Nanophotonics / Quantum Optics

Coupling between light and matter is extraordinarily weak. Optical resonator cavities provide an opportunity to coax repeated light-matter interactions, thereby enhancing coupling far beyond that of free space. In such settings, coupling can be so strong that it is no longer possible to disentangle the original optical and material degrees of freedom, resulting in non-equilibrium quantum optical states endowed with properties beyond those of their components. Together with experiment we develop theoretical models and simulation tools necessary to explicitly connect nanophotonic cavity + qubit systems with quantum many-body processes and phenomena. Our work not only enables the simulation of quantum many-body physics in nanophotonic devices but also provides opportunities to protect fragile quantum correlations against decoherence.