A topological quantum optics interface

By Sabyasachi Barik, Aziz Karasahin, C. Flower, T. Cai, H. Miyake, Wade DeGottardi, M. Hafezi, Edo Waks. Science, 2017

729 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Connecting quantum emitters Exploiting topological properties of a system allows certain properties to be protected against the disorder and scattering caused by defects. Barik et al. demonstrate a strong light-matter interaction in a topological photonic structure (see the Perspective by Amo). They created topological edge states at the interface between two photonic, topologically distinct regions and coupled them to a single quantum emitter. The chiral nature of single-photon emission was used to inject single photons of opposite polarization into counterpropagating topological edge states. Such a topological quantum optics interface may provide a powerful platform for developing robust integrated quantum optical circuits. Science, this issue p. 666; see also p. 638 Light-matter coupling is achieved between topologically protected photonic edge states and a quantum emitter. The application of topology in optics has led to a new paradigm in developing photonic devices with robust properties against disorder. Although considerable progress on topological phenomena has been achieved in the classical domain, the realization of strong light-matter coupling in the quantum domain remains unexplored. We demonstrate a strong interface between single quantum emitters and topological photonic states. Our approach creates robust counterpropagating edge states at the boundary of two distinct topological photonic crystals. We demonstrate the chiral emission of a quantum emitter into these modes and establish their robustness against sharp bends. This approach may enable the development of quantum optics devices with built-in protection, with potential applications in quantum simulation and sensing.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d9b1c287fb6ba3dad1f75a6ee3c5d2e25bcf15d5

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Artificial Intelligence

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Citations in the corpus

Compounding Meta‐Atoms into Metamolecules with Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Techniques (2019, neutral): “Traditionally, a practical solution to such a design follows three steps: (1) specifying a class of geometry with a few parameters as candidate meta-atoms, (2) carrying out parametric sweeps on these parameters, and (3) enumerating possible combinations of metaatoms to meet the design objective.”
Quantum Electrodynamics in a Topological Waveguide (2020, background): “With the addition of non-trivial topology to such a photonic bath, exotic classes of quantum entanglement can be generated through photon-mediated interactions of a chiral [24, 25] or directional nature [26, 27].”
Non-local skyrmions as topologically resilient quantum entangled states of light (2022, positive): “Despite being very much in its infancy, the merging of topological and quantum structure holds great promise for information robustness even in non-ideal quantum systems, including stable quantum emitters [27–29] and robust transport of quantum states through quantum circuits [30, 31].”
Topological photonics (2018, methodology): “The emission and robust propagation of singlephoton states into chiral edge states was experimentally demonstrated by Barik et al. (2018).”
Roadmap on topological photonics (2022, background): “Following earlier single-photon experiments on bulk photonic quantum walks, topologically protected transport of quantum-dot-emitted single photons was demonstrated in a planar PhC waveguide [167].”