Realizing tight-binding Hamiltonians using site-controlled coupled cavity arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a programmable silicon photonic coupled cavity array capable of implementing tight-binding Hamiltonians, with improved thermal crosstalk control, enabling advanced quantum simulation applications.

Contribution

The authors present a silicon photonic cavity array with independent thermo-optic control, achieving programmable Hamiltonians and reduced thermal crosstalk for quantum simulation.

Findings

50% reduction in thermal crosstalk

Successful programming of tight-binding Hamiltonians

Access to full eigen-energy spectrum

Abstract

Analog quantum simulators rely on programmable quantum devices to emulate Hamiltonians describing various physical phenomenon. Photonic coupled cavity arrays are a promising platform for realizing such devices. Using a silicon photonic coupled cavity array made up of 8 high quality-factor resonators and equipped with specially designed thermo-optic island heaters for independent control of cavities, we demonstrate a programmable device implementing tight-binding Hamiltonians with access to the full eigen-energy spectrum. We report a ~50% reduction in the thermal crosstalk between neighboring sites of the cavity array compared to traditional heaters, and then present a control scheme to program the cavity array to a given tight-binding Hamiltonian.