Photonic Floquet Landau-Zener tunneling and temporal beam splitters

Area of Science:

• Quantum physics and optics
• Nonlinear optics and photonics
• Condensed matter physics

Background:

• Landau-Zener tunneling (LZT) is crucial for coherent wave control in quantum and classical systems.
• Existing research primarily explores LZT in time-invariant crystals between two energy bands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct synthetic time-periodic temporal lattices for studying LZT.
• To demonstrate and characterize DC- and AC-driven LZT in Floquet bands.
• To develop reconfigurable LZT beam splitter arrangements for signal processing.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of synthetic time-periodic temporal lattices using two coupled fiber loops.
• Experimental demonstration of DC- and AC-driven Landau-Zener tunneling.
• Implementation of reconfigurable beam splitter networks based on Floquet LZT.

Main Results:

• Distinctive tunneling and interference characteristics observed for DC- and AC-driven LZT.
• Successful realization of fully reconfigurable LZT beam splitter arrangements.
• Demonstration of a 4-bit temporal beam encoder for classical light pulses.

Conclusions:

• Introduced and experimentally validated a novel class of reconfigurable linear optics circuits.
• Harnessing Floquet LZT offers versatile applications in temporal beam control and signal processing.
• Potential for advancements in quantum simulations and information processing.