Realizing spin Hamiltonians in nanoscale active photonic lattices

Spin models arise in the microscopic description of magnetic materials and have been recently used to map certain classes of optimization problems involving large degrees of freedom. In this regard, various optical implementations of such Hamiltonians have been demonstrated to quickly converge to the global minimum in the energy landscape. Yet, so far, an integrated nanophotonic platform capable of emulating complex magnetic materials is still missing. Here, we show that the cooperative interplay among vectorial electromagnetic modes in coupled metallic nanolasers can be utilized to implement certain types of spin Hamiltonians. Depending on the topology/geometry of the arrays, these structures can be governed by a classical XY Hamiltonian that exhibits ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic couplings, as well as geometrical frustration. Our results pave the way towards a scalable nanophotonic platform to study spin exchange interactions and could address a variety of optimization problems.