Seminars & Colloquia

From negative refraction to single photon control: New frontiers of quantum coherence

Susanne Yelin, UConn

Two potential applications that have captured the interest of a wide range of scientists lately are the "superlens" that is not limited by diffraction, and optical quantum computing, where qubits are stored in photons rather than in matter. Quantum coherence effects could go a long way towards reaching both of those goals. In particular, the superlens (as first suggested by Veselago in the 60's) is based on the idea of a negative index of refraction. This topic has been of high interest, mostly in the materials science community, in the last decade. We are suggesting a way to use quantum optical methods to reach an ideal index of n = -1. The advantage of our method is that absorption can potentially be compressed entirely, and typical low-frequency limits don't apply. Similarly, single-photon nonlinearities, as needed, e.g., for optical quantum computing, need very coherent nonlinear methods, as they can be found in the field of quantum coherence. The example I am presenting uses transfer of the photons into matter consisting of ultracold polar molecules, and utilizes the dipole-dipole interaction that is present in that medium.