Two-dimensional topological quantum walks in the momentum space of structured light
Abstract
Quantum walks are powerful tools for quantum applications and for designing topological systems. Although they are simulated in a variety of platforms, genuine two-dimensional realizations are still challenging. Here we present an innovative approach to the photonic simulation of a quantum walk in two dimensions, where walker positions are encoded in the transverse wavevector components of a single light beam. The desired dynamics is obtained by means of a sequence of liquid-crystal devices, which apply polarization-dependent transverse "kicks" to the photons in the beam. We engineer our quantum walk so that it realizes a periodically-driven Chern insulator, and we probe its topological features by detecting the anomalous displacement of the photonic wavepacket under the effect of a constant force. Our compact, versatile platform offers exciting prospects for the photonic simulation of two-dimensional quantum dynamics and topological systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1811.04001,
title = {Two-dimensional topological quantum walks in the momentum space of structured light},
author = {Alessio D'Errico and Filippo Cardano and Maria Maffei and Alexandre Dauphin and Raouf Barboza and Chiara Esposito and Bruno Piccirillo and Maciej Lewenstein and Pietro Massignan and Lorenzo Marrucci},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1811.04001},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Published version of the manuscript