Driven-Dissipative Supersolid in a Ring Cavity

Phase and Amplitude Modes in the Anisotropic Dicke Model with Matter Interactions

Phase and amplitude modes, also called polariton modes, are emergent phenomena that manifest across diverse physical systems, from condensed matter and particle physics to quantum optics. We study their behavior in an anisotropic Dicke model that includes collective matter interactions. We study the low-lying spectrum in the thermodynamic limit via the Holstein-Primakoff transformation and contrast the results with the semi-classical energy surface obtained via coherent states. We also explore the geometric phase for both boson and spin contours in the parameter space as a function of the phases in the system. We unveil novel phenomena due to the unique critical features provided by the interplay between the anisotropy and matter interactions. We expect our results to serve the observation of phase and amplitude modes in current quantum information platforms.

Tuning Photon-Mediated Interactions in a Multimode Cavity: From Supersolid to Insulating Droplets Hosting Phononic Excitations

Ultracold atoms trapped in laser-generated optical lattices serve as a versatile platform for quantum simulations. However, as these lattices are infinitely stiff, they do not allow to emulate phonon degrees of freedom. This restriction can be lifted in emerged optical lattices inside multimode cavities. Motivated by recent experimental progress in multimode cavity QED, we propose a scheme to implement and study supersolid and droplet states with phononlike lattice excitations by coupling a Bose gas to many longitudinal modes of a ring cavity. The interplay between contact collisional and tunable-range cavity-mediated interactions leads to a rich phase diagram, which includes elastic supersolid as well as insulating droplet phases exhibiting roton-type mode softening for a continuous range of momenta across the superradiant phase transition. The nontrivial dynamic response of the system to a local density perturbation further proves the existence of phononlike modes.

Limit cycles and chaos in the hybrid atom-optomechanics system

We consider atoms in two different periodic potentials induced by different lasers, one of which is coupled to a mechanical membrane via radiation pressure force. The atoms are intrinsically two-level systems that can absorb or emit photons, but the dynamics of their position and momentum are treated classically. On the other hand, the membrane, the cavity field, and the intrinsic two-level atoms are treated quantum mechanically. We show that the mean excitation of the three systems can be stable, periodically oscillating, or in a chaotic state depending on the strength of the coupling between them. We define regular, limit cycle, and chaotic phases, and present a phase diagram where the three phases can be achieved by manipulating the field-membrane and field-atom coupling strengths. We also computed other observable quantities that can reflect the system’s phase such as position, momentum, and correlation functions. Our proposal offers a new way to generate and tune the limit cycle and chaotic phases in a well-established atom-optomechanics system.

Supersolid gap soliton in a Bose-Einstein condensate and optical ring cavity coupling system

The system of a transversely pumped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) coupled to a lossy ring cavity can favor a supersolid steady state. Here we find the existence of supersolid gap soliton in such a driven-dissipative system. By numerically solving the mean-field atom-cavity field coupling equations, gap solitons of a few different families have been identified. Their dynamical properties, including stability, propagation, and soliton collision, are also studied. Due to the feedback atom-intracavity field interaction, these supersolid gap solitons show numerous new features compared with the usual BEC gap solitons in static optical lattices.

Light-Induced Quantum Droplet Phases of Lattice Bosons in Multimode Cavities

Multimode optical cavities can be used to implement interatomic interactions which are highly tunable in strength and range. For bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice we show that, for any finite range of the cavity-mediated interaction, quantum self-bound droplets dominate the ground state phase diagram. Their size and in turn density is not externally fixed but rather emerges from the competition between local repulsion and finite-range cavity-mediated attraction. We identify two different regimes of the phase diagram. In the strongly glued regime, the interaction range exceeds the droplet size and the physics resembles the one of the standard Bose-Hubbard model in a (self-consistent) external potential, where in the phase diagram two incompressible droplet phases with different filling are separated by one with a superfluid core. In the opposite weakly glued regime, we find instead direct first order transitions between the two incompressible phases, as well as pronounced metastability. The cavity field leaking out of the mirrors can be measured to distinguish between the various types of droplets.

Collision of two self-trapped atomic matter wave packets in an optical ring cavity

The interaction between atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and light field in an optical ring cavity gives rise to many interesting phenomena such as supersolid and movable self-trapped matter wave packets. Here we examined the collision of two self-trapped atomic matter wave packets in an optical ring cavity, and abundant colliding phenomena have been found in the system. Depending on the magnitude of colliding velocity, the collision dynamics exhibit very different features compared with the cavity-free case. When the initial colliding velocities of the two wave packets are small, they correlatedly oscillate around their initial equilibrium positions with a small amplitude. Increasing the collision velocity leads to severe scattering of the BEC atoms; after the collision, the two self-trapped wave packets usually break into small pieces. Interestingly, we found that such a medium velocity collision is of great phase sensitivity, which may make the system useful in precision matter wave interferometry. When the colliding velocity is further increased, in the bad cavity limit, the two wave packets collide phenomenally similar to two classical particles-they first approach each other, then separate with their shape virtually maintained. However, beyond the bad cavity limit, they experience severe spatial spreading.

An optical lattice with sound

Quantized sound waves-phonons-govern the elastic response of crystalline materials, and also play an integral part in determining their thermodynamic properties and electrical response (for example, by binding electrons into superconducting Cooper pairs)^1-3. The physics of lattice phonons and elasticity is absent in simulators of quantum solids constructed of neutral atoms in periodic light potentials: unlike real solids, traditional optical lattices are silent because they are infinitely stiff⁴. Optical-lattice realizations of crystals therefore lack some of the central dynamical degrees of freedom that determine the low-temperature properties of real materials. Here, we create an optical lattice with phonon modes using a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) coupled to a confocal optical resonator. Playing the role of an active quantum gas microscope, the multimode cavity QED system both images the phonons and induces the crystallization that supports phonons via short-range, photon-mediated atom-atom interactions. Dynamical susceptibility measurements reveal the phonon dispersion relation, showing that these collective excitations exhibit a sound speed dependent on the BEC-photon coupling strength. Our results pave the way for exploring the rich physics of elasticity in quantum solids, ranging from quantum melting transitions⁵ to exotic 'fractonic' topological defects⁶ in the quantum regime.

Topological supersolidity of dipolar Fermi gases in a spin-dependent optical lattice

We investigate the topological supersolid states of dipolar Fermi gases trapped in a spin-dependent 2D optical lattice. Our results show that topological supersolid states can be achieved via the combination of topological superfluid states with the stripe order. Different from the general held belief that supersolid state in fermionic system can only survive with simultaneous coexistence of the repulsive and attractive dipolar interaction. We demonstrate that it can be maintained when the dipolar interaction is attractive in both x and y direction. By adjusting the ratio of hopping amplitude between different directions and dipolar interaction strength U, the system will undergo a phase transition among p _x + ip _y superfluid state, p _y -wave superfluid state, and the topological supersolid state. The supersolid state in the attractive environment is proved to be stable by the positive sign of the inverse compressibility. We also design an experimental protocol to realize the staggered next-next-nearest-neighbor hopping via the laser assisted tunneling technique, which is the key to simulate the spin-dependent potential.

Supersolid Properties of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Ring Resonator

We investigate the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate interacting with two noninterfering and counterpropagating modes of a ring resonator. Superfluid, supersolid, and dynamic phases are identified experimentally and theoretically. The supersolid phase is obtained for sufficiently equal pump strengths for the two modes. In this regime we observe the emergence of a steady state with crystalline order, which spontaneously breaks the continuous translational symmetry of the system. The supersolidity of this state is demonstrated by the conservation of global phase coherence at the superfluid to supersolid phase transition. Above a critical pump asymmetry the system evolves into a dynamic runaway instability commonly known as collective atomic recoil lasing. We present a phase diagram and characterize the individual phases by comparing theoretical predictions with experimental observations.

Unraveling the Quantum Nature of Atomic Self-Ordering in a Ring Cavity

Atomic self-ordering to a crystalline phase in optical resonators is a consequence of the intriguing nonlinear dynamics of strongly coupled atom motion and photons. Generally the resulting phase diagrams and atomic states can be largely understood on a mean-field level. However, close to the phase transition point, quantum fluctuations and atom-field entanglement play a key role and initiate the symmetry breaking. Here we propose a modified ring cavity geometry, in which the asymmetry imposed by a tilted pump beam reveals clear signatures of quantum dynamics even in a larger regime around the phase transition point. Quantum fluctuations become visible both in the dynamic and steady-state properties. Most strikingly we can identify a regime where a mean-field approximation predicts a runaway instability, while in the full quantum model the quantum fluctuations of the light field modes stabilize uniform atomic motion. The proposed geometry thus allows to unveil the "quantumness" of atomic self-ordering via experimentally directly accessible quantities.

Emergent Quasicrystalline Symmetry in Light-Induced Quantum Phase Transitions

The discovery of quasicrystals with crystallographically forbidden rotational symmetries has changed the notion of the ordering in materials, yet little is known about the dynamical emergence of such exotic forms of order. Here we theoretically study a nonequilibrium cavity-QED setup realizing a zero-temperature quantum phase transition from a homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate to a quasicrystalline phase via collective superradiant light scattering. Across the superradiant phase transition, collective light scattering creates a dynamical, quasicrystalline optical potential for the atoms. Remarkably, the quasicrystalline potential is "emergent" as its eightfold rotational symmetry is not present in the Hamiltonian of the system, rather appears solely in the low-energy states. For sufficiently strong two-body contact interactions between atoms, a quasicrystalline order is stabilized in the system, while for weakly interacting atoms the condensate is localized in one or few of the deepest minima of the quasicrystalline potential.

Supersolid-Based Gravimeter in a Ring Cavity

We propose a novel type of composite light-matter interferometer based on a supersolidlike phase of a driven Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a pair of degenerate counterpropagating electromagnetic modes of an optical ring cavity. The supersolidlike condensate under the influence of the gravity drags the cavity optical potential with itself, thereby changing the relative phase of the two cavity electromagnetic fields. Monitoring the phase evolution of the cavity output fields thus allows for a nondestructive measurement of the gravitational acceleration. We show that the sensitivity of the proposed gravimeter exhibits Heisenberg-like scaling with respect to the atom number. As the relative phase of the cavity fields is insensitive to photon losses, the gravimeter is robust against these deleterious effects. For state-of-the-art experimental parameters, the relative sensitivity Δg/g of such a gravimeter could be of the order of 10^{-10}-10^{-8} for a condensate of a half a million atoms and interrogation time of the order of a few seconds.

Cavity-Quantum-Electrodynamical Toolbox for Quantum Magnetism

The recent experimental observation of spinor self-ordering of ultracold atoms in optical resonators has set the stage for the exploration of emergent magnetic orders in quantum-gas-cavity systems. Based on this platform, we introduce a generic scheme for the implementation of long-range quantum spin Hamiltonians composed of various types of couplings, including Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Our model is composed of an effective two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, driven by two classical pump lasers and coupled to a single dynamic mode of a linear cavity in a double Λ scheme. Cavity photons mediate the long-range spin-spin interactions with spatially modulated coupling coefficients, where the latter ones can be tuned by modifying spatial profiles of the pump lasers. As experimentally relevant examples, we demonstrate that by properly choosing the spatial profiles of the pump lasers achiral domain-wall antiferromagnetic and chiral spin-spiral orders emerge beyond critical laser strengths. The transition between these two phases can be observed in a single experimental setup by tuning the reflectivity of a mirror. We also discuss extensions of our scheme for the implementation of other classes of spin Hamiltonians.

Pinning Transition of Bose-Einstein Condensates in Optical Ring Resonators

We experimentally investigate the dynamic instability of Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical ring resonator that is asymmetrically pumped in both directions. We find that, beyond a critical resonator-pump detuning, the system becomes stable regardless of the pump strength. Phase diagrams and quenching curves are presented and described by numerical simulations. We discuss a physical explanation based on a geometric interpretation of the underlying nonlinear equations of motion.

Dynamical Control of Order in a Cavity-BEC System

We demonstrate dynamical control of the superradiant transition of cavity-BEC system via periodic driving of the pump laser. We show that the dominant density wave order of the superradiant state can be suppressed, and that the subdominant competing order of Bose-Einstein condensation emerges in the steady state. Furthermore, we show that additional, nonequilibrium density wave orders, which do not exist in equilibrium, can be stabilized dynamically. Finally, for strong driving, chaotic dynamics emerge.

Long-Range Interactions and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gases through Optical Feedback

We consider a quasi-two-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensate interacting with a near-resonant laser field that is backreflected onto the condensate by a planar mirror. We show that this single-mirror optical feedback leads to an unusual type of effective interaction between the ultracold atoms giving rise to a rich spectrum of ground states. In particular, we find that it can cause the spontaneous contraction of the quasi-two-dimensional condensate to form a self-bound one-dimensional chain of mesoscopic quantum droplets, and demonstrate that the observation of this exotic effect is within reach of current experiments.