Lectio Magistralis
Mauro Antezza
Associate Professor @ Université Montpellier 2
Light-Matter interaction:
from elementary quantum systems out of thermal equilibrium to atomic artificial crystals
''We will discuss two topics at the crossroad among light-matter interaction, condensed matter and quantum gases. In the first part, we will discuss the behavior of an elementary quantum system (atom, quantum dot, …) interacting with an environment out of thermal equilibrium. We show how the internal atomic dynamics can be deeply affected by the non equilibrium configuration leading to unexpected phenomena like a spontaneous inversion of population, new cooling mechanisms obtained by heating the system, and the possibility to create and protect entanglement in a stationary and robust way. In the second part we will move to light-matter interaction involving many atoms, and in particular we will discuss the features of light or matter-waves propagation in periodic or disordered systems made of artificial crystals (3D, 2D, graphene, …) realized by atoms trapped at the nodes of an optical lattice. Particular attention will be devoted to photonics band gaps and Anderson localization.''
Short CV:
- 2010 - today : Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Montpellier
- 2007-2010: post doc researcher at Ecole Normale Supérieure - Paris
- 2006-2007: post-doc researcher at University of Trento
- 2003-2006: PhD at University of Trento
- 1999-2003: Laurea in Physics at University of Pavia