Polariton lattices: a solid-state platform for quantum simulations of correlated and topological states

The development of quantum simulation lacks compact on-chip scalable platforms. The recent demonstrations of polariton lattices in semiconductor microcavities, in combination with their extraordinary nonlinearities, place polaritons as one of the most promising candidates to achieve this goal. The aim of this proposal is to implement polariton lattices in semiconductor microcavities as a photonic-based solid-state platform for quantum simulations.

The polariton platform will allow for the engineering of the lattice geometry and site-to-site hoping, state preparation and detection in individual sites, sensitivity to magnetic fields, and scalability due to the low value of disorder. The driven-dissipative nature of the system opens the exciting possibility of studying out-of-equilibrium strongly correlated phases, but it also calls for new theoretical methods. We will combine the expertise in semiconductor physics and technology of four experimental groups and the input of three theoretical groups to push polariton nonlinearities into the strongly interacting regime. We plan on implementing the first polariton simulators by studying quantum correlations and the topological phases in flat bans and in the presence of artificial gauge field acting on polaritons in 1D and 2D lattice geometries, both experimentally and theoretically. This project will provide the first quantum simulation platform using scalable lattices at optical wavelengths.

CONSORTIUM

• Coordinator: Marzena Szymańska (University College London/Department of Physics and Astronomy, UK)
• Jason Smith (University of Oxford, UK)
• Dimitrii Krizhanovskii (University of Sheffield, UK)
• Paulo Santos (PDI-Berlin, DE)
• Jacqueline Bloch (Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, FR)
• Eytan Grosfeld (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, IL)
• Michal Matuszewski (Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL)

PROJECT POSTER: Poster InterPol

MID-TERM REPORTING: Presentation of the mid-term results of the project

PROJECT WEBSITE: https://qlm-ucl.org/interpol-quantera/