Hannover 2020 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 6: Quantum Effects (Disorder and Entanglement)
Q 6.5: Talk
Monday, March 9, 2020, 12:15–12:30, f342
Constructing a Light Funnel with the non-Hermitian Skin Effect — •Mark Kremer1, Sebastian Weidemann1, Tobias Helbig2, Tobias Hofmann2, Alexander Stegmaier2, Martin Greiter2, Ronny Thomale2, and Alexander Szameit1 — 1Institut of Physics, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Straße 23, 18059 Rostock, Germany — 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
The interaction of physical systems with the environment were often considered undesired, until it was demonstrated that certain loss distributions can lead to intriguing effects, like enhanced sensing, or mode selective laser cavities. However, most of these works, especially in optics, introduce non-Hermiticity by applying tailored loss profiles, thereby restricting it to a subset of physical models. In our work, we realize non-Hermiticity by coupling anisotropy – an often neglected degree of freedom. In a periodic lattice with such anisotropic coupling, the incorporation of an interface causes all eigenmodes to localize at this interface. This non-Hermitian skin effect is an interesting aspect of the current debate about the validity of the bulk boundary correspondence. We experimentally implement the skin effect with a large-scale photonic mesh lattice and demonstrate the collapse of all eigenmodes at the interface, with no delocalized bulk modes remaining. As a result, the system acts as a funnel for light: Any wave packet, regardless of its original position in the lattice, is routed to the interface and remains there indefinitely.