All-optical dynamical Casimir effect in a three-dimensional terahertz photonic band gap

Abstract

We identify an architecture for the observation of all-optical dynamical Casimir effect in realistic experimental conditions. We suggest that by integrating quantum wells in a three-dimensional (3D) photonic band-gap material made out of large-scale ($\ensuremath{\sim}200\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$) germanium logs, it is possible to achieve ultrastrong light-matter coupling at terahertz frequencies for the cyclotron transition of a two-dimensional electron gas interacting with long-lived optical modes, in which vacuum Rabi splitting is comparable to the Landau level spacing. When a short, intense electromagnetic transient of duration $\ensuremath{\sim}250\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{fs}$ and carrying a peak magnetic field $\ensuremath{\sim}5\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}$ is applied to the structure, the cyclotron transition can be suddenly tuned on resonance with a desired photon mode, switching on the light-matter interaction and leading to a Casimir radiation emitted parallel to the quantum well plane. The radiation spectrum consists of sharp peaks with frequencies coinciding with engineered optical modes within the 3D photonic band gap, and its characteristics are extremely robust to the nonradiative damping which can be large in our system. Furthermore, the absence of continuum with associated low-energy excitations for both electromagnetic and electronic quantum states can prevent the rapid absorption of the photon flux which is likely to occur in other proposals for all-optical dynamical Casimir effect.