Description:

Title: Making Particles out of Waves: Rydberg Polaritons in Cavity EIT

Speaker: Dr. Ariel Sommer, University of Chicago

Abstract: Light coupled to electronic excitations of a medium forms polariton quasiparticles that have properties of both light and matter. The photonic component allows fast propagation and coupling to optical devices, while the material component can mediate interactions between polaritons. We demonstrate strong coupling of light in an optical cavity to atomic Rydberg levels through electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Strong light-matter mixing in the resulting dark state polaritons leads to an enhanced lifetime and compressed energy spectrum relative to the underlying cavity modes. The large Rydberg component will allow studies employing interactions between polaritons. In a separate setup, we demonstrate that an optical resonator with a twisted geometry introduces an effective Lorentz force, leading to photonic Landau levels. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential to create systems of strongly-interacting photons in effective magnetic fields, opening the door to novel studies of topological states of light and matter.