Spectral photonic lattices with complex long-range coupling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral photonic lattice system where frequency channels are coupled via nonlinear interactions, enabling non-local hopping and time-reversal symmetry breaking, with experimental demonstrations of quantum walks and the Talbot effect.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental realization of a spectral photonic lattice with complex long-range coupling, enabling new quantum simulation capabilities.

Findings

Observation of spectral quantum walk

Demonstration of discrete Talbot effect in spectral domain

Identification of novel asymmetries and periodicities

Abstract

We suggest and experimentally realize a spectral photonic lattice - a signal can hop between discrete frequency channels, driven by nonlinear interaction with stronger pump lasers. By controlling the complex envelope and frequency separations of multiple pumps, it is possible to introduce non- local hopping and to break time-reversal symmetry, which opens up new possibilities for photonic quantum simulation. As two examples, we observe a spectral quantum walk and demonstrate the discrete Talbot effect in the spectral domain, where we find novel instances containing asymmetry and periodicities not possible in spatial lattices.