Strongly correlated Fermions strongly coupled to light

Prof. Jean-Philippe Brantut
EPFL - Fondation Sandoz Chair in Physics of Quantum Gases

In the last decade, cold atoms have emerged as a new type of material, with ultimate purity and exquisite control over most of the parameter. In particular, the strong correlation regime where interactions are strong enough to produce new phases of matter has been investigated in details. In this presentation, I will describe a new experimental platform reaching for a novel layer of control. It combines a quantum degenerate Fermi gas with strong, tunable interactions and a high-finesse optical cavity operating in the strong coupling regime. I will describe the first experimental results, in particular the onset of a new type of light-matter excitation, the Fermion pair polariton, where single photons couple strongly with the pair correlation function of the gas. The wide range of perspectives open by this new system will be outlined.