Design of a Photonic Lattice Using Shortcuts to Adiabaticity

TL;DR

This paper applies shortcuts to adiabaticity, a quantum control technique, to design a photonic lattice that efficiently and robustly guides light to desired output positions with a smaller footprint.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method combining shortcuts to adiabaticity with photonic lattice design for controlled light routing.

Findings

The proposed lattice design achieves controlled light output positions.

The design exhibits robustness due to its adiabatic nature.

The device has a smaller footprint than traditional adiabatic couplers.

Abstract

In this article we use the method of shortcuts to adiabaticity to design a photonic lattice (array of waveguides) which can drive the input light to a controlled location at the output. The output position in the array is determined by functions of the propagation distance along the waveguides, which modulate the lattice characteristics (index of refraction, first and second neighbor couplings). The proposed coupler is expected to posses the robustness properties of the design method, coming from its adiabatic nature, and also to have a smaller footprint than purely adiabatic couplers. The present work provides a very interesting example where methods from quantum control can be exploited to design lattices with desired input-output properties.