Building Materials from Microwave Photons

Abstract:

The study of condensed matter systems in electronic systems within solid-state materials has a long history. More recently, it has become possible to realize synthetic systems out of controllable components in ultracold atom or photonic systems. In this talk, I will discuss how we can use superconducting circuits to make single photons act like strongly interacting hard-core bosons. Dissipation and disorder commonly compete with or mask many-body effects, and one of the primary challenges in both synthetic and physical condensed matter systems is to control these forces. Here we will try to leverage our control over dissipation and disorder to use them as tools to stabilize and prepare a lattice of strongly interacting microwave photons. In addition to exploring strongly interacting photons, we will see how to engineer synthetic magnetic fields for photons, allowing them to experience analogs of the quantum Hall effect seen in charged particles.

***************

Virtual AMO Seminars