title: Strong photon nonlinearities and photonic mott insulators.
abstract: We show that photon nonlinearities in an electromagnetically induced transparency can be at least 1 order of magnitude larger than predicted in all previous approaches. As an application we demonstrate that in this regime they give rise to very strong photon-photon interactions which are strong enough to make an experimental realization of a photonic Mott insulator state feasible in arrays of coupled ultrahigh-Q microcavities.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Imperial College London, 53 Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PG, United Kingdom. m.hartmann@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Martin B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Plenio