Self-organization of atoms coupled to a chiral reservoir

Understand

Tightly confined modes of light, as in optical nanofibers or photonic crystal waveguides, can lead to large optical coupling in atomic systems, which mediates long-range interactions between atoms.

• These one-dimensional systems can naturally possess couplings that are asymmetric between modes propagating in different directions.
• Strong long-range interaction among atoms via these modes can drive them to a self-organized periodic distribution.
• In this paper, we examine the self-organizing behavior of atoms in one dimension coupled to a chiral reservoir.