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Strongly correlated Fermions strongly coupled to light
Kevin Roux1, Hideki Konishi1, Victor Helson1
1Institute of Physics, EPFL, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nature Communications
|June 14, 2020
Summary
Researchers achieved strong coupling between a quantum-degenerate unitary Fermi gas and light. This breakthrough enables new possibilities for quantum simulation by controlling quantum matter-photon interactions.
Area of Science:
- Quantum physics
- Condensed matter physics
- Quantum optics
Background:
- Strong quantum correlations in matter drive exotic material properties like superconductivity.
- Coupling quantum matter with photons is crucial for quantum devices but technically challenging.
- Previous efforts successfully coupled quantum gases (Bose-Einstein condensates) with light, but not fermionic matter.
Purpose of the Study:
- To achieve strong coupling between a quantum-degenerate unitary Fermi gas and light.
- To explore the light-matter interaction in a novel quantum system.
- To open new avenues for quantum simulation.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing a high finesse optical cavity.
- Employing a quantum-degenerate unitary Fermi gas.
- Mapping the spectrum of the coupled light-matter system.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated strong coupling between the Fermi gas and cavity photons.
- Observed well-resolved dressed states resulting from this coupling.
- Achieved quantitative agreement between experimental results and ab initio calculations.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully established strong coupling between fermionic quantum matter and light.
- The developed system allows simultaneous control over atom-atom and atom-photon interactions.
- This work paves the way for advanced quantum simulations using controlled quantum degenerate gases.
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