Jérôme Faist, ETH Zurich

Ultrastrong light-matter coupling in metamaterials

ETH Zurich

co-authors: Giacomo Scalari

Metamaterials are subwavelength electronic circuits with optical properties. In contrast to “normal” dielectrics, their response can be tailored by circuit design. They have attracted a large interest because they can have large magnetic response at optical wavelengths and their properties can be tuned in real time by optical pumping and electrical control.

Recently, we have demonstrated that such material can also be combined with two-dimensional electron gases in the quantum Hall regime to explore the physics of the ultra-strong light-matter coupling[1]. This open new perspective to the study and exploration of cavity polaritons, mixed light-matter particles, in a regime where the antiresonant terms of the light-matter Hamiltonian cannot be neglected anymore. 

[1]    G. Scalari, C. Maissen, D. Turcinkova, D. Hagenmuller, S. De Liberato, C. Ciuti, C. Reichl, D. Schuh, W. Wegscheider, M. Beck, and J. Faist, “Ultrastrong Coupling of the Cyclotron Transition of a 2D Electron Gas to a THz Metamaterial,” Science, vol. 335, no. 6074, pp. 1323–1326, Mar. 2012.