02023nas a2200241 4500008004100000245007500041210006900116260001500185300001200200490000800212520128400220100001701504700002901521700002201550700002601572700002101598700002501619700002301644700001601667700002301683700002001706856005501726 2018 eng d00aObservation of three-photon bound states in a quantum nonlinear medium0 aObservation of threephoton bound states in a quantum nonlinear m c2018/02/16 a783-7860 v3593 a
Bound states of massive particles, such as nuclei, atoms or molecules, are ubiquitous in nature and constitute the bulk of the visible world around us. In contrast, photons typically only weakly influence each other due to their very weak interactions and vanishing mass. We report the observation of traveling three-photon bound states in a quantum nonlinear medium where the interactions between photons are mediated by atomic Rydberg states. In particular, photon correlation and conditional phase measurements reveal the distinct features associated with three-photon and two-photon bound states. Such photonic trimers and dimers can be viewed as quantum solitons with shape-preserving wavefunctions that depend on the constituent photon number. The observed bunching and strongly nonlinear optical phase are quantitatively described by an effective field theory (EFT) of Rydberg-induced photon-photon interactions, which demonstrates the presence of a substantial effective three-body force between the photons. These observations pave the way towards the realization, studies, and control of strongly interacting quantum many-body states of light.
1 aLiang, Qi-Yu1 aVenkatramani, Aditya, V.1 aCantu, Sergio, H.1 aNicholson, Travis, L.1 aGullans, Michael1 aGorshkov, Alexey, V.1 aThompson, Jeff, D.1 aChin, Cheng1 aLukin, Mikhail, D.1 aVuletic, Vladan uhttp://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6377/78300504nas a2200169 4500008004100000245005300041210005300094300000700147490000800154100002200162700002300184700001700207700002500224700002300249700002000272856004200292 2013 eng d00aAttractive Photons in a Quantum Nonlinear Medium0 aAttractive Photons in a Quantum Nonlinear Medium a710 v5021 aFirstenberg, Ofer1 aPeyronel, Thibault1 aLiang, Qi-Yu1 aGorshkov, Alexey, V.1 aLukin, Mikhail, D.1 aVuletic, Vladan uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12512