[Aspuru-Guzik Group List] Special ITAMP lunch seminar - Marina Litinskaya, UBC (November 6th)

*Speaker: *Marina Litinskaya (University of British Columbia) *Date:* Tuesday, November 6th *Time:* 12:00-1:00 pm Includes Pizza. *Title: * Negative refraction in atomic gases *Abstract: *Negative refraction of light is a fascinating phenomenon, since recently available in artificial solids, but not yet achieved in gases. I will show that negative refraction can be realized in a periodically modulated cold atomic gas, in the setup similar to the scheme developed for photonic crystals. However, the intuition coming from photonic crystal optics encounters two challenges: poorly defined gas boundary and weak gas-light coupling combined with strong resonant absorption. Nonetheless, our calculations demonstrate almost loss-less propagation of negatively refracted light in strongly absorbing gas at experimental parameters currently existing in many labs. *Location: **B-105* @ Center for Astrophysics (60 Garden Street <https://maps.google.com/?q=60+Garden+Street&entry=gmail&source=g>) *Directions: *After entering the lobby of the CfA, turn right to enter the hallway of the B building. In the hallway, turn right again, B-105 will be the second room to the end of the hallway on the left side.