Condensed Matter Seminar: Emerging Quantum Phenomena in Nonlinear Nanophotonics: Toward New Regimes of Light-Matter Interactions

Nanophotonics is at the forefront of research and development in scalable quantum technologies, ranging from quantum sensing to quantum computing. Traditionally, inherently weak photon-photon and photon-atom interactions in dielectric materials pose significant challenges to fully exploiting the potential of these platforms. However, recent advances in the fabrication of nonlinear micro-resonators with nanometric features have allowed for the enhancement of all-optical interactions, necessitating new approaches to generating, controlling, and measuring quantum light. In this seminar, I will delve into unexplored regimes at the intersection of nonlinear and quantum optics. I will begin by showcasing our latest advancements in developing integrated microresonators in thin-film 4H-Silicon Carbide. This innovation enables nonlinear photonics, quantum optics, and collective quantum emitter excitations on the same platform. Following this, I will present our experimental demonstration of quadrature lattices of the quantum vacuum. This work shows how pulses that spontaneously emerge in microresonators can generate lattice dynamics of the quantum vacuum and how we can exert control over these dynamics. I will then discuss the broader implications of our findings, including enhanced interactions with quantum emitters, and ultrafast nonlinear quantum nanophotonics, which enable nonlinear interactions at the single photon level. These outcomes pave the way toward new regimes of light-matter interactions that are enabled on scalable photonic microchips, with transformative implications for fundamental physics and quantum applications.