Vacuum-field-induced THz transport gap in a carbon nanotube quantum dot
Federico Valmorra, Kenji Yoshida, L. C. Contamin, Simon Messelot, S. Massabeau, Matthieu R. Delbecq, Matthieu Dartiailh, M. M. Desjardins, Tino Cubaynes, Zaki Leghtas, Kazuhiko Hirakawa, Jérôme Tignon, S. Dhillon, S. Balibar, J. Mangeney, Audrey Cottet, Takis Kontos
Abstract
The control of light-matter interaction at the most elementary level has become an important resource for quantum technologies. Implementing such interfaces in the THz range remains an outstanding problem. Here, we couple a single electron trapped in a carbon nanotube quantum dot to a THz resonator. The resulting light-matter interaction reaches the deep strong coupling regime that induces a THz energy gap in the carbon nanotube solely by the vacuum fluctuations of the THz resonator. This is directly confirmed by transport measurements. Such a phenomenon which is the exact counterpart of inhibition of spontaneous emission in atomic physics opens the path to the readout of non-classical states of light using electrical current. This would be a particularly useful resource and perspective for THz quantum optics.