Exploring polaritonic effects with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

The investigation of quantum emitters interacting with various photonic environments is at the heart of quantum optics and emergent photonic technologies. We simulate such systems using artificial emitters in an optical lattice, which emit atoms rather than photons. These "matter-wave emitters" can decay when coupled to an open environment, such as the continuum of matter wave modes in free space, but collectively they can also host extended coherent states similar to polaritons in condensed matter physics. We extend our previous studies of this system to investigate transport behavior in the upper polariton branch, where matter waves can be coherently converted into polaritonic excitations.