Quantum Droplets of Light in the Presence of Synthetic Magnetic Fields

Wilson, K., Westerberg, N. , Valiente, M., Duncan, C., Wright, E., Öhberg, P. and Faccio, D. (2017) Quantum Droplets of Light in the Presence of Synthetic Magnetic Fields. In: 2017 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC), Munich, Germany, 25-29 Jun 2017, ISBN 9781509067367 (doi: 10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2017.8087537)

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Abstract

Recently, quantum droplets have been demonstrated in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, where the long range (nonlocal) attractive interaction is counterbalanced by a local repulsive interaction [1]. In this work, we investigate the formation of quantum droplets in a two-dimensional nonlocal fluid of light. Fluids of light allow us to control the geometry of the system, and thus introduce vorticity which in turn creates an artificial magnetic field for the quantum droplet. In a quantum fluid of light, the photons comprising the fluid are treated as a gas of interacting Bose-particles, where the nonlocal interaction comes from the nonlinearity inherent in the material, in our case an attractive third-order thermo-optical nonlinearity. In contrast to matter-wave droplets, photon fluid droplets are not stabilized by local particle-particle scattering, but from the quantum pressure itself, i.e., a balance between diffraction and the nonlocal nonlinearity.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Faccio, Professor Daniele and Westerberg, Dr Niclas
Authors: Wilson, K., Westerberg, N., Valiente, M., Duncan, C., Wright, E., Öhberg, P., and Faccio, D.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
ISBN:9781509067367
Published Online:30 October 2017

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