Metasurface-Based Hybrid Optical Cavities for Chiral Sensing.

Quantum metasurfaces, i.e., two-dimensional subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters, can be employed as mirrors towards the design of hybrid cavities, where the optical response is given by the interplay of a cavity-confined field and the surface modes supported by the arrays. We show that stacked layers of quantum metasurfaces with orthogonal dipole orientation can serve as helicity-preserving cavities. These structures exhibit ultranarrow resonances and can enhance the intensity of the incoming field by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously preserving the handedness of the field circulating inside the resonator, as opposed to conventional cavities. The rapid phase shift in the cavity transmission around the resonance can be exploited for the sensitive detection of chiral scatterers passing through the cavity. We discuss possible applications of these resonators as sensors for the discrimination of chiral molecules. Our approach describes a new way of chiral sensing via the measurement of particle-induced phase shifts.

Monte Carlo Based Techniques for Quantum Magnets with Long-Range Interactions.

Long-range interactions are relevant for a large variety of quantum systems in quantum optics and condensed matter physics. In particular, the control of quantum-optical platforms promises to gain deep insights into quantum-critical properties induced by the long-range nature of interactions. From a theoretical perspective, long-range interactions are notoriously complicated to treat. Here, we give an overview of recent advancements to investigate quantum magnets with long-range interactions focusing on two techniques based on Monte Carlo integration. First, the method of perturbative continuous unitary transformations where classical Monte Carlo integration is applied within the embedding scheme of white graphs. This linked-cluster expansion allows extracting high-order series expansions of energies and observables in the thermodynamic limit. Second, stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo integration enables calculations on large finite systems. Finite-size scaling can then be used to determine the physical properties of the infinite system. In recent years, both techniques have been applied successfully to one- and two-dimensional quantum magnets involving long-range Ising, XY, and Heisenberg interactions on various bipartite and non-bipartite lattices. Here, we summarise the obtained quantum-critical properties including critical exponents for all these systems in a coherent way. Further, we review how long-range interactions are used to study quantum phase transitions above the upper critical dimension and the scaling techniques to extract these quantum critical properties from the numerical calculations.

Momentum-resolved spin-conserving two-triplon bound state and continuum in a cuprate ladder.

Studying multi-particle elementary excitations has provided unique access to understand collective many-body phenomena in correlated electronic materials, paving the way towards constructing microscopic models. In this work, we perform O K-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) on the quasi-one-dimensional cuprate Sr14Cu24O41 with weakly-doped spin ladders. The RIXS signal is dominated by a dispersing sharp mode ~ 270 meV on top of a damped incoherent component ~ 400-500 meV. Comparing with model calculations using the perturbative continuous unitary transformations method, the two components resemble the spin-conserving ΔS = 0 two-triplon bound state and continuum excitations in the spin ladders. Such multi-spin response with long-lived ΔS = 0 excitons is central to several exotic magnetic properties featuring Majorana fermions, yet remains unexplored given the generally weak cross-section with other experimental techniques. By investigating a simple spin-ladder model system, our study provides valuable insight into low-dimensional quantum magnetism.

Evidence for pressure induced unconventional quantum criticality in the coupled spin ladder antiferromagnet C9H18N2CuBr4.

Quantum phase transitions in quantum matter occur at zero temperature between distinct ground states by tuning a nonthermal control parameter. Often, they can be accurately described within the Landau theory of phase transitions, similarly to conventional thermal phase transitions. However, this picture can break down under certain circumstances. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the magnetic structure and spin dynamics of the spin-1/2 ladder compound C9H18N2CuBr4. Single-crystal heat capacity and neutron diffraction measurements reveal that the Néel-ordered phase breaks down beyond a critical pressure of Pc ∼ 1.0 GPa through a continuous quantum phase transition. Estimates of the critical exponents suggest that this transition may fall outside the traditional Landau paradigm. The inelastic neutron scattering spectra at 1.3 GPa are characterized by two well-separated gapped modes, including one continuum-like and another resolution-limited excitation in distinct scattering channels, which further indicates an exotic quantum-disordered phase above Pc.

Solids and supersolids of three-body interacting polar molecules on an optical lattice.

We study the physics of cold polar molecules loaded into an optical lattice in the regime of strong three-body interactions, as put forward recently by Büchler et al. [Nature Phys. 3, 726 (2007)]. To this end, quantum Monte Carlo simulations, exact diagonalization, and a semiclassical approach are used to explore hard-core bosons on the 2D square lattice which interact solely by long-ranged three-body terms. The resulting phase diagram shows a sequence of solid and supersolid phases. Our findings are directly relevant for future experimental implementations and open a new route towards the discovery of a lattice supersolid phase in experiment.

Excitations in one-dimensional S = 1/2 quantum antiferromagnets.

The transition from dimerized to uniform phases is studied in terms of spectral weights for spin chains using continuous unitary transformations. The spectral weights in the S=1 channel are computed perturbatively around the limit of strong dimerization. We find that the spectral weight is concentrated mainly in the subspaces with a small number of elementary triplets (triplons), even for vanishing dimerization. So, besides spinons, triplons may be used as elementary excitations in spin chains. We conclude that there is no necessity to use fractional excitations in low-dimensional, undoped, or doped quantum antiferromagnets.