No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate that when a waveguide beam splitter (BS) is excited by N indistinguishable photons, the arising multiphoton states evolve in a way as if they were coupled to each other with coupling strengths that are identical to the ones exhibited by a discrete fractional Fourier system. Based on the properties of the discrete fractional Fourier transform, we then derive a multiphoton suppression law for 50/50 BSs, thereby generalizing the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. Furthermore, we examine the possibility of performing simultaneous multiphoton quantum random walks by using a single waveguide BS in combination with photon number resolving detectors. We anticipate that the multiphoton lattice-like structures unveiled in this work will be useful to identify new effects and applications of high-dimensional multiphoton states.
Wavefront shaping allows for ultimate control of light propagation in multiple-scattering media by adaptive manipulation of incident waves. We shine two separate wavefront-shaped beams on a layer of dry white paint to create two enhanced output speckle spots of equal intensity. We experimentally confirm by interference measurements that the output speckle spots are almost correlated like the two outputs of an ideal balanced beam splitter. The observed deviations from the phase behavior of an ideal beam splitter are analyzed with a transmission matrix model. Our experiments demonstrate that wavefront shaping in multiple-scattering media can be used to approximate the functionality of linear optical devices with multiple inputs and outputs.
Propagation properties of light in optomechanical waveguides arrays (OMWAs) are studied for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Due to the strong mechanical Kerr effect, the optical self-focusing and self-defocusing phenomena can be realized in the arrays of subwavelength dielectric optomechanical waveguides with the milliwatt-level incident powers and micrometer-level lengths. Compared with the conventional nonlinear waveguide arrays, the required incident powers and lengths of the waveguides are decreased by five orders of magnitude and one order of magnitude, respectively. Furthermore, by adjusting the deformation of the nanowaveguides through a control light, the propagation path of the signal light in the OMWA can be engineered, which could be used as a splitting-ratio-tunable beam splitter. This work provides a new platform for discrete optics and broadens the application of integrated optomechanics.
We consider waveguides formed by single or multiple two-dimensional chaotic cavities connected to leads. The cavities are chaotic in the sense that the ray (or equivalently, classical particle) dynamics within them is chaotic. Geometrical parameters are chosen to produce a mixed phase space (chaotic regions surrounding islands of stability where motion is regular). Incoming rays (or particles) cannot penetrate into these islands but incoming plane waves dynamically tunnel into them at a certain discrete set of frequencies (energies). The support of the corresponding quasi-bound states is along the trajectories of periodic orbits trapped within the cavity. We take advantage of this difference in the ray/wave behavior to demonstrate how chaotic waveguides can be used to design beam splitters and microlasers. We also present some preliminary experimental results in a microwave realization of such chaotic waveguide.
Recent work has explored binary waveguide arrays in the long-wavelength, near-continuum limit, here we examine the opposite limit, namely the vicinity of the so-called anti-continuum limit. We provide a systematic discussion of states involving one, two and three excited waveguides, and provide comparisons that illustrate how the stability of these states differ from the monoatomic limit of a single type of waveguide. We do so by developing a general theory which systematically tracks down the key eigenvalues of the linearized system. When we find the states to be unstable, we explore their dynamical evolution through direct numerical simulations. The latter typically illustrate, for the parameter values considered herein, the persistence of localized dynamics and the emergence for the duration of our simulations of robust quasi-periodic states for two excited sites. As the number of excited nodes increase, the unstable dynamics feature less regular oscillations of the solutions amplitude.
We theoretically investigate the influence of a longitudinal laser polarization component from beam focussing on spin dynamics in Kapitza-Dirac scattering by solving the relativistic Dirac equation with time-dependent perturbation theory. The transverse spacial dependence of the longitudinal beam polarization component is accounted for, by approximating a Gaussian beam with plane-wave components. We find that corrections from a longitudinal laser beam polarization component approximately scale with the second power of the diffraction angle $epsilon$, from which we conclude that a related influence from beam focussing can be made negligibly small for sufficiently low beam foci.