47,933 research outputs found
State-recycling and time-resolved imaging in topological photonic lattices
Photonic lattices - arrays of optical waveguides - are powerful platforms for
simulating a range of phenomena, including topological phases. While probing
dynamics is possible in these systems, by reinterpreting the propagation
direction as "time," accessing long timescales constitutes a severe
experimental challenge. Here, we overcome this limitation by placing the
photonic lattice in a cavity, which allows the optical state to evolve through
the lattice multiple times. The accompanying detection method, which exploits a
multi-pixel single-photon detector array, offers quasi-real time-resolved
measurements after each round trip. We apply the state-recycling scheme to
intriguing photonic lattices emulating Dirac fermions and Floquet topological
phases. In this new platform, we also realise a synthetic pulsed electric
field, which can be used to drive transport within photonic lattices. This work
opens a new route towards the detection of long timescale effects in engineered
photonic lattices and the realization of hybrid analogue-digital simulators.Comment: Comments are welcom
Quantum Transport Enhancement by Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking
Quantum mechanics still provides new unexpected effects when considering the
transport of energy and information. Models of continuous time quantum walks,
which implicitly use time-reversal symmetric Hamiltonians, have been intensely
used to investigate the effectiveness of transport. Here we show how breaking
time-reversal symmetry of the unitary dynamics in this model can enable
directional control, enhancement, and suppression of quantum transport.
Examples ranging from exciton transport to complex networks are presented. This
opens new prospects for more efficient methods to transport energy and
information.Comment: 6+5 page
Bulk detection of time-dependent topological transitions in quenched chiral models
The topology of one-dimensional chiral systems is captured by the winding
number of the Hamiltonian eigenstates. Here we show that this invariant can be
read-out by measuring the mean chiral displacement of a single-particle
wavefunction that is connected to a fully localized one via a unitary and
translational-invariant map. Remarkably, this implies that the mean chiral
displacement can detect the winding number even when the underlying Hamiltonian
is quenched between different topological phases. We confirm experimentally
these results in a quantum walk of structured light
Two-photon quantum walks in an elliptical direct-write waveguide array
Integrated optics provides an ideal test bed for the emulation of quantum
systems via continuous-time quantum walks. Here we study the evolution of
two-photon states in an elliptic array of waveguides. We characterise the
photonic chip via coherent-light tomography and use the results to predict
distinct differences between temporally indistinguishable and distinguishable
two-photon inputs which we then compare with experimental observations. Our
work highlights the feasibility for emulation of coherent quantum phenomena in
three-dimensional waveguide structures.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Classically entangled optical beams for high-speed kinematic sensing
Tracking the kinematics of fast-moving objects is an important diagnostic
tool for science and engineering. Existing optical methods include high-speed
CCD/CMOS imaging, streak cameras, lidar, serial time-encoded imaging and
sequentially timed all-optical mapping. Here, we demonstrate an entirely new
approach to positional and directional sensing based on the concept of
classical entanglement in vector beams of light. The measurement principle
relies on the intrinsic correlations existing in such beams between transverse
spatial modes and polarization. The latter can be determined from intensity
measurements with only a few fast photodiodes, greatly outperforming the
bandwidth of current CCD/CMOS devices. In this way, our setup enables
two-dimensional real-time sensing with temporal resolution in the GHz range. We
expect the concept to open up new directions in photonics-based metrology and
sensing.Comment: v2 includes the real-time measurement from the published version.
Reference [29] added. Minor experimental details added on page
Statistical Analysis of Dynamic Actions
Real-world action recognition applications require the development of systems which are fast, can handle a large variety of actions without a priori knowledge of the type of actions, need a minimal number of parameters, and necessitate as short as possible learning stage. In this paper, we suggest such an approach. We regard dynamic activities as long-term temporal objects, which are characterized by spatio-temporal features at multiple temporal scales. Based on this, we design a simple statistical distance measure between video sequences which captures the similarities in their behavioral content. This measure is nonparametric and can thus handle a wide range of complex dynamic actions. Having a behavior-based distance measure between sequences, we use it for a variety of tasks, including: video indexing, temporal segmentation, and action-based video clustering. These tasks are performed without prior knowledge of the types of actions, their models, or their temporal extents
Fast Escape from Quantum Mazes in Integrated Photonics
Escaping from a complex maze, by exploring different paths with several
decision-making branches in order to reach the exit, has always been a very
challenging and fascinating task. Wave field and quantum objects may explore a
complex structure in parallel by interference effects, but without necessarily
leading to more efficient transport. Here, inspired by recent observations in
biological energy transport phenomena, we demonstrate how a quantum walker can
efficiently reach the output of a maze by partially suppressing the presence of
interference. In particular, we show theoretically an unprecedented improvement
in transport efficiency for increasing maze size with respect to purely quantum
and classical approaches. In addition, we investigate experimentally these
hybrid transport phenomena, by mapping the maze problem in an integrated
waveguide array, probed by coherent light, hence successfully testing our
theoretical results. These achievements may lead towards future bio-inspired
photonics technologies for more efficient transport and computation.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
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