In chapters mostly derived from lectures in a special course held at Nanyang Technical University, physicists explore interactions between light and matter from a number of perspectives. Among them are cavity quantum electrodynamics in atomic physics, exciton-polaritons in bulk semiconductors and in confined electron and photon systems, basic concepts in quantum information, cavity polaritons: crossroads between non-linear optics and atomic condensates, quantum polaritonics, and optical signal processing with enhanced nonlinearity in photonic crystals. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
The physics of strong light-matter coupling has been addressed in different scientific communities in the last 3 decades. Since the early eighties, atoms coupled to optical and microwave cavities have led to pioneering demonstrations of cavity quantum electrodynamics, Gedanken experiments, and building blocks for quantum information processing that was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012. In the framework of semiconducting devices, strong coupling has made possible investigations into the physics of Bose gases in solid-state environments, and holds the promise of exploiting light-matter interaction at the single photon level in scalable architectures. More recently, impressive developments in the so-called superconducting circuit QED have opened another fundamental playground to revisit cavity quantum electrodynamics for practical and fundamental purposes.This book aims at developing the necessary interface between these communities, by providing future researchers with a robust conceptual, theoretical and experimental basis on strong light-matter coupling, both in the classical and in the quantum regimes. In addition, a close focus will be on the new forefront research topics currently developed around the physics of strong light-matter interaction in the atomic and solid state scenario, such as strong coupling regime without a cavity, ultrastrong coupling, or strong coupling in polaritonic systems.
