Mode-multiplexing deep-strong light-matter coupling

Abstract

Dressing electronic quantum states with virtual photons creates exotic effects ranging from vacuum-field modified transport to polaritonic chemistry, and squeezing or entanglement of modes. The established paradigm of cavity quantum electrodynamics maximizes the light-matter coupling strength ΩR/ωc, defined as the ratio of the vacuum Rabi frequency and the frequency of light, by resonant interactions. Yet, the finite oscillator strength of a single electronic excitation sets a natural limit to ΩR/ωc. Here, we enter a regime of record-strong light-matter interaction which exploits the cooperative dipole moments of multiple, highly non-resonant magnetoplasmon modes tailored by our metasurface. This creates an ultrabroadband spectrum of 20 polaritons spanning 6 optical octaves, calculated vacuum ground state populations exceeding 1 virtual excitation quantum, and coupling strengths equivalent to ΩR/ωc=3.19. The extreme interaction drives strongly subcycle energy exchange between multiple bosonic vacuum modes akin to high-order nonlinearities, and entangles previously orthogonal electronic excitations solely via vacuum fluctuations.