Bachelard, Romain

Date:    Friday, September 29, 2023 
Time:    10:00
Place:    ETH Campus Hönggerberg, HIT E 41.1
Host:     Tobias Donner

Light scattering in disordered atomic systems: from single- to many-photon physics

Romain P M Bachelard –  Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil 

Abstract: The scattering of light by large disordered clouds of cold atoms presents a strong collective behaviour, even in dilute 3D clouds: It
stems from the light-mediated long-range interaction between the induced dipoles, and manifests through super- and subradiance, as well collective shifts. However, disorder may also induce the localization of electromagnetic waves, which in turn prevents its propagation and  screens the interaction. In this talk, I will describe the collective coupling of a pump to a large, dilute atomic cloud: Switching the laser on and off allows one to access the radiation dynamics, and thus to the spectrum of the system. In particular, the light-cloud coupling scales with the optical thickness, which also sets the timescales at which the energy is radiated from the system. Finally, I will discuss how this collective (dissipative) radiation dynamics leads to the generation of many-particle entangled states.