Band structure, phase transitions, and semiconductor analogs in one-dimensional solid light systems

Abstract

The conjunction of atom-cavity physics and photonic structures ("solid light" systems) offers new opportunities in terms of more device functionality and the probing of designed emulators of condensed-matter systems. By analogy to the canonical one-electron approximation of solid-state physics, we propose a one-polariton approximation to study these systems. Using this approximation, we apply Bloch states to the uniformly tuned Jaynes-Cummings- Hubbard model to analytically determine the energy-band structure. By analyzing the response of the band structure to local atom-cavity control, we explore its application as a quantum simulator and show phase-transition features absent in mean-field ..