Massive coherent equipartition of light by the geometric phase of null space

TL;DR

This paper introduces a geometric method to achieve scalable, coherent light distribution on photonic chips, enabling stable multi-channel light sources crucial for advanced photonic applications.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate a novel geometric scheme leveraging null space phases for massive, scalable equipartition of coherent light on integrated photonic chips.

Findings

Achieved up to one-to-nine light equipartition experimentally.

Controlled light distribution via geometric phases of null space.

Framework scalable for one-to-N light distribution.

Abstract

Light source is a foundational to photonic science and technology. However, a significant challenge remains in generating and distributing coherent light from a single on-chip source with high phase stability across multiple channels. Integrated lasers typically operate independently, and conventional splitters (e.g., multi-mode interferometers) do not guarantee the phase coherence required for advanced applications. Here, we report a purely geometric scheme for achieving massive equipartition of coherent light on a photonic chip by leveraging the geometric phases of a null space spanned by degenerate states with zero eigenvalue. The evolution of the null space maps to real-space rotation described by the special orthogonal group SO(N), thus enabling precise and scalable control over light distribution by engineering the system parameters. We experimentally realize up to one-to-nine equipartition of light on a waveguide array fabricated on a glass-based photonic chip. The framework can be upscaled for one-to-N light distribution. This work establishes a versatile and scalable platform for integrated coherent light sources, paving the way for integrated photonic applications such as quantum photonics and optical computing.