Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 42: Quantum Optics and Photonics II

Q 42.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 15:30–15:45, K 0.016

Non-Abelian Gauge Fields in Integrated Photonic Waveguide Structures — •Mark Kremer, Lucas Teuber, Alexander Szameit, and Stefan Scheel — Institut für Physik, Universität Rostock, D-18055 Rostock, Germany

Simulating quantum effects using platforms like ultra cold atoms, waveguides, and microwave resonators offers new insights into numerous intriguing physical effects such as particle interaction, disorder-induced localization, and topological insulation. In the past few years, the concept of quantum simulators was extended to the realm of non-Abelian physics in the framework of lattice gauge theory, in particular using the platform of ultra cold atoms [1].

In our work we demonstrate how non-Abelian gauge fields can be simulated in photonics, using integrated laser-written photonic waveguide structures. To this end, we utilize dark states of a STIRAP-like process, originally introduced for manipulating the population of different (atomic) states by geometric phases [2]. A well adjusted modulation of waveguides forming a four-site system induces a non-Abelian gauge field whose gauge-independent Wilson loop can be experimentally retrieved via intensity measurements at the end facet of the waveguide structure.

[1] Dalibard, J. et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 1523 (2011).

[2] Unanyan, R. G. et al., Phys. Rev. A, 2910 (1999).