Spontaneous lateral atomic recoil force close to a photonic topological material

Abstract

We investigate the quantum recoil force acting on an excited atom close to the surface of a nonreciprocal photonic topological insulator (PTI). The main atomic emission channel is the unidirectional surface-plasmon propagating at the PTI-vacuum interface, and we show that it enables a spontaneous lateral recoil force that scales at short distance as $1/d^4$, where $d$ is the atom-PTI separation. Remarkably, the sign of the recoil force is polarization and orientation-independent, and it occurs in a translation-invariant homogeneous system in thermal equilibrium. Surprisingly, the recoil force persists for very small values of the gyration pseudovector, which, for a biased plasma, corresponds to very low cyclotron frequencies. The ultra-strong recoil force is rooted on the quasi-hyperbolic dispersion of the surface-plasmons. We consider both an initially excited atom and a continuous pump scenario, the latter giving rise to a continuous lateral force whose direction can be changed at will by simply varying the orientation of the biasing magnetic field. Our predictions may be tested in experiments with cold Rydberg atoms and superconducting qubits.

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• Quantum Rolling Friction
• Optical torque on a two-level system near a strongly nonreciprocal medium
• Inducing and controlling rotation on small objects using photonic topological materials
• Lateral Optical Forces on Linearly-Polarized Emitters near a Reciprocal Substrate
• Equilibrium forces on non-reciprocal materials
• Force of light on a two-level atom near an ultrathin optical fiber
• Asymmetric Cherenkov Emission in a Topological Plasmonic Waveguide
• Photon induced atom recoil in collectively interacting planar arrays
• Moving Media as Photonic Heat Engine and Pump
• Transfer of angular momentum of guided light to an atom with an electric quadrupole transition near an optical nanofiber
• Lateral recoil optical forces on nanoparticles near nonreciprocal surfaces
• Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking of Time-Reversal-Symmetry and Time-Crystal States in Chiral Atomic Systems
• Torque of guided light on an atom near an optical nanofiber
• Spontaneous Rotational Symmetry Breaking in a Kramers Two-Level System
• Direction-dependent coupling between a nanofiber-guided light field and a two-level atom with an electric quadrupole transition
• Non-Markovian Transient Casimir-Polder force and population dynamics on excited and ground state atoms: weak and strong coupling regimes in generally non-reciprocal environments