Members of the Light and Matter Physics (LAMP) group at RRI are pursuing research in an area of light-matter interaction which is a combination of Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) physics on one hand, and intense laser produced plasmas on the other. Light-matter interactions are being investigated by this group in both classical and quantum domains using experiments as well as numerical and theoretical analysis. The interactions are studied at very high plasma temperatures, room temperature, and at extremely low temperatures attained through laser cooling methods. The use of light from the highest energy densities to the single photon regime allows an impressive range of energy scales to be investigated.
The research of the LAMP group stresses on demonstration of quantum logic using ultra-cold atoms loaded in optical lattices and various nano-traps, investigation of transport and localization properties of light in various random media, ultrafast laser induced plasmas from solid targets, nonlinear optical properties of nanomaterials, laser cooling and trapping of atoms, molecular spectroscopy, cold collisions, investigations on spin statistics, ion trapping, atoms in cavities, response of cooled atoms to external fields, quantum optics with neutral atoms and non-classical light sources, quantum walk of light, manufacture of single photon sources based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion and their applications to fundamental tests of quantum mechanics, quantum information and computing and quantum communication, etc. Currently, quantum logical gates are being designed by tailoring the internal degrees of freedom of quantum optical tools in external potentials.
