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Nanophotonics

Liquid quantum photonics

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 485–487 (2015)Cite this article

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Researchers have observed light propagation in which photons glide smoothly along a one-dimensional chain of electrons known as a Luttinger liquid — a many-body interacting quantum system held within a single-walled carbon nanotube.

Most materials that guide light are simply described by the Lorentz model — a classical theory introduced by Hendrik Lorentz at the turn of the twentieth century. In this model, electrons are bound to atoms and form a dipole that responds to light by producing its own light field1. The combined fields of all the atoms in the material and that of the incoming light constitute the total field as it is guided along. The Lorentz model has played a pivotal role in the advancement of optical science in the decades since being introduced.

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Figure 1: Luttinger liquid plasmonic waveguides.

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  1. Mark Tame is at the School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa,

    Mark Tame

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  1. Mark Tame
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Correspondence to Mark Tame.

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Tame, M. Liquid quantum photonics. Nature Photon 9, 485–487 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.130

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