaron-electron scattering. To measure the nonlinear optical response, we carry out time-resolved pump-probe measurements and observe polaron-polariton interaction enhancement by a factor of 50 ($0.5 μ$eV $μ$m$^2$) as compared to exciton-polaritons. Concurrently, we measure a spectrally integrated transmission gain of the probe field of $\gtrsim 2$ stemming from stimulated scattering of polaron-polaritons. We show theoretically that the non-equilibrium nature of optically excited quasiparticles favours a previously unexplored interaction mechanism stemming from a phase-space filling in the screening cloud, which provides an accurate explanation of the strong repulsive interactions observed experimentally. Our findings show that itinerant electron-exciton interactions provide an invaluable tool for electronic manipulation of optical properties, demonstrate a new mechanism for dramatically enhancing polariton-polariton interactions, and pave the way for realisation of nonequilibrium polariton condensates.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Nonlinear optics in the fractional quantum Hall regime

Engineering strong interactions between optical photons is a great challenge for quantum science. Envisioned applications range from the realization of photonic gates for quantum information processing to synthesis of photonic quantum materials for investigation of strongly-correlated driven-dissipative systems. Polaritonics, based on the strong coupling of photons to atomic or electronic excitations in an optical resonator, has emerged as a promising approach to implement those tasks. Recent experiments demonstrated the onset of quantum correlations in the exciton-polariton system, showing that strong polariton blockade could be achieved if interactions were an order of magnitude stronger. Here, we report time resolved four-wave mixing experiments on a two-dimensional electron system embedded in an optical cavity, demonstrating that polariton-polariton interactions are strongly enhanced when the electrons are initially in a fractional quantum Hall state. Our experiments indicate that in addition to strong correlations in the electronic ground state, exciton-electron interactions leading to the formation of polaron polaritons play a key role in enhancing the nonlinear optical response. Besides potential applications in realization of strongly interacting photonic systems, our findings suggest that nonlinear optical measurements could provide information about fractional quantum Hall states that is not accessible in linear optical response.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Rotons in Optical Excitation Spectra of Monolayer Semiconductors

Optically generated excitons dictate the absorption and emission spectrum of doped semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. We show that upon increasing the electron density, the elementary optical excitations develop a roton-like dispersion, evidenced by a shift of the lowest energy state to a finite momentum on the order of the Fermi momentum. This effect emerges due to Pauli exclusion between excitons and the electron Fermi sea, but the robustness of the roton minimum in these systems is a direct consequence of the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction and the nonlocal dielectric screening characteristic of monolayers. Finally, we show that the emergence of rotons could be related to hitherto unexplained aspects of photoluminescence spectra in doped transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Interactions and magnetotransport through spin-valley coupled Landau levels in monolayer MoS$_{2}$

The strong spin-orbit coupling and the broken inversion symmetry in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) results in spin-valley coupled band structures. Such a band structure leads to novel applications in the fields of electronics and optoelectronics. Density functional theory calculations as well as optical experiments have focused on spin-valley coupling in the valence band. Here we present magnetotransport experiments on high-quality n-type monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS$_{2}$) samples, displaying highly resolved Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations at magnetic fields as low as $2~T$. We find the effective mass $0.7~m_{e}$, about twice as large as theoretically predicted and almost independent of magnetic field and carrier density. We further detect the occupation of the second spin-orbit split band at an energy of about $15~meV$, i.e. about a factor $5$ larger than predicted. In addition, we demonstrate an intricate Landau level spectrum arising from a complex interplay between a density-dependent Zeeman splitting and spin and valley-split Landau levels. These observations, enabled by the high electronic quality of our samples, testify to the importance of interaction effects in the conduction band of monolayer MoS$_{2}$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Engineering Gaussian states of light from a planar microcavity

Quantum fluids of light in a nonlinear planar microcavity can exhibit antibunched photon statistics at short distances due to repulsive polariton interactions. We show that, despite the weakness of the nonlinearity, the antibunching signal can be amplified orders of magnitude with an appropriate free-space optics scheme to select and interfere output modes. Our results are understood from the unconventional photon blockade perspective by analyzing the approximate Gaussian output state of the microcavity. In a second part, we illustrate how the temporal and spatial profile of the density-density correlation function of a fluid of light can be reconstructed with free-space optics. Also here the nontrivial (anti)bunching signal can be amplified significantly by shaping the light emitted by the microcavity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Strong interactions between dipolar polaritons

Nonperturbative coupling between cavity photons and excitons leads to formation of hybrid light-matter excitations termed polaritons. In structures where photon absorption leads to creation of excitons with aligned permanent dipoles, the elementary excitations, termed dipolar polaritons, are expected to exhibit enhanced interactions. Here, we report a substantial increase in interaction strength between dipolar polaritons as the size of the dipole is increased by tuning the applied gate voltage. To this end, we use coupled quantum well structures embedded inside a microcavity where coherent electron tunneling between the wells controls the size of the excitonic dipole. Modifications of the interaction strength are characterized by measuring the changes in the reflected intensity of light when polaritons are driven with a resonant laser. Factor of 6.5 increase in the interaction strength to linewidth ratio that we obtain indicates that dipolar polaritons could be used to demonstrate a polariton blockade effect and thereby form the building blocks of many-body states of light.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Transport of neutral optical excitations using electric fields

Mobile quantum impurities interacting with a fermionic bath form quasiparticles known as Fermi polarons. We demonstrate that a force applied to the bath particles can generate a drag force of similar magnitude acting on the impurities, realizing a novel, nonperturbative Coulomb drag effect. To prove this, we calculate the fully self-consistent, frequency-dependent transconductivity at zero temperature in the Baym-Kadanoff conserving approximation. We apply our theory to excitons and exciton polaritons interacting with a bath of charge carriers in a doped semiconductor embedded in a microcavity. In external electric and magnetic fields, the drag effect enables electrical control of excitons and may pave the way for the implementation of gauge fields for excitons and polaritons. Moreover, a reciprocal effect may facilitate optical manipulation of electron transport. Our findings establish transport measurements as a novel, powerful tool for probing the many-body physics of mobile quantum impurities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Polaron-Polaritons in the Integer and Fractional Quantum Hall Regimes

Elementary quasi-particles in a two dimensional electron system can be described as exciton-polarons since electron-exciton interactions ensures dressing of excitons by Fermi-sea electron-hole pair excitations. A relevant open question is the modification of this description when the electrons occupy flat-bands and electron-electron interactions become prominent. Here, we perform cavity spectroscopy of a two dimensional electron system in the strong-coupling regime where polariton resonances carry signatures of strongly correlated quantum Hall phases. By measuring the evolution of the polariton splitting under an external magnetic field, we demonstrate the modification of electron-exciton interactions that we associate with phase space filling at integer filling factors and polaron dressing at fractional filling factors. The observed non-linear behavior shows great promise for enhancing polariton-polariton interactions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

High-Order Multipole Radiation from Quantum Hall States in Dirac Materials

We investigate the optical response of strongly disordered quantum Hall states in two-dimensional Dirac materials and find qualitatively different effects in the radiation properties of the bulk versus the edge. We show that the far-field radiation from the edge is characterized by large multipole moments (> 50) due to the efficient transfer of angular momentum from the electrons into the scattered light. The maximum multipole transition moment is a direct measure of the coherence length of the edge states. Accessing these multipole transitions would provide new tools for optical spectroscopy and control of quantum Hall edge states. On the other hand, the far-field radiation from the bulk appears as random dipole emission with spectral properties that vary with the local disorder potential. We determine the conditions under which this bulk radiation can be used to image the disorder landscape. Such optical measurements can probe sub-micron length scales over large areas and provide complementary information to scanning probe techniques. Spatially resolving this bulk radiation would serve as a novel probe of the percolation transition near half-filling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Realization of an atomically thin mirror using monolayer MoSe2

Advent of new materials such as van der Waals heterostructures, propels new research directions in condensed matter physics and enables development of novel devices with unique functionalities. Here, we show experimentally that a monolayer of MoSe2 embedded in a charge controlled heterostructure can be used to realize an electrically tunable atomically-thin mirror, that effects 90% extinction of an incident field that is resonant with its exciton transition. The corresponding maximum reflection coefficient of 45% is only limited by the ratio of the radiative decay rate to the linewidth of exciton transition and is independent of incident light intensity up to 400 Watts/cm2. We demonstrate that the reflectivity of the mirror can be drastically modified by applying a gate voltage that modifies the monolayer charge density. Our findings could find applications ranging from fast programmable spatial light modulators to suspended ultra-light mirrors for optomechanical devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Engineering matter interactions using squeezed vacuum

Virtually all interactions that are relevant for atomic and condensed matter physics are mediated by quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field vacuum. Consequently, controlling the vacuum fluctuations can be used to engineer the strength and the range of interactions. Recent experiments have used this premise to demonstrate novel quantum phases or entangling gates by embedding electric dipoles in photonic cavities or waveguides, which modify the electromagnetic fluctuations. Here, we show theoretically that the enhanced fluctuations in the anti-squeezed quadrature of a squeezed vacuum state allows for engineering interactions between electric dipoles without the need for a photonic structure. Thus, the strength and range of the interactions can be engineered in a time-dependent way by changing the spatial profile of the squeezed vacuum in a travelling-wave geometry, which also allows the implementation of chiral dissipative interactions. Using experimentally realized squeezing parameters and including realistic losses, we predict single atom cooperativities $C$ of up to 10 for the squeezed vacuum enhanced interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Squeezed thermal reservoirs as a resource for a nano-mechanical engine beyond the Carnot limit

The efficient conversion of thermal energy to mechanical work by a heat engine is an ongoing technological challenge. Since the pioneering work of Carnot, it is known that the efficiency of heat engines is bounded by a fundamental upper limit, the Carnot limit. Theoretical studies suggest that heat engines may be operated beyond the Carnot limit by exploiting stationary, non-equilibrium reservoirs that are characterized by a temperature as well as further parameters. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we demonstrate that the efficiency of a nano-beam heat engine coupled to squeezed thermal noise is not bounded by the standard Carnot limit. Remarkably, we also show that it is possible to design a cyclic process that allows for extraction of mechanical work from a single squeezed thermal reservoir. Our results demonstrate a qualitatively new regime of non-equilibrium thermodynamics at small scales and provide a new perspective on the design of efficient, highly miniaturized engines.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Atomically thin semiconductors as nonlinear mirrors

We show that a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer with a radiatively broadened exciton resonance would exhibit perfect extinction of a transmitted field. This result holds for s- or p-polarized weak resonant light fields at any incidence angle, due to the conservation of in-plane momentum of excitons and photons in a flat defect-free two dimensional crystal. In contrast to extinction experiments with single quantum emitters, exciton-exciton interactions lead to an enhancement of reflection with increasing power for incident fields that are blue detuned with respect to the exciton resonance. We show that the interactions limit the maximum reflection that can be achieved by depleting the incoming coherent state into an outgoing two-mode squeezed state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Giant paramagnetism induced valley polarization of electrons in charge-tunable monolayer MoSe2

For applications exploiting the valley pseudospin degree of freedom in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers, efficient preparation of electrons or holes in a single valley is essential. Here, we show that a magnetic field of 7 Tesla leads to a near-complete valley polarization of electrons in MoSe2 monolayer with a density 1.6x10^{12} cm^{-2}; in the absence of exchange interactions favoring single-valley occupancy, a similar degree of valley polarization would have required a pseudospin g-factor exceeding 40. To investigate the magnetic response, we use polarization resolved photoluminescence as well as resonant reflection measurements. In the latter, we observe gate voltage dependent transfer of oscillator strength from the exciton to the attractive-Fermi-polaron: stark differences in the spectrum of the two light helicities provide a confirmation of valley polarization. Our findings suggest an interaction induced giant paramagnetic response of MoSe2, which paves the way for valleytronics applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Electrically tunable artificial gauge potential for polaritons

Neutral particles subject to artificial gauge potentials can behave as charged particles in magnetic fields. This fascinating premise has led to demonstrations of one-way waveguides, topologically protected edge states and Landau levels for photons. In ultracold neutral atoms effective gauge fields have allowed the emulation of matter under strong magnetic fields leading to realization of Harper-Hofstadter and Haldane models. Here we show that application of perpendicular electric and magnetic fields effects a tuneable artificial gauge potential for two-dimensional microcavity exciton polaritons. For verification, we perform interferometric measurement of the associated phase accumulated during coherent polariton transport. Since the gauge potential originates from the magnetoelectric Stark effect, it can be realized for photons strongly coupled to excitations in any polarizable medium. Together with strong polariton- polariton interactions and engineered polariton lattices, artificial gauge fields could play a key role in investigation of non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly correlated photons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Measurement of spin coherence using Raman scattering

Ramsey interferometry provides a natural way to determine the coherence time of most qubit systems. Recent experiments on quantum dots however, demonstrated that dynamical nuclear spin polarization can strongly influence the measurement process, making it difficult to extract the $T_2^*$ coherence time using optical Ramsey pulses. Here, we demonstrate an alternative method for spin coherence measurement that is based on first-order coherence of photons generated in spin-flip Raman scattering. We show that if a quantum emitter is driven by a weak monochromatic laser, Raman coherence is determined exclusively by spin coherence, allowing for a direct determination of spin $T_2^*$ time. When combined with coherence measurements on Rayleigh scattered photons, our technique enables us to identify coherent and incoherent contributions to resonance fluorescence, and to minimize the latter. We verify the validity of our technique by comparing our results to those determined from Ramsey interferometry for electron and heavy-hole spins.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Fermi polaron-polaritons in charge-tunable atomically thin semiconductors

The dynamics of a mobile quantum impurity in a degenerate Fermi system is a fundamental problem in many-body physics. The interest in this field has been renewed due to recent ground-breaking experiments with ultra-cold Fermi gases. Optical creation of an exciton or a polariton in a two-dimensional electron system embedded in a microcavity constitutes a new frontier for this field due to an interplay between cavity-coupling favoring ultra-low mass polariton formation and exciton-electron interactions leading to polaron or trion formation. Here, we present cavity spectroscopy of gate-tunable monolayer MoSe$_2$ exhibiting strongly bound trion and polaron resonances, as well as non-perturbative coupling to a single microcavity mode. As the electron density is increased, the oscillator strength determined from the polariton splitting is gradually transferred from the higher-energy repulsive-exciton-polaron resonance to the lower-energy attractive-polaron manifold. Simultaneous observation of polariton formation in both attractive and repulsive branches indicate a new regime of polaron physics where the polariton impurity mass is much smaller than that of the electrons. Our findings shed new light on optical response of semiconductors in the presence of free carriers by identifying the Fermi polaron nature of excitonic resonances and constitute a first step in investigation of a new class of degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Generation of heralded entanglement between distant hole spins

Quantum entanglement emerges naturally in interacting quantum systems and plays a central role in quantum information processing. Remarkably, it is possible to generate entanglement even in the absence of direct interactions: provided that which path information is erased, weak spin-state dependent light scattering can be used to project two distant spins onto a maximally entangled state upon detection of a single photon. Even though this approach is necessarily probabilistic, successful generation of entanglement is heralded by the photon detection event. Here, we demonstrate heralded quantum entanglement of two quantum dot heavy-hole spins separated by 5 meters using single-photon interference. Thanks to the long coherence time of hole spins and the efficient spin-photon interface provided by self-assembled quantum dots embedded in leaky microcavity structures, we generate 2300 entangled spin pairs per second, which represents an improvement approaching three orders of magnitude as compared to prior experiments. Delayed two-photon interference scheme we developed allows for efficient verification of quantum correlations. Our results lay the groundwork for the realization of quantum networks in semiconductor nanostructures. Combined with schemes for transferring quantum information to a long-lived memory qubit, fast entanglement generation we demonstrate could also impact quantum repeater architectures.

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