21.01.20 - Daniel Finkelstein-Shapiro "Quantum optics in a beaker"

Quantum optics in a beaker

The weak coupling of atomic systems with their environment render them ideal for observing and testing quantum phenomena that require coherence, such as dressing of orbitals by light, entanglement and interference. These effects are at the root of important technological applications (quantum computing, cooling) and theoretical explorations have suggested that they could also be profitable for other applications including solar cells, if only they could be reproduced in molecular or extended systems. We will discuss the problematic of reproducing quantum optics effects in chemical systems in solution, by discussing two types of systems from a theoretical and an experimental perspective:

1) Molecules attached to plasmonic nanoparticles constitute a candidate realization for cavity quantum electrodynamics, with a high degree of complexity given by the number of orbitals involved as well as the strong coupling to a dissipative environment. We will describe the limits under which we can still use atomic-like Hamiltonians and present measurements using ultrafast electronic multidimensional spectroscopy that inform the correct extensions to those models.

2) Molecules attached to semiconducting nanoparticles are candidate model systems for Fano-type interferences. We will describe solving the dynamics induced by a Fano Hamiltonian coupled to a dissipative bath including the use of nonlinear eigenvalue methods in Liouville space, discuss possible physical realizations and their shortcomings, as well as the connection of Fano interferences with the cavity quantum electrodynamics Hamiltonians of the first section.