English

Using Topological Photon Chips to Uncover the Secrets of Open Systems

1064
2024-02-02 18:08:02
See translation

Conservation of energy is a fundamental concept in physics that can be used to explain anything from planetary orbits to the internal workings of individual atoms.

Energy can be converted into other forms, but the overall energy level is usually considered to vary over time. Therefore, when attempting to describe a system, physicists usually pay attention to ensuring that it is isolated from the surrounding environment.

However, if the energy gain and loss are distributed in an orderly manner, so that they cancel each other out in all possible situations, the dynamics of the system can also be stable. This can be ensured through a phenomenon called parity check time symmetry.

All components of the system are carefully arranged to exchange the gain and loss of light through simultaneous mirroring and time reversal, making the system appear unchanged, just like a video played backwards and simultaneously reflected in a mirror, but looking exactly the same as the original video, which means it is PT symmetric.

PT symmetry is not just an academic concept; On the contrary, it opens the door to a more thorough understanding of open systems.

Professor Alexander Szameit from Rostock University specializes in studying interesting physical phenomena related to PT symmetry. Laser can replicate the behavior of artificial and natural materials arranged in periodic lattice structures in their customized photonic chips, making them an excellent platform for testing various physical theories.

Therefore, Professor Szameit and his colleagues successfully integrated the ideas of topology and PT symmetry. Topology is the study of properties that remain unchanged even when the underlying system is constantly deformed. When a system possesses these qualities, it becomes particularly resistant to external influences.

Szameit's team used laser engraved photonic waveguides in their experiments, which are optical structures etched into materials by laser beams.

In these "optical circuits," so-called topological insulators are implemented.
So far, people believe that open systems and this powerful boundary state are fundamentally incompatible. Researchers from Rostock, Vilzburg, and Indianapolis have jointly demonstrated that it is possible to address the apparent paradox by dynamically allocating benefits and losses over time.

These findings may pave the way for the development of new cutting-edge circuits for transmitting sound, light, and even electricity. These findings also represent significant advances in the understanding of topological insulators and open systems.

This study was funded by the German Research Foundation and supported by the Alfred Krupp von Boren and the Halbach Foundation.

Source: Laser Net


Related Recommendations
  • Lameditech of South Korea was listed on the KOSDAQ exchange on the 17th

    On June 11, 2024, Korean laser medical equipment manufacturer Lameditech successfully completed its initial public offering and was listed on the KOSDAQ exchange on the 17th.Last month, its public offering price was fixed at 16000 Korean won. In this public offering, Lameditech issued a total of 1298000 shares, raising approximately 20.8 billion Korean won. Since Lameditech's debut on KOSDAQ, as o...

    2024-06-26
    See translation
  • University of Science and Technology of China realizes quantum elliptical polarization imaging

    Recently, the team led by Academician Guo Guangcan from the University of Science and Technology of China has made significant progress in the research of quantum elliptical polarization imaging. The research group of Professor Shi Baosen and Associate Professor Zhou Zhiyuan combined high-quality polarization entangled light sources with classical polarization imaging technology to observe the bir...

    04-14
    See translation
  • Coherent's total fiscal 2023 revenue was $5.16 billion, with laser business accounting for 29 percent

    On August 16, Coherent, an American laser system solutions provider, announced its fiscal year 2023 and fourth quarter results for the year ended June 30, 2023. This is also the first annual report released after the merger of II-VI and Coherent.Fiscal year 2023 revenueCoherent reported revenue of $5.16 billion for the full fiscal year 2023, up 56% year over year.By business unit, the Networking b...

    2023-08-17
    See translation
  • Turn to 4-inch wafers! Dutch Photonics Integrated Circuit Enterprise Announces Production Expansion and Price Reduction

    Recently, SMART Photonics, a Dutch photonic integrated circuit manufacturer, announced a major decision to transfer its entire production capacity from 3-inch wafers to 4-inch silicon substrates, thereby expanding the production scale of photonic chips and significantly reducing chip prices.According to the company, SMART Photonics is one of the first photonic integrated circuit foundries to provi...

    2024-02-03
    See translation
  • Shanghai Optics and Machinery Institute has made progress in the research of new terahertz sources based on Yb lasers

    Recently, the State Key Laboratory of Intense Field Laser Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics has made new progress in generating intense field terahertz waves based on Yb laser pumped organic crystals. The relevant research results were published in Applied Physics Letters under the title "Efficient strong field THz generation from DSTMS crys...

    2024-04-09
    See translation