Sylvain Ravets

Welcome to my personal page! My name is Sylvain Ravets and I am an experimental physicist working as a tenured CNRS researcher at the Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (C2N, CNRS/Univ Paris-Saclay, France). After studying physics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, I completed a Ph.D. in physics (2011-2014) between the Joint Quantum Institute (University of Maryland, USA) and the Charles Fabry Laboratory (LCF, CNRS/ Institute of Optical Graduate School), where I conducted quantum engineering experiments with cold atoms in the groups of L. A. Orozco (JQI) and A. Browaeys (Institut d'Optique). In 2015, I joined ETH Zurich, where I studied quantum optics in solid-state environment, at the Institute of Quantum Photonics led by A. Imamoglu. In January 2018, I joined C2N, where I work on the manipulation of quantum light in semiconductor nanostructures with the aim of developing artificial quantum materials for photonics. On a daily basis, we use laser light and optics to study photonic materials that we produce in the lab. The goal of this research is to fabricate materials with tailored properties that are interesting for fundamental studies in physics as well as for applications in photonics.

Since Januray 2021, I am the Principal Investigator (PI) of a project supported by the European Research Council (ERC Starting grant ARQADIA). As part of it, I have started an activity on quantum polaritonics at C2N. Click on this link to learn more about it.

Short CV

• 2018: CNRS researcher – Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N), Université Paris Saclay, France.
• Project: Quantum simulation in arrays of polariton microcavities.
• 2015-2017: Postdoctoral researcher in the “Quantum Photonics” group led by Atac Imamoglu, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
• Project: Enhancing polariton-polariton interactions using fractional quantum Hall states.
• 2015: Postdoctoral researcher in the “Quantum Optics – Atoms” group led by Antoine Browaeys, Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Université Paris-Saclay, France.
• Project: Simulating quantum Ising models in arrays of single Rydberg atoms.
• 2011-2014: Doctoral student at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School under the joint supervision of Luis Orozco (Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland, USA) and Antoine Browaeys (Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Université Paris Saclay, France).
• Thesis dissertation: Development of tools for quantum engineering using individual atoms: optical nanofibers and controlled Rydberg interactions.
• 2010: Agrégation de physique: national competitive examination for the highest positions in the French public education system (rank: 12).
• 2007-2011: Physics studies at the “Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan”, France.
• Master thesis: Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer.
• Bachelor thesis: Surface plasmons in the Young slit doublet experiment.

Highlights

• 2020: Recipient of an ERC starting grant for the project ARQADIA: “Artificial quantum materials with photons: many-body physics and topology”.
• 2017: Hired as a tenured researcher (“chargé de recherche”) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
• 2016: Selected as a finalist for the “Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Laser Science”.
• 2016: Selected as an attendee of the 66th Lindau Nobel laureate meeting.
• 2015: Laureate of the “ETH postdoctoral fellowship program” (two years of funding for postdoctoral researchers).
• 2015: Awarded the DIM Nano-K 2015 thesis prize for “Research at the interface between nanosciences and cold atoms”.
• 2015: Awarded one of the 2015 EDOM (Ecole Doctorale Onde et Matière) thesis prize.
• 2012-2015: Received an ASN (Allocation Spécifique Normalien) doctoral fellowship (three years of funding for doctoral students).
• 2011: Laureate of the 2011 Fulbright Doctoral program (financial support from the “commission franco-américaine” to do research in the USA).
• 2011: Received a one year doctoral fellowship from the Fondation Monahan to perform research in the US.
• 2007-2011: Four years of funding as a student of “Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan”.

Thesis

Publications

1. Topological gap solitons in a 1D non-Hermitian lattice,
   N. Pernet , P. St-Jean , D. D. Solnyshkov, G. Malpuech, N. Carlon Zambon , Q. Fontaine, B. Real , O. Jamadi, A. Lemaître, M. Morassi, L. Le Gratiet, T. Baptiste, A. Harouri, I. Sagnes , A. Amo , S. Ravets  and J. Bloch, Nature Physics (2022).
   See News and Views by F. Kunst, Nature Physics (2022).

2. Enhanced Cavity Optomechanics with Quantum-well Exciton Polaritons,
   N. Carlon Zambon, Z. Denis, R. De Oliveira, S. Ravets, C. Ciuti, I. Favero, J. Bloch, arXiv:2202.12094 (2022).

3. Observation of KPZ universal scaling in a one-dimensional polariton condensate,
   Q. Fontaine, D. Squizzato, F. Baboux, I. Amelio, A. Lemaître, M. Morassi, I. Sagnes, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, M. Wouters, I. Carusotto, A. Amo, M. Richard, A. Minguzzi, L. Canet, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, arXiv:2112.09550 (2021).

4. Optically defined cavities in driven-dissipative photonic lattices
   O. Jamadi, B. Real, K. Sawicki, C. Hainaut, A. Gonzalez-Tudela, N. Pernet, I. Sagnes, M. Morassi, A. Lemaitre, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, A. Amo, arXiv:2112.07753 (2021).

5. Chiral emission induced by optical Zeeman effect in polariton micropillars,
   B. Real, N. Carlon Zambon, P. St-Jean, I. Sagnes, A. Lemaître, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, A. Amo, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 043161 (2021).

6. Few-photon all-optical phase rotation in a quantum-well micropillar cavity,
   T. Kuriakose, P. M. Walker, T. Dowling, O. Kyriienko, I. A. Shelykh, P. St-Jean, N. Carlon Zambon, A. Lemaître, I. Sagnes, L. Legratiet, A. Harouri, S. Ravets, M. S. Skolnick, A. Amo, J. Bloch, D. N. Krizhanovskii, arXiv:2106.13650 (2021).

7. Microcavity polaritons for topological photonics,
   D. D. Solnyshkov, G. Malpuech, P. St-Jean, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, A. Amo, Optical Materials Express, Vol. 11, 1119 (2021).
   Selected as Editors' pick.

8. Measuring topological invariants in polaritonic graphene,
   P. St-Jean, A. Dauphin, P. Massignan, B. Real, O. Jamadi, M. Milićević, A. Lemaître, A. Harouri, L. Le Gratiet, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, A. Amo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 127403 (2021).
   Selected as PRL Editor’s suggestion.

9. Semi-Dirac transport and anisotropic localization in polariton honeycomb lattices,
   B. Real, O. Jamadi, M. Milićević, N. Perent, P. St-Jean, T. Ozawa, G. Montambaux, I. Sagnes, A. Lemaître, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, A. Amo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 186601 (2020).
10. Emergence of criticality through a cascade of delocalization transitions in quasiperiodic chains,
    V. Goblot, A. Štrkalj, N. Pernet, J. L. Lado, C. Dorow, A. Lemaître, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, A. Amo, J. Bloch, O. Zilberberg, Nature Physics 16, 832 (2020).
11. Parametric instability in coupled nonlinear microcavities,
    N. Carlon Zambon, S. R. K. Rodriguez, A. Lemaitre, A. Harouri, L. Le Gratiet, I. Sagnes, P. St-Jean, S. Ravets, A. Amo, J. Bloch, Phys. Rev. A 102, 023526 (2020).
12. Nonlinear Polariton Fluids in a Flatband Reveal Discrete Gap Solitons,
    V. Goblot, B. Rauer, F. Vicentini, A. Le Boité, E. Galopin, A. Lemaître, L. Le Gratiet, A. Harouri, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, C. Ciuti, A. Amo, J. Bloch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 113901 (2019).
13. Orbital angular momentum bistability in a microlaser,
    N. Carlon Zambon, P. St-Jean, A. Lemaître, A. Harouri, L. Le Gratiet, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, A. Amo, J. Bloch, Optics Letters 44, 4531 (2019).
14. Nonlinear optics in the fractional quantum Hall regime,
    Knüppel, P.*, Ravets, S.*, Faelt, S., Kroner, M., Wegscheider, W., and Imamoglu, A., Nature 572, 91 (2019).
    See Nature Physics Research Highlights, D. Abergel, Nat. Phys. 15, 732 (2019).
15. Optically controlling the emission chirality of microlasers,
    N. Carlon Zambon, P. St-Jean, M. Milićević, A. Lemaître, A. Harouri, L. LeGratiet, O. Bleu, D. Solnyshkov, G. Malpuech, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, A. Amo, J. Bloch, Nature Photonics 13, 283 (2019).
16. Engineering Gaussian states of light from a planar microcavity,
    Van Regemortel, M., Ravets, S., Imamoglu, A., Carusotto, I., Wouters, M., accepted in SciPost Phys. 5, 13 (2018)
17. Polaron Polaritons in the Integer and Fractional Quantum Hall Regimes,
    Ravets, S., Knüppel, P., Faelt, S., Cotlet, O., Kroner, M., Wegscheider, W., and Imamoglu, A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 057401 (2018).
    Selected as PRL Editor’s suggestion.
18. Optical nanofibers: a new platform for quantum optics,
    Solano, P., Grover, J. A., Hoffman, J. E., Ravets, S., Fatemi, F. K., Orozco, L. A., Rolston, S. L., Adv. At. Mol. Opt. Phy. 66, 439 (2017).
19. Tunable two-dimensional arrays of single Rydberg atoms for realizing quantum Ising models,
    Labuhn, H., Barredo, D., Ravets, S., de Léséleuc, S., Macrì, T., Lahaye, T. and Browaeys, A., Nature 534, 667 (2016)
20. Measurement of the angular dependence of the dipole-dipole interaction between two individual Rydberg atoms at a Förster resonance,
    Ravets, S., Labuhn, H., Barredo, D., Lahaye, T. and Browaeys, A., Phys. Rev. A 92, 020701(R) (2015).
    Selected as PRA Editor’s suggestion.
21. Coherent excitation transfer in a spin chain of three Rydberg atoms,
    Barredo, D., Labuhn, H., Ravets, S., Lahaye, T., Browaeys, A. and Adams, C. S., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 113002 (2015).
22. Coherent dipole-dipole coupling between two single Rydberg atoms at an electrically-tuned Förster resonance,
    Ravets, S., Labuhn, H., Barredo, D., Béguin, L., Lahaye, T., and Browaeys, A., Nat. Phys. 10, 914 (2014).
    See News and Views, R. Löw, Nat. Phys. 10, 901 (2014)
23. Single-atom addressing in microtraps for quantum-state engineering using Rydberg atoms,
    Labuhn, H., Ravets, S., Barredo, D., Béguin L., Nogrette, F., Lahaye, T. and Browaeys, A., Phys. Rev. A 90, 023415 (2014).
24. Single-atom trapping in holographic 2D arrays of microtraps with arbitrary geometries,
    Nogrette, F., Labuhn, H., Ravets, S., Barredo, D., Béguin L., Vernier, A., Lahaye, T., and Browaeys, A., Phys. Rev. X 4, 021034 (2014).
25. Demonstration of a strong Rydberg blockade in three-atom systems with anisotropic interactions,
    Barredo, D., Ravets, S., Labuhn, H., Béguin L., Vernier, A., Nogrette, F., Lahaye, T., and Browaeys, A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 183002 (2014).
26. Ultrahigh transmission optical nanofibers,
    Hoffman, J. E., Ravets, S., Grover, J. A., Solano, P., Kordell, P. R., Wong-Campos, J. D., Orozco, L. A., and Rolston, S. L., AIP Advances 4, 067124 (2014).
    See Journal Highlights by AIP advances.
    See Research Highlights by O. Graydon, Nature Photon. 8, 674 (2014)
27. A low-loss photonic silica nanofiber for higher-order modes,
    Ravets, S., Hoffman, J. E., Orozco, L. A., Rolston, S. L., Beadie, G., and Fatemi, F. K., Opt. Express 21, 18325 (2013)
28. Intermodal energy transfer in a tapered optical fiber: optimizing transmission,
    Ravets, S., Hoffman, J. E., Kordell, P. R., Wong-Campos, J. D., Rolston, S. L., and Orozco, L. A., J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 30, 2361 (2013).
29. Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer,
    Kocsis, S.*, Braverman, B.*, Ravets, S.*, Stevens, M. J., Mirin, R. P., Shalm, L. K., and Steinberg, A. M., Science 332, 6034 (2011).
    See New Focus, A. Cho, Science 333, 6043 (2011).
    Listed in first position of the IOP Physics World “top 10 breakthroughs for 2011”.
30. Surface plasmons in the Young slit doublet experiment,
    Ravets, S., Rodier, J. C., Ea Kim, B.,Hugonin, J. P., Jacubowiez, L. and Lalanne, P., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 26, B28 (2009).

Invited conferences

1. Cavity polaritons in quasiperiodic potentials,
   Workshop on Semiconductors, perovskites and 2D materials, Simons Collaboration on Waves, Institut Henri Poincaré (Paris, France), 9 Dec - 10 Dec 2021.
2. Non-linearities in a driven-dissipative SSH lattice,
   KITP Program: Interacting Topological Matter: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Systems, online meeting, 1 Jun – 13 Aug 2021.
3. Polariton quantum fluids in synthetic lattices,
   Long Range Interacting Quantum Systems: from Cold Atoms and Molecules to Photons, French-German WE-Heraeus-Seminar, online meeting, 21 Sep – 25 Sep 2020.
4. Artificial matter in semiconductor lattices,
   10th International Conference on Spontaneous Coherence in Excitonic systems (ICSCE10), ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET), Melbourne (Australia), 2020.
5. Synthetic matter with light in semiconductor lattices,
   Quo vadis quantum simulators?, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), 2019.
6. Nonlinear optics in the fractional quantum Hall regime,
   International Conference on New Trends in Quantum Light and Nanophysics (QLIN) 2019, Acquafredda (PZ, Italy), 2019.
7. Using fractional quantum Hall states to enhance polariton-polariton interactions,
   20th International Conference on Superlattices Nanostructures and Nanodevices (ICSNN) 2018, Madrid (Spain), 2018
8. Realization of synthetic materials using light,
   NON-HERMITIAN PHYSICS – PHHQP XVIII, ICTS Bangalore (India), 2018.
9. Development of Tools for Quantum Engineering Using Individual Atoms: Optical Nanofibers and Controlled Rydberg Interactions,
   Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2016, Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award Session, Rochester (USA), 2016.