Coherence-Driven Topological Transition in Quantum Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper proposes a defect-free quantum metamaterial made of ultracold atoms that can be dynamically controlled to switch topological properties at ultrafast speeds, enabling advanced quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel atomic lattice quantum metamaterial with all-optical control over topological transitions, overcoming limitations of solid-state platforms.

Findings

Demonstrates ultrafast optical control of topological transition.

Enables dynamic manipulation of quantum emitter decay rates.

Proposes lossless, tunable, topologically-reconfigurable quantum metamaterials.

Abstract

We introduce and theoretically demonstrate a quantum metamaterial made of dense ultracold neutral atoms loaded into an inherently defect-free artificial crystal of light, immune to well-known critical chal- lenges inevitable in conventional solid-state platforms. We demonstrate an all-optical control on ultrafast time scales over the photonic topological transition of the isofrequency contour from an open to close topology at the same frequency. This atomic lattice quantum metamaterial enables a dynamic manipula- tion of the decay rate of a probe quantum emitter by more than an order of magnitude. This proposal may lead to practically lossless, tunable and topologically-reconfigurable quantum metamaterials, for single- or few-photon-level applications as varied as quantum sensing, quantum information processing, and quantum simulations using metamaterials.