TIME-Varying Nanophotonics for New Regimes of QED LIGHT-Matter Interactions

Introduction

Controlling light and its interaction with matter at the nanoscale is one of the major aims of current science, with applications ranging from energy-efficient photonic-based communications to quantum information processing and high-precision sensors.

Nanophotonic Structures

Owing to the hybrid light-matter modes supported by nanophotonic structures, from THz and IR polaritons in 2D materials to optical plasmonic resonances, nanophotonics offers an ideal platform for exquisite control of light-matter interactions even at room temperature. Light concentrated at the nanoscale is a natural playground for quantum electro-dynamical (QED) processes, whereby light-matter interactions reveal their quantum nature.

Limitations of Conventional Approaches

However, conventional approaches to nanophotonics-based QED are limited by two fundamental principles:

1. Energy conservation
2. Reciprocity

Overcoming these limitations would enable non-photon conserving devices and one-way channels, opening the door to a compact route to quantum photonic circuits.

Project Proposal: TIMELIGHT

TIMELIGHT proposes the use of time-modulated media, whose optical parameters (e.g., permittivity) are dynamically modulated by an external actuation, to realize fundamentally new non-Hermitian and non-reciprocal QED effects. This theoretical project is rooted in recent experimental advances that have shown unprecedentedly large and fast modulations of nanophotonic structures.

Expected Advances

TIMELIGHT will deliver advances in the following areas:

1. Tuning of spontaneous emission and collective interactions of quantum emitters
2. New forms of free electron radiation
3. Novel mechanisms for enhancing spontaneous photon generation
4. Synthetic-motion based fluctuation-induced forces

Conclusion

TIMELIGHT will open the door to time-varying nanophotonics as a new paradigm for tailoring light-matter interactions at room temperature with non-Hermitian and non-reciprocal effects. This will shed light on the understanding of fundamental QED processes and ultimately be of interest to quantum photonic technologies.