Physicists propose method for braiding light

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by paddoboy, Aug 22, 2016.

  1. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-method-braiding.html

    Physicists propose method for braiding light
    August 22, 2016 by Lisa Zyga feature

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    In the proposed experiment to detect non-Abelian braided light, light is braided in a different order in the two arms of an interferometer, and detectors determine whether the two arms produce different phases of light. Credit: Iadecola et al. ©2016 American Physical Society
    (Phys.org)—Physicists have proposed a way to braid three beams of light by guiding the beams along swirling, vortex-shaped defects in the optical medium through which the beams travel. The braided light would have an unusual "non-Abelian" nature, meaning that its phase would depend on the exact order in which the defects are wound around each other.



    Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-method-braiding.html#jCp
     
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  3. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.05408

    Non-Abelian braiding of light

    Many topological phenomena first proposed and observed in the context of electrons in solids have recently found counterparts in photonic and acoustic systems. In this work, we demonstrate that non-Abelian Berry phases can arise when coherent states of light are injected into "topological guided modes" in specially-fabricated photonic waveguide arrays. These modes are photonic analogues of topological zero modes in electronic systems. Light traveling inside spatially well-separated topological guided modes can be braided, leading to the accumulation of non-Abelian phases, which depend on the order in which the guided beams are wound around one another. Notably, these effects survive the limit of large photon occupation, and can thus also be understood as wave phenomena arising directly from Maxwell's equations, without resorting to the quantization of light. We propose an optical interference experiment as a direct probe of this non-Abelian braiding of light.
     
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  5. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Supplementary article on similar subject:

    Light and matter merge in quantum coupling
    August 22, 2016

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    A method created at Rice University closes the gap between light and matter and may help advance technologies like quantum computers and communications. The lab designed and built a high-quality cavity to contain an ultrathin layer of …more
    Where light and matter intersect, the world illuminates. Where light and matter interact so strongly that they become one, they illuminate a world of new physics, according to Rice University scientists.


    Rice physicists are closing in on a way to create a new condensed matter state in which all the electrons in a material act as one by manipulating them with light and a magnetic field. The effect made possible by a custom-built, finely tuned cavity for terahertz radiation shows one of the strongest light-matter coupling phenomena ever observed.

    Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-08-merge-quantum-coupling.html#jCp
     
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  7. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys3850.html

    Collective non-perturbative coupling of 2D electrons with high-quality-factor terahertz cavity photons


    The collective interaction of electrons with light in a high-quality-factor cavity is expected to reveal new quantum phenomena1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and find applications in quantum-enabled technologies8, 9. However, combining a long electronic coherence time, a large dipole moment, and a high quality-factor has proved difficult10, 11, 12, 13. Here, we achieved these conditions simultaneously in a two-dimensional electron gas in a high-quality-factor terahertz cavity in a magnetic field. The vacuum Rabi splitting of cyclotron resonance exhibited a square-root dependence on the electron density, evidencing collective interaction. This splitting extended even where the detuning is larger than the resonance frequency. Furthermore, we observed a peak shift due to the normally negligible diamagnetic term in the Hamiltonian. Finally, the high-quality-factor cavity suppressed superradiant cyclotron resonance decay, revealing a narrow intrinsic linewidth of 5.6GHz. High-quality-factor terahertz cavities will enable new experiments bridging the traditional disciplines of condensed-matter physics and cavity-based quantum optics.
     

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