Spectral photonic lattices with complex long-range coupling

Bryn A Bell,Benjamin J Eggleton,Kai Wang,Alexander S Solntsev,Andrey A Sukhorukov,Dragomir N Neshev

doi:10.1364/optica.4.001433

Abstract

We suggest and experimentally realize a spectral photonic lattice - a signal can hop between discrete frequency channels, driven by nonlinear interaction with stronger pump lasers. By controlling the complex envelope and frequency separations of multiple pumps, it is possible to introduce non- local hopping and to break time-reversal symmetry, which opens up new possibilities for photonic quantum simulation. As two examples, we observe a spectral quantum walk and demonstrate the discrete Talbot effect in the spectral domain, where we find novel instances containing asymmetry and periodicities not possible in spatial lattices.

Highlights

Discrete lattice dynamics play an important role in various branches of physics, from condensed matter to topological photonics [1]
1Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 2Nonlinear Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia 3School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007 Australia (Dated: September 30, 2018) We suggest and experimentally realize a spectral photonic lattice - a signal can hop between discrete frequency channels, driven by nonlinear interaction with stronger pump lasers
By controlling the complex envelope and frequency separations of multiple pumps, it is possible to introduce nonlocal hopping and to break time-reversal symmetry, which opens up new possibilities for photonic quantum simulation

Summary

Introduction

Discrete lattice dynamics play an important role in various branches of physics, from condensed matter to topological photonics [1]. Whereas previously it was thought that an image would only occur when the input was periodic every N =1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 lattice sites [10], we show that altering the band-structure with non-local coupling can lead to the Talbot effect occurring with other periodicities, and experimentally demonstrate the N = 5 case. We consider a co-propagating signal and pump, whose spectra consist of a lattice of discrete channels separated in angular frequency by Ω.

Results

Conclusion