Phys.org July 4, 2019
Researchers at University of Chicago developed techniques to manipulate quantum matter using Floquet engineering. By varying the intensity of a laser field tuned precisely to an atomic resonance, the team was able to shift the orbitals of an electron. Shaking the orbitals by periodically varying this intensity produced the desired copies. By allowing photons to interact with these shaken atoms, the team has created what they call “Floquet polaritons”—quasi-particles which are part-light and part-atom, and unlike regular photons, interact with each other quite strongly. These interactions are essential for making matter from light. Making polaritons with shaken atoms can give the polaritons much more flexibility to move around and collide with each other in new ways…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Credit: Petr Kratochvil/public domain