Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics in solid state physics: Ultrastrong coupling and Dynamical Casimir Effect

Speaker: Simone De Liberato
Affiliation: Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7
Date: Tuesday, 10 April 2012 at 13:30
Location: Seminar Room, Serrano 121 (CFMAC)

Thanks to their collective nature, superradiant electronic excitations in solid state systems can couple very efficiently with light, allowing to reach the so-called ultrastrong coupling regime. I will present two systems in which such regime has been observed using a two dimensional electron gas coupled to a terahertz resonator. I will show how the ultrastrong coupling regime allows the observation of new physics, most remarkably quantum vacuum phenomena closely related to the dynamical Casimir effect.