Aperiodic quantum optical materials

非周期量子光学材料

• 批准号: 2893135
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2893135
• 关键词: Aperiodic; quantum; optical; materials

The vast majority of condensed matter physics research concerns periodic matter -- crystals. This is due to both the abundance of such materials, and the simplicity with which they can be characterised. However, at the frontiers of the subject we find the design and creation of artificial materials, where aperiodic structures offer advances beyond anything possible in crystalline matter. A notable example is in the field of topological quantum materials, where the 'tenfold way' quantifies restrictions on a material's behaviour according to certain symmetries and the number of dimensions in which it lives. Yet aperiodic 'quasicrystal' materials have been shown to behave like higher-dimensional crystals in this scheme, leading to the remarkable experimental observation of a four-dimensional quantum Hall effect in a 2D aperiodic waveguide array. Optical waveguides have been the principal route to realising new 'non-Hermitian' topological matter, which exchanges energy with its environment actively or dissipatively leading to optical gain or loss. The non-Hermitian feature enriches the dynamics of photons defining new topological states of matter. However, all demonstrations have been done only in periodic systems.This project concerns the theoretical design, and experimental creation, of new aperiodic photonic structures. In particular, the student will explore how photons travel in topological quasicrystals experiencing gain and loss (classical limit) and will further look at the dynamics of single photons in the same structures (quantum limit). Theoretical work will involve analytical calculations of the behaviour of non-Hermitian topological materials based on a tight-binding approach in aperiodic settings, as well as the use of computational modelling for the design of aperiodic structures. Experimental work will involve the creation and characterization of aperiodic waveguide arrays.

凝聚态物理学的绝大多数研究都与周期性物质--晶体有关。这是由于这类材料的丰富性，以及它们可以被表征的简单性。然而，在这个学科的前沿，我们发现了人工材料的设计和创造，其中非周期性结构提供了超越晶体物质的任何可能的进步。一个值得注意的例子是在拓扑量子材料领域，其中“十重方式”根据某些对称性和它所处的维度数量来量化对材料行为的限制。然而，非周期性的“准晶”材料已被证明在这个计划中表现得像更高维度的晶体，导致在2D非周期性波导阵列中观察到四维量子霍尔效应的显着实验。光波导已经成为实现新的“非厄米”拓扑物质的主要途径，该拓扑物质与其环境主动或耗散地交换能量，从而导致光学增益或损耗。非厄米特特征丰富了光子的动力学，定义了物质的新拓扑状态。然而，所有的演示都是在周期性系统中进行的，本项目关注的是新的非周期性光子结构的理论设计和实验创造。特别是，学生将探索光子如何在拓扑准晶体中旅行，经历增益和损失（经典极限），并将进一步研究相同结构中单个光子的动力学（量子极限）。理论工作将涉及基于非周期性设置中的紧束缚方法的非厄米拓扑材料的行为的分析计算，以及使用计算建模来设计非周期性结构。实验工作将涉及非周期性波导阵列的创建和表征。