Optical properties of atomic Mott insulators: from slow light to dynamical Casimir effects

TL;DR

This paper explores the optical behavior of ultracold atomic Mott insulators, demonstrating controllable slow light and photon pair emission via dynamical Casimir effects through theoretical modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for manipulating polariton properties in atomic Mott insulators, enabling real-time control of light propagation and photon pair generation.

Findings

Ultra-slow light propagation without absorption in weak dressing regime

Prediction of photon pair emission via dynamical Casimir effect

Quantitative analysis of experimental conditions for observing effects

Abstract

We theoretically study the optical properties of a gas of ultracold, coherently dressed three-level atoms in a Mott insulator phase of an optical lattice. The vacuum state, the band dispersion and the absorption spectrum of the polariton field can be controlled in real time by varying the amplitude and the frequency of the dressing beam. In the weak dressing regime, the system shows unique ultra-slow light propagation properties without absorption. In the presence of a fast time modulation of the dressing amplitude, we predict a significant emission of photon pairs by parametric amplification of the polaritonic zero-point fluctuations. Quantitative considerations on the experimental observability of such a dynamical Casimir effect are presented for the most promising atomic species and level schemes.