This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems. In the presence of effective photon-photon interactions induced by the optical nonlinearity of the medium, a many-photon system can behave collectively as a quantum fluid with a number of novel features stemming from its intrinsically nonequilibrium nature. A rich variety of recently observed photon hydrodynamical effects is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds, to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles. While the review is mostly focused on a specific class of semiconductor systems that have been extensively studied in recent years (planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong light-matter coupling regime having cavity polaritons as elementary excitations), the very concept of quantum fluids of light applies to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals, to atomic clouds embedded in optical fibers and cavities, to photonic crystal cavities, to superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions. The conclusive part of the article is devoted to a review of the future perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon gases and of artificial gauge fields for photons. In particular, several mechanisms to obtain efficient photon blockade are presented, together with their application to the generation of novel quantum phases.

Quantum fluids of light

This self-contained, comprehensive book describes the fundamental properties of soft x-rays and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and discusses their applications in a wide variety of fields, including EUV lithography for semiconductor chip manufacture and soft x-ray biomicroscopy. The author begins by presenting the relevant basic principles such as radiation and scattering, wave propagation, diffraction, and coherence. He then goes on to examine a broad range of phenomena and applications. The topics covered include EUV lithography, biomicroscopy, spectromicroscopy, EUV astronomy, synchrotron radiation, and soft x-ray lasers. He also provides a great deal of useful reference material such as electron binding energies, characteristic emission lines and photo-absorption cross-sections. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in engineering, physics, chemistry, and the life sciences. It will also appeal to practicing engineers involved in semiconductor fabrication and materials science.

X-Rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation: Principles and Applications

We propose a new approach leading to giant gain enhancement. It is based on unconventional slow-wave resonance associated with a degenerate band edge (DBE) in the dispersion diagram for a special class of photonic crystals supporting four modes at each frequency. We show that the gain enhancement in a Fabry-P\'erot cavity (FPC) when operating at the DBE is several orders of magnitude stronger when compared to a cavity of the same length made of a standard photonic crystal with a regular band edge (RBE). The giant gain condition is explained by a significant increase in the photon lifetime and in the local density of states. We have demonstrated the existence of DBE operated special cavities that provide for superior gain conditions for solid-state lasers, quantum cascade lasers, traveling wave tubes, and distributed solid-state amplifiers. We also report the possibility to achieve low-threshold lasing in FPC with DBE compared to RBE-based lasers.

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Giant gain enhancement in photonic crystals with a degenerate band edge

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Gerard Mourou, Arthur Askin, and Donna Strickland. These papers are the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

Nobel Lecture: Extreme light physics and application

We show that a certain fundamental limit applies to the accuracy of all optical rotation sensors which use laser light as a probe. We derive this fundamental rotation-rate uncertainty from the Heisenberg uncertainty relations and Glauber's minimum uncertainty states. The same relationship is obtained from a spontaneous-emission noise formulation. We present experimental data on a (nondithered) four-frequency ring laser gyroscope for which this limit is attained.

Laser gyro at quantum limit

We investigate experimentally the lifetime of the photons in a cavity containing a medium exhibiting strong positive dispersion. This intracavity positive dispersion is provided by a metastable helium gas at room temperature in the electromagnetically induced transparency regime, in which light propagates at a group velocity of the order of 104 m·s−1. The results definitely prove that the lifetime of the cavity photons is governed by the group velocity of light in the cavity and not its phase velocity.

Photon lifetime in a cavity containing a slow-light medium.

We investigate experimentally the lifetime of the photons in a cavity containing a medium exhibiting strong positive dispersion. This intracavity positive dispersion is provided by a metastable helium gas at room temperature in the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) regime, in which light propagates at a group velocity of the order of 10000 m/s. The results definitely prove that the lifetime of the cavity photons is governed by the group velocity of light in the cavity, and not its phase velocity.

Photon lifetime in a cavity containing a slow-light medium

Seeding soft-X-ray plasma amplifiers with high harmonics has been demonstrated to generate high-brightness soft-X-ray laser pulses with full spatial and temporal coherence. The interaction between the injected coherent field and the swept-gain medium has been modelled. However, no experiment has been conducted to probe the gain dynamics when perturbed by a strong external seed field. Here, we report the first X-ray pump–X-ray probe measurement of the nonlinear response of a plasma amplifier perturbed by a strong soft-X-ray ultra-short pulse. We injected a sequence of two time-delayed high-harmonic pulses (λ = 18.9 nm) into a collisionally excited nickel-like molybdenum plasma to measure with femtosecond resolution the gain depletion induced by the saturated amplification of the high-harmonic pump and its subsequent recovery. The measured fast gain recovery in 1.5–1.75 ps confirms the possibility to generate ultra-intense, fully phase-coherent soft-X-ray lasers by chirped pulse amplification in plasma amplifiers.

Gain dynamics in a soft-X-ray laser amplifier perturbed by a strong injected X-ray field

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a three-level Λ-system is a phenomenon leading to high dispersion and thus significant changes in the group velocity inside a medium. Some authors have proposed introduction of such highly dispersive medium into a cavity in order to reduce its linewidth, or enhance the sensitivity of an interferometer. These proposals are usually made considering that the phase velocity rules the decay rate of the cavity [1]. But other studies assume that this decay time is connected to the group velocity [2]. In the light of the above discrepancy, we investigate experimentally the decay time of a cavity in the presence of positive or negative dispersion.

Decay time in a cavity in slow or fast light regime

We present the first measurement of the gain dynamics in an injection-seeded soft x-ray plasma amplifier (Wang et al. Nat. Photon. 8, 381, (2014)). A sequence of two time-delayed spatially-overlapping high harmonic pulses was injected into a λ = 18.9 nm Ni-like Mo plasma amplifier to measure the regeneration of the population inversion that follows the gain depletion caused by the amplification of the first seed pulse. Collisional excitation is measured to re-establish in about ~ 1.75 ps the population inversion depleted during the amplification of the seed pulse. The measured gain-recovery time is compared to model simulations to gain insight on the population inversion mechanisms that create the transient gain in these amplifiers. The result supports the concept of a soft x-ray laser amplification scheme to generate ultra-intense fully phase-coherent ultrashort soft x-ray laser pulses based on the continuous extraction of energy from a plasma- based amplifier by a stretched seed pulse.

C. Proux

Papers

Photon lifetime in a cavity containing a slow-light medium.

Photon lifetime in a cavity containing a slow-light medium

Gain dynamics in a soft-X-ray laser amplifier perturbed by a strong injected X-ray field

Decay time in a cavity in slow or fast light regime

Gain Dynamics in Injection-Seeded Soft X-Ray Laser Plasma Amplifiers