Speaker: Marcel Augusto Pinto
Affiliation: Università degli Studi di Palermo
Date: Tuesday, 20 May 2025 at 12:00
Location: Seminar Room, Serrano 113b
Giant atoms allow for two major effects: engineered coupling to field modes and time-delayed non-Markovian dynamics. Here, we discuss two novel paradigms for these phenomena, both arising in a photonic lattice (implemented through a 1D or 2D coupled-cavity array) with an applied synthetic electric field. We first consider a 2D lattice implementing photonic graphene with an open gap. We propose that, by relying on giant atoms, one can combine ideas from valleytronics with quantum optics to produce chiral light orthogonal to the electric field direction, without the need to break time-reversal symmetry of the lattice. We then consider a simple 1D array with an applied electric field, where Bloch oscillations are known to occur. We show that an normal atom emitting into such a lattice generally undergoes non-Markovian dynamics. In a suitable regime, this resembles the dynamics of an atom in a long, multi-mode, perfect cavity (despite no true mirrors being present), with the photon time delay embodied by the Bloch oscillations period.