Anomalous transport in periodic photonic chains with designed loss

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a periodic chain of bosonic modes with designed loss can exhibit various anomalous transport behaviors, including hyperballistic, subdiffusive, or localized regimes, depending on initial states and system design.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control anomalous transport regimes in photonic chains through initial state preparation and system design.

Findings

Hyperballistic transport for certain initial states

Subdiffusive and localized regimes achievable

Practical realization in integrated photonic systems

Abstract

Here we show that a coherent random walk in a perfectly periodic chain of bosonic modes with designed loss can exhibit a variety of different anomalous transfer regimes in dependence on the initial state of the chain. In particular, for any given finite initial time-interval there is a set of initial states leading to a hyperballistic transport regime. Also, there are initial states allowing one to achieve a subdiffusive regime or even localization for a given time-interval, or change an asymptotic long-time diffusion rate. We show how these anomalous transport regimes can be practically realized in a laser-written network of single-mode waveguides in balk glass or how a planar system of coupled single-mode waveguides can be realized with an integrated photonic platform.