Fano-Hopfield model and photonic band gaps for an arbitrary atomic lattice

Mauro Antezza (1) , Yvan Castin (1)

1 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

We study the light dispersion relation in a periodic ensemble of atoms at fixed positions in the Fano-Hopfield model (the atomic dipole being modeled with harmonic oscillators). Compared to earlier works, we do not restrict to cubic lattices, and we do not regularize the theory by hand but we renormalize it in a systematic way using a Gaussian cut-off in momentum space. Whereas no omnidirectional spectral gap is known for light in a Bravais atomic lattice, we find that, for a wide range of parameters, an omnidirectional gap occurs in a diamond atomic lattice, which may be realized in an experiment with ultra-cold atoms. The long-wavelength limit of the theory also provides a Lorentz-Lorenz (or Clausius-Mossotti) relation for an arbitrary lattice.

Mots clés: light spectrum; atomic gases; Fano-Hopfield model; renormalization; omnidirectional gap; optical lattices; Mott phase

Domaines: Gaz Quantiques [cond-mat.quant-gas]

Mauro Antezza, Yvan Castin. Fano-Hopfield model and photonic band gaps for an arbitrary atomic lattice. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2009, 80, pp.013816. ⟨hal-00406429⟩