Coherence-Driven Topological Transition in Quantum Metamaterials

Pankaj K. Jha, Michael Mrejen, Jeongmin Kim, Chihhui Wu, Yuan Wang, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, Xiang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

We introduce and theoretically demonstrate a quantum metamaterial made of dense ultracold neutral atoms loaded into an inherently defect-free artificial crystal of light, immune to well-known critical challenges inevitable in conventional solid-state platforms. We demonstrate an all-optical control, on ultrafast time scales, over the photonic topological transition of the isofrequency contour from an open to closed topology at the same frequency. This atomic lattice quantum metamaterial enables a dynamic manipulation of the decay rate branching ratio of a probe quantum emitter by more than an order of magnitude. Our proposal may lead to practically lossless, tunable, and topologically reconfigurable quantum metamaterials, for single or few-photon-level applications as varied as quantum sensing, quantum information processing, and quantum simulations using metamaterials.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number165502
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume116
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 22 2016
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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