arXiv subjects

Iacopo Carusotto

Publications and source records attributed to Iacopo Carusotto.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Excitons bound by photon exchange

In contrast to interband excitons in undoped quantum wells, doped quantum wells do not display sharp resonances due to excitonic bound states. In these systems the effective Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes typically only leads to a depolarization shift of the single-electron intersubband transitions. Non-perturbative light-matter interaction in solid-state devices has been investigated as a pathway to tune optoelectronic properties of materials. A recent theoretical work [Cortese et al., Optica 6, 354 (2019)] predicted that, when the doped quantum wells are embedded in a photonic cavity, emission-reabsorption processes of cavity photons can generate an effective attractive interaction which binds electrons and holes together, leading to the creation of an intraband bound exciton. Spectroscopically, this bound state manifests itself as a novel discrete resonance which appears below the ionisation threshold only when the coupling between light and matter is increased above a critical value. Here we report the first experimental observation of such a bound state using doped GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells embedded in metal-metal resonators whose confinement is high enough to permit operation in strong coupling. Our result provides the first evidence of bound states of charged particles kept together not by Coulomb interaction, but by the exchange of transverse photons. Light-matter coupling can thus be used as a novel tool in quantum material engineering, tuning electronic properties of semiconductor heterostructures beyond those permitted by mere crystal structures, with direct applications to mid-infrared optoelectronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Fusion channels of non-Abelian anyons from angular-momentum and density-profile measurements

We present a method to characterize non-Abelian anyons that is based only on static measurements and that does not rely on any form of interference. For geometries where the anyonic statistics can be revealed by rigid rotations of the anyons, we link this property to the angular momentum of the initial state. We test our method on the paradigmatic example of the Moore-Read state, that is known to support excitations with non-Abelian statistics of Ising type. As an example, we reveal the presence of different fusion channels for two such excitations, a defining feature of non-Abelian anyons. This is obtained by measuring density-profile properties, like the mean square radius of the system or the depletion generated by the anyons. Our study paves the way to novel methods for characterizing non-Abelian anyons, both in the experimental and theoretical domains.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Theory of chiral edge state lasing in a two-dimensional topological system

We theoretically study topological laser operation in a bosonic Harper-Hofstadter model featuring a saturable optical gain. Crucial consequences of the chirality of the lasing edge modes are highlighted, such as a sharp dependence of the lasing threshold on the geometrical shape of the amplifying region and the possibility of ultraslow relaxation times and of convectively unstable regimes. The different unstable regimes are characterized in terms of spatio-temporal structures sustained by noise and a strong amplification of a propagating probe beam is anticipated to occur in between the convective and the absolute (lasing) thresholds. The robustness of topological laser operation against static disorder is assessed.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Quantum fluctuations of the friction force induced by the dynamical Casimir emission

We study a quantum model of dynamical Casimir effect in an optical cavity enclosed by a freely moving mirror attached to a harmonic spring. The quantum fluctuations of the friction force exerted by the dynamical Casimir emission onto the moving mirror are investigated, as well as their consequences on the quantum state of the mirror oscillation. Observable signatures of the interplay of the nonlinear nature of the effective mirror-cavity coupling and of the discreteness of the emitted photons are pointed out, in particular as a fast diffusion of the mirror oscillation phase. These results are interpreted in the language of quantum field theories on curved space-times as a breakdown of the standard semiclassical theory of the backreaction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

New perspectives on superfluidity in resonantly--driven polariton fluids

In this paper we discuss, within the Gross--Pitaevskii framework, superfluidity, soliton nucleation, and instabilities in a non-equilibrium polariton fluid injected by a spatially localized and continuous-wave coherent pump and flowing against a defect located outside the pump spot. In contrast to equilibrium condensates, the steady-state solutions of the driven-dissipative equations in this specific geometry hardly show a clean superfluid flow around the defect and rather feature a crossover from shallow to deep soliton-like perturbation. This is explained in terms of the properties of one-dimensional flows, in particular their weak dependence on the pump parameters and their rapid transition to a super-sonic regime under the effect of the quantum pressure; such a highly nonlinear behaviour calls for quantitative experimental tests of the underlying Gross--Pitaevskii equation. The role of disorder and of a incoherent reservoir in inducing non-stationary behaviours with moving vortices is also highlighted.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Dispersion relation of the collective excitations in a resonantly driven polariton fluid

Exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities constitute the archetypal realization of a quantum fluid of light. Under coherent optical drive, remarkable effects such as superfluidity, dark solitons or the nucleation of hydrodynamic vortices have been observed. These phenomena can be all understood as a specific manifestation of collective excitations forming on top of the polariton condensate. In this work, we performed a Brillouin scattering experiment to measure their dispersion relation $ω(\mathbf{k})$ directly. The result, such as a speed of sound which is apparently twice too low, cannot be explained upon considering the polariton condensate alone. In a combined theoretical and experimental analysis, we demonstrate that the presence of a reservoir of long-lived excitons interacting with polaritons has a dramatic influence on the nature and characteristic of the quantum fluid, and that it explains our measurement quantitatively. This work clarifies the role of such a reservoir in the different polariton hydrodynamics phenomena occurring under resonant optical drive. It also provides an unambiguous tool to determine the condensate-to-reservoir fraction in the quantum fluid, and sets an accurate framework to approach novel ideas for polariton-based quantum-optical applications.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Topological Photonics

Topological photonics is a rapidly emerging field of research in which geometrical and topological ideas are exploited to design and control the behavior of light. Drawing inspiration from the discovery of the quantum Hall effects and topological insulators in condensed matter, recent advances have shown how to engineer analogous effects also for photons, leading to remarkable phenomena such as the robust unidirectional propagation of light, which hold great promise for applications. Thanks to the flexibility and diversity of photonics systems, this field is also opening up new opportunities to realize exotic topological models and to probe and exploit topological effects in new ways. This article reviews experimental and theoretical developments in topological photonics across a wide range of experimental platforms, including photonic crystals, waveguides, metamaterials, cavities, optomechanics, silicon photonics, and circuit QED. A discussion of how changing the dimensionality and symmetries of photonics systems has allowed for the realization of different topological phases is offered, and progress in understanding the interplay of topology with non-Hermitian effects, such as dissipation, is reviewed. As an exciting perspective, topological photonics can be combined with optical nonlinearities, leading toward new collective phenomena and novel strongly correlated states of light, such as an analog of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

A generalized Gross-Pitaevskii model for intersubband polariton lasing

We develop a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii approach to the driven-dissipative dynamics of intersubband polaritons in patterned planar microcavities where the cavity mode is strongly coupled to an intersubband transition in doped quantum wells. Substantial differences with respect to the case of interband excitonic polaritons are highlighted, in particular the non-Markovian features of the radiative decay. The accuracy of the method is validated on the linear reflection properties of the cavity, that quantitatively reproduce experimental observations. The theoretical framework is then applied in the nonlinear regime to study optical parametric oscillation processes for intersubband polaritons. Our findings open interesting perspectives in view of novel coherent laser sources operating in the mid and far infrared.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Prethermalization to thermalization crossover in a dilute Bose gas following an interaction ramp

The dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose gas at low temperatures is close to integrable due to the approximate quadratic nature of the many-body Hamiltonian. While the short-time physics after an abrupt ramp of the interaction constant is dominated by the integrable dynamics, integrability is broken at longer times by higher-order interaction terms in the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian, in particular by Beliaev-Landau scatterings involving three quasiparticles. The two-stage relaxation process is highlighted in the evolution of local observables such as the density-density correlation function: a dephasing mechanism leads the system to a prethermal stage, followed by true thermalization conveyed by quasiparticle collisions. Our results bring the crossover from prethermalization to thermalization within reach of current experiments with ultracold atomic gases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Mechanical back-reaction effect of the dynamical Casimir emission

We consider an optical cavity enclosed by a freely moving mirror attached to a spring and we study the quantum friction effect exerted by the dynamical Casimir emission on the mechanical motion of the mirror. Observable signatures of this simplest example of back-reaction effect are studied in both the ring-down oscillations of the mirror motion and in its steady-state motion under a monochromatic force. Analytical expressions are found in simple yet relevant cases and compared to complete numerical solution of the master equation. A circuit-QED device allowing for experimental observation of the effect with state-of-the-art technology is proposed and theoretically characterized.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Strong coupling of ionising transitions

We demonstrate that a ionising transition can be strongly coupled to a photonic resonance. The strong coupling manifests itself with the appearance of a narrow optically active resonance below the ionisation threshold. Such a resonance is due to electrons transitioning into a novel bound state created by the collective coupling of the electron gas with the vacuum field of the photonic resonator. Applying our theory to the case of bound-to-continuum transitions in microcavity-embedded doped quantum wells, we show how those strong-coupling features can be exploited as a novel knob to tune both optical and electronic properties of semiconductor heterostructures.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Simulation of two-boson bound states using arrays of driven-dissipative coupled linear optical resonators

We present a strategy based on two-dimensional arrays of coupled linear optical resonators to investigate the two-body physics of interacting bosons in one-dimensional lattices. In particular, we want to address the bound pairs in topologically non-trivial Su-Schrieffer-Heeger arrays. Taking advantage of the driven-dissipative nature of the resonators, we propose spectroscopic protocols to detect and tomographically characterize bulk doublon bands and doublon edge states from the spatially-resolved transmission spectra, and to highlight Feshbach resonance effects in two-body collision processes. We discuss the experimental feasibility using state-of-the-art devices, with a specific eye on arrays of semiconductor micropillar cavities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Ring-shaped fractional quantum Hall liquids with hard-wall potentials

We study the physics of $ν=1/2$ bosonic fractional quantum Hall droplets confined in a ring-shaped region delimited by two concentric cylindrically symmetric hard-wall potentials. Trial wave functions based on an extension of the Jack polynomial formalism including two different chiral edges are proposed and validated for a wide range of confinement potentials in terms of their excellent overlap with the eigenstates numerically found by exact diagonalization. In the presence of a single repulsive potential centered in the origin, a recursive structure in the many-body spectra and a massively degenerate ground state manifold are found. The addition of a second hard-wall potential confining the fractional quantum Hall droplet from the outside leads to a non-degenerate ground state containing a well defined number of quasiholes at the center and, for suitable potential parameters, to a clear organization of the excitations on the two edges. The utility of this ring-shaped configuration in view of theoretical and experimental studies of subtle aspects of fractional quantum Hall physics is outlined.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

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

Time-of-Flight Measurements as a Possible Method to Observe Anyonic Statistics

We propose a standard time-of-flight experiment as a method for observing the anyonic statistics of quasiholes in a fractional quantum Hall state of ultracold atoms. The quasihole states can be stably prepared by pinning the quasiholes with localized potentials and a measurement of the mean square radius of the freely expanding cloud, which is related to the average total angular momentum of the initial state, offers direct signatures of the statistical phase. Our proposed method is validated by Monte Carlo calculations for $ν=1/2$ and $1/3$ fractional quantum Hall liquids containing a realistic number of particles. Extensions to quantum Hall liquids of light and to non-Abelian anyons are briefly discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Quantum simulation of zero temperature quantum phases and incompressible states of light via non-Markovian reservoir engineering techniques

We review recent theoretical developments on the stabilization of strongly correlated quantum fluids of light in driven-dissipative photonic devices through novel non-Markovian reservoir engineering techniques. This approach allows to compensate losses and refill selectively the photonic population so to sustain a desired steady-state. It relies in particular on the use of a frequency-dependent incoherent pump which can be implemented, e.g., via embedded two-level systems maintained at a strong inversion of population. As specific applications of these methods, we discuss the generation of Mott Insulator (MI) and Fractional Quantum Hall (FQH) states of light. As a first step, we present the case of a narrowband emission spectrum and show how this allows for the stabilization of MI and FQH states under the condition that the photonic states are relatively flat in energy. As soon as the photonic bandbwidth becomes comparable to the emission linewidth, important non-equilibrium signatures and entropy generation appear. As a second step, we review a more advanced configuration based on reservoirs with a broadband frequency distribution, and we highlight the potential of this configuration for the quantum simulation of equilibrium quantum phases at zero temperature with tunable chemical potential. As a proof of principle we establish the applicability of our scheme to the Bose-Hubbard model by confirming the presence of a perfect agreement with the ground-state predictions both in the Mott Insulating and superfluid regions, and more generally in all parts of the parameter space. Future prospects towards the quantum simulation of more complex configurations are finally outlined, along with a discussion of our scheme as a concrete realization of quantum annealing.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Topological two-body bound states in the interacting Haldane model

We study the topological properties of the two-body bound states in an interacting Haldane model as a function of interparticle interactions. In particular, we identify topological phases where the two-body edge states have either the same or the opposite chirality as compared to single-particle edge states. We highlight that in the moderately interacting regime, which is relevant for the experimental realization with ultracold atoms, the topological transition is affected by the internal structure of the bound state, and the phase boundaries are consequently deformed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Spontaneous Beliaev-Landau scattering out of equilibrium

We investigate Beliaev-Landau scattering in a gas of interacting photons in a coherently driven array of nonlinear dissipative resonators, as described by the 1D driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model. Due to the absence of detailed balance in such an out-of-equilibrium setup, steady-state properties can be much more sensitive to the underlying microscopic dynamics. As the popular truncated Wigner approximation dramatically fails in capturing this physics, we present an alternative approach, based on a systematic expansion beyond the Bogoliubov approximation, which includes the third-order correlation functions in the dynamics. As experimentally accessible signatures of Beliaev-Landau processes, we report a small but nonnegligible correction to the Bogoliubov prediction for the steady-state momentum distribution showing a characteristic series of peaks and dips, as well as non-Gaussian features in the statistics of the cavity output field.

quant-ph↗