No Arabic abstract
When the collective coupling of the rovibrational states in organic molecules and confined electromagnetic modes is sufficiently strong, the system enters into vibrational strong coupling, leading to the formation of hybrid light-matter quasiparticles. In this work we demonstrate theoretically how this hybridization in combination with stimulated Raman scattering can be utilized to widen the capabilities of Raman laser devices. We explore the conditions under which the lasing threshold can be diminished and the system can be transformed into an optical parametric oscillator. Finally, we show how the dramatic reduction of the many final molecular states into two collective excitations can be used to create an all-optical switch with output in the mid-infrared.
A flux qubit biased at its symmetry point shows a minimum in the energy splitting (the gap), providing protection against flux noise. We have fabricated a qubit whose gap can be tuned fast and have coupled this qubit strongly to an LC oscillator. We show full spectroscopy of the qubit-resonator system and generate vacuum Rabi oscillations. When the gap is made equal to the oscillator frequency $ u_{osc}$ we find the strongest qubit-resonator coupling ($g/hsim0.1 u_{rm osc}$). Here being at resonance coincides with the optimal coherence of the symmetry point. Significant further increase of the coupling is possible.
Rooted in quantum optics and benefiting from its well-established foundations, strong coupling in nanophotonics has experienced increasing popularity in recent years. With nanophotonics being an experiment-driven field, the absence of appropriate theoretical methods to describe ground-breaking advances has often emerged as an important issue. To address this problem, the temptation to directly transfer and extend concepts already available from quantum optics is strong, even if a rigorous justification is not always available. In this Review we discuss situations where, in our view, this strategy has indeed overstepped its bounds. We focus on exciton--plasmon interactions, and particularly on the idea of calculating the number of excitons involved in the coupling. We analyse how, starting from an unfounded interpretation of the term N/V that appears in theoretical descriptions at different levels of complexity, one might be tempted to make independent assumptions for what the number N and the volume V are, and attempt to calculate them separately. Such an approach can lead to different, often contradictory results, depending on the initial assumptions (e.g. through different treatments of $V$ as the -- ambiguous in plasmonics -- mode volume). We argue that the source of such contradictions is the question itself -- How many excitons are coupled?, which disregards the true nature of the coupled components of the system, has no meaning and often not even any practical importance. If one is interested in validating the quantum nature of the system -- which appears to be the motivation driving the pursuit of strong coupling with small N -- one could instead focus on quantities such as the photon emission rate or the second-order correlation function.
We propose a new configuration for realizing torsional optomechanics: an optically trapped windmill-shaped dielectric interacting with Laguerre-Gaussian cavity modes containing both angular and radial nodes. In contrast to existing schemes, our method can couple mechanical oscillators smaller than the optical beam waist to the in-principle unlimited orbital angular momentum that can be carried by a single photon, and thus generate substantial optomechanical interactions. Combining the advantages of small mass, large coupling, and low clamping losses, our work conceptually opens the way for the observation of quantum effects in torsional optomechanics.
We stabilise a microwave oscillator at 9.6 GHz to an optical clock laser at 344 THz by using a fibre-based femtosecond laser frequency comb as a transfer oscillator. With a second frequency comb we measure independently the instability of the microwave source with respect to another optical clock laser frequency at 456 THz. The total fractional frequency instability of this optic-to-microwave and microwave-to-optic conversion resulted in an Allan deviation sigma_y, of sigma_y=1.2E-14 at 1 s averaging time (band width 50 kHz). The residual phase noise density is -97 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz offset from the 9.6 GHz carrier. Replacing the existing quartz-based interrogation oscillator of the PTB caesium fountain CSF1 with this optically stabilised microwave source will reduce the instability contribution due to the Dick effect from the 1E-13-level at 1s averaging time to an insignificant level at the current status of CSF1. Therefore this new microwave source can be an alternative to cryogenic sapphire-loaded cavity oscillators in order to overcome the limitations of state-of-the-art quartz oscillators.
The equilibrium optical phonons of graphene are well characterized in terms of anharmonicity and electron-phonon interactions, however their non-equilibrium properties in the presence of hot charge carriers are still not fully explored. Here we study the Raman spectrum of graphene under ultrafast laser excitation with 3ps pulses, which trade off between impulsive stimulation and spectral resolution. We localize energy into hot carriers, generating non-equilibrium temperatures in the ~1700-3100K range, far exceeding that of the phonon bath, while simultaneously detecting the Raman response. The linewidth of both G and 2D peaks show an increase as function of the electronic temperature. We explain this as a result of the Dirac cones broadening and electron-phonon scattering in the highly excited transient regime, important for the emerging field of graphene-based photonics and optoelectronics.