L'augmentation de l'interaction lumière-matière aux échelles micro et nanométriques est un des fers de lance de la nanophotonique. En effet, le contrôle de la répartition spatiale de la lumière grâce à l'interaction résonante entre nanostructures et ondes électromagnétiques a conduit aux développements de nombreuses applications dans des domaines variés tels que les télécommunications,la spectroscopie et la détection d'objets. Le ralentissement de la lumière, sujet de la thèse, obtenue grâces à l'interférence d'ondes contre-propageantes dans des milieux périodiques ou le confinement sub-longueur d'onde dans des guides d'ondes plasmoniques, est associé à une compression des pulses lumineux et une forte augmentation du champ électrique, deux phénomènes clés pour la miniaturisation de composées optiques et l'augmentation de l'interaction lumière matière. / Enhancing light-matter interactions at micro and nanoscales is one of the spearheads of nanophotonics. Indeed, the control of the field distribution due to the resonant interaction of nanostructures with electromagnetic waves has prompted the development of numerous optical components for many applications in telecommunication, spectroscopy or sensing. A promising approach lies in the control of light speed in nanostructures. Light slowdown, obtained by wave interferences in periodic structures or subwavelength confinement in plasmonic waveguides, is associated to pulse compressions and large field enhancements,which are envisioned as key processes for the miniaturization of optical devices and the enhancement of light-matter interactions.The thesis studies both fundamental aspects and possible applications related to slow light in photonic and plasmonic nanostructures. In particular, we study the impact of periodic system sizes on the group velocity reduction and propose a novelfamily of resonators that implement slow light on very small spatial scales. We then investigate the role of fabrication disorder in slow periodic waveguides on light localization and demonstrate how modal properties influence the confinement of localized modes. Also we propose a new hollow-core photonic crystal waveguide that provides efficient and remote couplings between the waveguide and atoms thatare trapped away from it. Finally we demonstrate the important role played by slow plasmons on the emission of quantum emitters placed in nanogap plasmonic antennas and explain how large radiation efficiency can be achieved by overcoming quenching in the metal. Additionally, one part of the thesis is devoted to thederivation of a novel modal method to accurately describe the dynamics of plasmonic resonators under short pulse illumination.

Strong resonant dipole-dipole interactions in flexible Rydberg aggregates enable the formation of excitons, many-body states which collectively share excitation between atoms. Exciting the most energetic exciton of a linear Rydberg chain whose outer two atoms on one end are closely spaced causes the initiation of an exciton pulse for which electronic excitation and diatomic proximity propagate directed through the chain. The emerging transport of excitation is largely adiabatic and is enabled by the interplay between atomic motion and dynamical variation of the exciton. Here, we demonstrate the coherent splitting of such pulses into two modes, which induce strongly different atomic motion, leading to clear signatures of nonadiabatic effects in atomic density profiles. The mechanism exploits local nonadiabatic effects at a conical intersection, turning them from a decoherence source into an asset. The conical intersection is a consequence of the exciton pulses moving along a linear Rydberg chain and approaching an additional linear, perpendicularly aligned Rydberg chain. The intersection provides a sensitive knob controlling the propagation direction and coherence properties of exciton pulses. We demonstrate that this scenario can be exploited as an exciton switch, controlling direction and coherence properties of the joint pulse on the second of the chains. Initially, we demonstrate the pulse splitting on planar aggregates with atomic motion one-dimensionally constrained and employing isotropic interactions. Subsequently, we confirm the splitting mechanism for a fully realistic scenario in which all spatial restrictions are removed and the full anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interactions is taken into account. Our results enable the experimental observation of non-adiabatic electronic dynamics and entanglement transport with Rydberg atoms. The conical intersection crossings are clearly evident, both in atomic mean position information and excited state spectra of the Rydberg system. This suggests flexible Rydberg aggregates as a test-bench for quantum chemical effects in experiments on much inflated length scales. The fundamental ideas discussed here have general implications for excitons on a dynamic network.

In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir kollektive Strahlungseffekte in Nanofaser-gekoppelten atomaren Ensembles, die sich über Tausende von optischen Wellenlängen erstrecken. Wir koppeln bis zu 1000 Atome optisch an die geführten Moden einer optischen Nanofaser, die langreichweitige Dipol-Dipol Wechselwirkungen zwischen den Atomen vermittelt. Wir realisieren eine unidirektionale Kopplung und damit ein kaskadiertes Quantensystem, in dem die Dynamik jedes Atoms ausschließlich durch die Dynamik der vorgelagerten Atome bestimmt wird. Wir regen die Atome mit nanofasergeführten optischen Pulsen kohärent an, was uns ermöglicht, den gesamten Parameterbereich von schwacher Anregung bis hin zur voll-ständigen Inversion zu erforschen. Wir stellen fest, dass die kohärente Vorwärtsstreuung, die für die Superradianz im Regime der schwachen Anregung verantwortlich ist, auch nahe voller Inversion eine wichtige Rolle für die Dynamik spielt. Wir beobachten superradiante Puls-Dynamik, die in unserem System trotz des makroskopischen Abstands zwischen den Atomen und einer asymmetrischen Kopplung auftritt. Wir stellen fest, dass die emittierte Spitzenleistung noch schneller mit der Anzahl der Atome skaliert als im Fall der idealen Dicke Superradianz, was auf eine kollektiv erhöhte Sammeleffizienz der nanofasergeführten Mode zurückzuführen ist. Die Analyse der Kohärenz-Eigenschaften des superradianten Pulses erlaubt es uns, zwei Regime der Puls-Dynamik zu identifizieren. Wir entwickeln ein kaskadiertes Wechselwirkungsmodell und zeigen, dass es die kollektive Dynamik unseres Systems über den gesamten in dieser Arbeit untersuchten Parameterbereich akkurat beschreibt. Schließlich untersuchen wir die getriebene Dynamik eines Nanofaser-gekoppelten Ensembles von Drei-Niveau-Atomen. Wir treiben Zwei-Photonen-Rabi-Oszillationen zwischen den beiden Grundzuständen eines $\Lambda$-Systems und beobachten die damit verbundene oszillatorische Raman-Verstärkung und -Absorption. / In this thesis, we study collective radiative effects in nanofiber-coupled atomic ensembles that extend over thousands of optical wavelengths. We optically couple up to 1000 atoms to the guided modes of an optical nanofiber, which mediates long-range dipole-dipole interactions between the atoms. We engineer the coupling to be unidirectional, realizing a cascaded quantum system in which the dynamics of each atom is solely determined by the dynamics of upstream atoms. We coherently excite the atoms using nanofiber-guided optical pulses, allowing us to explore the entire parameter regime from weak excitation to full inversion. We find that coherent forward scattering, which is responsible for superradiance in the weak excitation regime, plays an important role for the dynamics even close to full inversion. We observe superradiant burst dynamics, which occurs in our system despite the macroscopic separation between the atoms and an asymmetric coupling. We find that the peak-emitted power scales even faster with the number of atoms than in the case of ideal Dicke superradiance due to a collectively enhanced channeling efficiency into the nanofiber-guided mode. By analyzing the coherence properties of the superradiant burst, we directly identify two regimes of burst dynamics. In the second regime, there is no initial coherence, and the superradiant burst is seeded by vacuum fluctuations. We introduce a cascaded interaction model and find that it accurately describes the collective dynamics of our system over the entire parameter regime explored in this thesis. Finally, we study the driven dynamics of a nanofiber-coupled ensemble of three-level atoms. We drive two-photon Rabi oscillations between the two ground states of a $\Lambda$ system and observe the associated oscillatory Raman gain and absorption.

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