Related papers: Cooperative optical pattern formation in an ultrat…

Spontaneous emission is one of the most fundamental out-of-equilibrium processes in which an excited quantum emitter relaxes to the ground state due to quantum fluctuations. In this process, a photon is emitted that can interact with other…

Linear spectra of molecular polaritons formed by $N$ molecules coupled to a microcavity photon mode are usually well described by classical linear optics, raising the question of where the expected nonlinear effects in these strongly…

We show how analogues of a large number of well-known nonlinear-optics phenomena can be realized with one or more two-level atoms coupled to one or more resonator modes. Through higher-order processes, where virtual photons are created and…

We propose and demonstrate theoretically a method to achieve and design optical nonlinear responses through a light-mediated spatial hybridization of different standard nonlinearities. The mechanism is based on the fact that optical…

We show that a nonlinear optical response associated with a resonant, atomically thin material can be dramatically enhanced by placing it in front of a partially reflecting mirror, rendering otherwise weakly nonlinear systems suitable for…

At the first glance, the expression "transparent superconductor" may seem an oxymoron. Still, the first principle calculations and experiments show that the materials that behave as superconductors at low frequencies and do not absorb in…

We develop a self-consistent theory of temporal fluctuations of a speckle pattern resulting from the multiple scattering of a coherent wave in a weakly nonlinear disordered medium. The speckle pattern is shown to become unstable if the…

Optical vortices are phase singularities nested in electromagnetic waves that constitute a fascinating source of phenomena in the physics of light and display deep similarities to their close relatives, quantized vortices in superfluids and…

We demonstrate that an effective near-zero refractive index can emerge from collective light scattering in a discrete atomic lattice, using essentially exact microscopic simulations. In a 25-layer array, cooperative response leads to over a…

When a cold atomic gas is illuminated by a quasi-resonant laser beam, light-induced dipole-dipole correlations make the scattering of light a cooperative process. Once a fluid description is adopted for the atoms, many scattering properties…

The biopolymers actin and microtubules are often in an ongoing assembling/disassembling state far from thermal equilibrium. Above a critical density this leads to spatially periodic patterns, as shown by a scaling argument and in terms of a…

We show that a thin superconductor slab illuminated by a desired pattern of light behaves as a completely controllable two-dimensional photonic media that could be applied in a wide range of optical devices. In this case, the permittivity…

In nonrelativistic quantum mechanics the spontaneous generation of singularities in smooth and finite wave functions, is a well understood phenomenon also occurring for free particles. We use the familiar analogy between the two-dimensional…

We study point-like polarizable particles confined in a 1D very elongated trap within the evanescent field of an optical nano-fiber or nano-structure. When illuminated transversely by coherent light, collective light scattering into…

The optical interference constitutes a paramount resource in modern physics. At the scale of individual atoms and photons, it is a diverse concept that causes different coherent phenomena. We present the experimental characterization of…

Cavity optomechanics has proven to be a field of research rich with possibilities for studying motional cooling, squeezing, quantum entanglement and metrology in solid state systems. While to date most studies have focused on the modulation…

A purely artificial mechanism for optical nonlinearity is proposed based on a metamaterial route. The mechanism is derived from classical electromagnetic interaction in a meta-molecule consisting of a cut-wire meta-atom nested within a…

There are a variety of nonlinear optical effects including higher harmonic generations, photovoltaic effects, and nonlinear Kerr rotations. They are realized by the strong light irradiation to materials that results in nonlinear…

We demonstrate scattering of laser light from two InAs quantum dots coupled to a photonic crystal waveguide, which is achieved by strain-tuning the optical transitions of the dots into mutual resonance. By performing measurements of the…

We study a pattern forming instability in a laser driven optically thick cloud of cold two-level atoms with a planar feedback mirror. A theoretical model is developed, enabling a full analysis of transverse patterns in a medium with…