IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar

Abstract: Cold atoms trapped near photonic crystals provide a powerful new platform to generate novel quantum materials where atomic spin degrees of freedom, motion and photons strongly couple over long distances. In this system, an atom trapped near a photonic crystal seeds a localized, tunable cavity mode around the atomic position. This effective cavity facilitates interactions with other atoms within the cavity length that are highly tunable and robust under realistic imperfections. These long range atom-atom interactions can also lead to interactions between photons propagation through the cold atomic media. We show how these interactions can be designed allowing, for example, molecular-like bound states of photons.