Exploiting pseudo-gauge fields for novel light-matter interfaces

A central goal within quantum optics is to realize novel light-matter interfaces that enable efficient, controlled, and complex interactions between photons and atoms (or atom-like emitters) which is imperative for many emerging quantum applications.

Current state-of-the-art paradigms include waveguide QED systems, where emitters are interfaced with structured photonic environments.

Here one has exquisite control over the dimensionality, spatial structure and dispersion of the photonic guided modes, enabling new regimes of light-matter interactions with no analog in free space.

However, in a quest for ultimate control, it is unfortunate that one cannot manipulate photons directly with electromagnetic gauge fields due to their lack of charge. This fundamental limitation has inspired various ways of engineering synthetic gauge fields for photons.

Among these, one tantalizingly straightforward approach has emerged from graphene physics, where it has been shown that strain deformations of the membrane translate into pseudo-gauge fields in the effective Dirac Hamiltonian.

ATOMAG is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to unveil pseudo-magnetic and pseudo-electric fields as fundamentally new elements in the quantum optics toolbox, enabling new regimes of light-matter interactions beyond conventional (periodic) waveguide QED systems.

Combining this with the intrinsic nonlinearity of atoms, we will propose novel light-matter interfaces which could have important implications for the processing of quantum information, quantum communication and quantum simulation of many-body physics.

Since pseudo-gauge fields can be generated by a simple, static variation of the system parameters, these novel light-matter interfaces should be imminently realizable.