Special CPM Seminar

Harnessing spectrally-encoded synthetic dimensions for quantum and topological photonics

Avik Dutt

University of Maryland

High quality factor photonic resonators offer tantalizing possibilities for building analog simulators of Hamiltonians both in the quantum and classical realm, and for quantum-enhanced sensing applications. Particularly, synthetic frequency dimensions formed through modulation at the resonator’s free-spectral range have been used to demonstrate a wide variety of topologically nontrivial phenomena, both in Hermitian and non-Hermitian systems. In this talk, I will introduce another synthetic dimension platform using modulation at frequencies far below the FSR of the resonators, making it more amenable to on-chip implementations. This platform, which we term Floquet synthetic dimensions, allows for direct reciprocal-space (k-space) engineering of lattice Hamiltonians in high dimensions through modulation at multiple irrationally related frequencies applied to a photonic molecule. Quantized transport – the hallmark of topology – not only survives multiple RF and optical drives, but is abetted by finite dissipation in this Floquet dimension platform, the hints of which are borne out by preliminary experiments. Furthermore, we provide a path to realizing Weyl points and measuring the Berry curvature emanating from these k-space magnetic monopoles, illustrating the capabilities for higher-dimensional topological Hamiltonian simulation in this platform. We also provide an overview of our research towards chip-based quantum and nonlinear optics for sensing applications.