InterPol: Polariton lattices: a solid-state platform for quantum simulations of correlated and topological states
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The development of quantum simulation lacks compact on-chip scalable platforms. The recent
demonstrations of polariton lattices in semiconductor microcavities, in combination with their
extraordinary nonlinearities, place polaritons as one of the most promising candidates to achieve
this goal. The aim of this proposal is to implement polariton lattices in semiconductor
microcavities as a photonic-based solid-state platform for quantum simulations. The
polariton platform will allow for the engineering of the lattice geometry and site-to-site hoping, state
preparation and detection in individual sites, sensitivity to magnetic fields, and scalability due to the
low value of disorder. The driven-dissipative nature of the system opens the exciting possibility of
studying out-of-equilibrium strongly correlated phases, but it also calls for new theoretical
methods. We will combine the expertise in semiconductor physics and technology of four
experimental groups and the input of three theoretical groups to push polariton nonlinearities into
the strongly interacting regime. We plan on implementing the first polariton simulators by
studying quantum correlations and the topological phases in flat bans and in the presence
of artificial gauge field acting on polaritons in 1D and 2D lattice geometries, both
experimentally and theoretically. This project will provide the first quantum simulation platform
using scalable lattices at optical wavelengths.
demonstrations of polariton lattices in semiconductor microcavities, in combination with their
extraordinary nonlinearities, place polaritons as one of the most promising candidates to achieve
this goal. The aim of this proposal is to implement polariton lattices in semiconductor
microcavities as a photonic-based solid-state platform for quantum simulations. The
polariton platform will allow for the engineering of the lattice geometry and site-to-site hoping, state
preparation and detection in individual sites, sensitivity to magnetic fields, and scalability due to the
low value of disorder. The driven-dissipative nature of the system opens the exciting possibility of
studying out-of-equilibrium strongly correlated phases, but it also calls for new theoretical
methods. We will combine the expertise in semiconductor physics and technology of four
experimental groups and the input of three theoretical groups to push polariton nonlinearities into
the strongly interacting regime. We plan on implementing the first polariton simulators by
studying quantum correlations and the topological phases in flat bans and in the presence
of artificial gauge field acting on polaritons in 1D and 2D lattice geometries, both
experimentally and theoretically. This project will provide the first quantum simulation platform
using scalable lattices at optical wavelengths.
Publications
Kuriakose T
(2022)
Few-photon all-optical phase rotation in a quantum-well micropillar cavity
in Nature Photonics
Li F
(2022)
Condensation of 2D exciton-polaritons in an open-access microcavity
in Journal of Applied Physics
Li M
(2021)
Experimental observation of topological Z2 exciton-polaritons in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers.
in Nature communications
Whittaker C
(2021)
Exciton-polaritons in GaAs-based slab waveguide photonic crystals
in Applied Physics Letters
Whittaker C
(2019)
Effect of photonic spin-orbit coupling on the topological edge modes of a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain
in Physical Review B
Whittaker C
(2020)
Optical analogue of Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction in photonic graphene
in Nature Photonics
Whittaker C
(2021)
Optical and magnetic control of orbital flat bands in a polariton Lieb lattice
in Physical Review A
| Description | 1.One of the most exciting developments to emerge in the field of photonics in recent years is the engineering of artificial gauge fields, which provide rich insight into fundamental phenomena spanning across many areas of physics, whilst also offering novel paradigms to manipulate the behaviour of light for future applications in integrated photonic circuits. There is substantial growing interest in the realisation of non-Abelian gauge fields acting on photons, enabling control of light via spin degree of freedom. Non-Abelian gauge fields are originally associated with the physics of strong and weak interactions in nuclei. In condensed matter physics, non-Abelian gauge fields apply to the theory of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction (SOI), leading to spin Hall effects (normal and quantum) and enabling spintronic devices. They are therefore of substantial fundamental and technological significance, and the ability to transpose such phenomena to the optical domain offers great potential functionalities. Whilst the experimental observation of SOI and spin Hall effect in material graphene has so far been obscured the favourable features of semiconductor microcavities enable us to demonstrate an optical analogue of Dresselhaus SOI and the resultant non-Abelian gauge field in photonic graphene (a honeycomb lattice of micropillars). We show that at the Dirac points the polarization splitting of photonic modes is analogous to Dresselhaus SOI, since it has the same azimuthal dependence on wave vector and can be represented in terms of minimal coupling to a spin-dependent gauge potential, which is non-Abelian. The emergent Dresselhaus symmetry leads to generation of striking two spin domains in real space as revealed in our optical spin Hall experiments. Furthermore, we observe a reversal of the sign of SOI at the same Dirac cone valley when switching from s- to p-type band states. The observed phenomena are in excellent agreement with the tight-band modelling. Our work opens up a new method to realize synthetic non-Abelian gauge fields for photons, which is all-optical and occurs on the microscale in a monolithic semiconductor structure paving the way towards control of photon paths via spin on a chip. Our work is relevant to experimentalists and theorists working not just in the photonics community, but also across many disciplines including the vast fields of graphene and 2D materials and potentially even further afield due to the ubiquitous nature and broad conceptual appeal of gauge theory. 2. Photons can be effectively used in quantum information transfer and computation Quantum photonics additionally requires photons to interact with each other. Cross-phase-modulation (XPM), where photons modify each other's phase, underpins many applications in quantum optics. Achieving the full potential of this approach requires a Kerr-like nonlinear medium which can produce moderate phase shifts at single photon average intensities in a scalable solid state setting. Exciton-polaritons in quantum well micropillars combine the strong interactions of excitons with the scalability of micrometer-sized emitters. Here we use polariton micropillars to demonstrate all-optical manipulation of photon phase. We observe phase shifts up to 3 mrad per particle. We lay down a route for quantum information processing in polaritonic lattices. 3. Finally, we investigate the effect of photonic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in micropillar lattices on the topological edge states of a one-dimensional chain with a zigzag geometry, corresponding to the Su-SchriefferHeeger model equipped with an additional internal degree of freedom. The system combines the strong hopping anisotropy of the p-type pillar modes with the large TE-TM splitting in Bragg microcavities. By resolving the photoluminescence emission in energy and polarization we probe the effects of the resulting SOC on the spatial and spectral properties of the edge modes. We find that the edge modes feature a fine structure of states that penetrate by different amounts into the bulk of the chain, depending on the strength of the SOC terms present, thereby opening a route to manipulation of the topological states in the system. |
| Exploitation Route | Development of photonic quantum optical signal processing devices and quantum simulators through closer interactions with the emerging companies in quantum technology sector. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Title | pump-probe experiments on observation of parametrically stimulated polariton blockade |
| Description | We synchronised to pulsed lasers at different frequencies in order to observe stimulated scattering of pump polaritons to the lower and higher energy states in a micropillar. Employed pulsed lasers with different frequencies in order to observe cross-phase-modulation between single photons. |
| Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | No impact yet |
| Description | Collaboration with the theory group of Professor Ivan Shelykh at Rekjavik University, Iceland and ITMO University, St-Petersbsurg |
| Organisation | ITMO University |
| Country | Russian Federation |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The experimental studies of photons and polaritons in photonic microcavities, waveguides and lattices. The experimental investigation of strongly interacting hybrid light-matter states for quantum information processing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Numerical modelling of the experiment. Data analysis and interpretation. Advice on the design of the experiments. Theory of collective photon states in highly nonlinear materials/photonic devices. |
| Impact | Study of polaritons and photons in photonic microcavities, waveguides and lattices of various geometries and materials. Observation of giant trion-polariton nonlinearity in 2D materials. Observation of artificial gauge field acting on photons. Study of nonlinear phase modulation at room temperature Study of spin-orbit coupling. Observation of single photon phase nonlinearity. Construction of CPHASE gate with nonlinear polaritons. Joint publications in various journals. The collaboration is multidisciplinary since it involves the areas of research such as nonlinear and quantum optics, semiconductor physics and technology and physics of many-body phases. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Collaboration with the theory group of Professor Ivan Shelykh at Rekjavik University, Iceland and ITMO University, St-Petersbsurg |
| Organisation | Reykjavík University |
| Country | Iceland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The experimental studies of photons and polaritons in photonic microcavities, waveguides and lattices. The experimental investigation of strongly interacting hybrid light-matter states for quantum information processing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Numerical modelling of the experiment. Data analysis and interpretation. Advice on the design of the experiments. Theory of collective photon states in highly nonlinear materials/photonic devices. |
| Impact | Study of polaritons and photons in photonic microcavities, waveguides and lattices of various geometries and materials. Observation of giant trion-polariton nonlinearity in 2D materials. Observation of artificial gauge field acting on photons. Study of nonlinear phase modulation at room temperature Study of spin-orbit coupling. Observation of single photon phase nonlinearity. Construction of CPHASE gate with nonlinear polaritons. Joint publications in various journals. The collaboration is multidisciplinary since it involves the areas of research such as nonlinear and quantum optics, semiconductor physics and technology and physics of many-body phases. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Quantera collaboration |
| Organisation | National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS) |
| Department | Laboratory for Photonics and Nanostructures |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Measurements on SSH lattices and the ongoing experiments on the demonstration of single polariton nonlinearity. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group of J Bloch at CNRS, C2N, Paris provided us with high quality micropillar samples grown by MBE and processed using EBL and ICP etching. |
| Impact | The observation of single photon phase shift in single micropillars. The construction of CPHASE gate. The Study of stimulated anti-bunching is still in progress |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | A talk at a conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of scientific work at research conferences. The conferences were mainly attended by the specialists and industry working in the relevant area of research International Conference on Spontaneous Coherence of Excitons ICSCE2021, Melbourne, 27-31 Jan 2021 METANANO conference 15-21 July 2019, St - Petersburg The conference Waves Cote d'Azur, 4-7 June 2019, Nice. ISNP 2019, April 2019, Varadero, Cuba |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021 |