ExpandQISE: Track 2: Leveraging synthetic degrees of freedom for quantum state engineering in photonic chips

非技术摘要：纽约城市学院的这个Exanda QISE项目旨在通过操纵光的基本属性及其与纳米材料的相互作用，促进对工程光学结构中量子现象的基本理解，这些结构被赋予了额外的自由度。这一倡议旨在开发具有新性质的新生量子材料，这种材料可以通过结合光和物质的拓扑光子性质和量子性质而获得。该项目通过系统地发现具有必要功能的新材料来推动集成量子光子学领域的发展，使新型量子器件的开发成为可能。为了最大限度地发挥发现过程的有效性，该项目结合了跨学科团队的理论和实验努力，包括学术界(城市学院和中佛罗里达大学)和产业界。除了直接的科学影响外，该项目还将通过开发用于量子信息处理的新兴技术产生广泛的社会影响，并由于本科生强烈参与所有方面的研究而推动正在进行的劳动力发展努力。有高中生和本科生积极参与的外展方案，重点关注代表性不足的群体，将进一步扩大项目的影响。技术摘要：纽约市立学院的这个Exanda QISE项目旨在解决人工量子光学材料中材料科学和光-物质相互作用的基本问题，这些材料被赋予额外的合成自由度--伪自旋--并具有非平凡的拓扑性质。我们的研究团队建立在我们在理论纳米光子学以及先进的制造和实验技术方面的现有专业知识的基础上，以获得量子制度中出现的新材料特性和功能。具体地说，这项活动的重点是开发活性量子拓扑材料的概念，这种材料将能够控制光子芯片上光和物质的量子激发。这一努力使得能够在芯片上产生和操作具有合成自由度的结构光学模式和拓扑边界态的量子态。此外，通过利用这种量子光子态的基本属性，该项目实现了具有定制属性的新型极化电子态，这些属性可用于量子技术，例如利用纳米级的合成规范场控制伪自旋，包括主动通过光与物质的相互作用。在集成量子发射器发射的光的量子态上印记伪自旋态的可能性为集成量子光子学提供了新的机会，其中量子信息被编码在光学态的模式结构中。我们的量子材料设计方法利用了集成到拓扑光子结构中的材料中的各种量子激发，例如范德华材料、有机激子材料和宽带隙半导体。结构光与量子发射体的耦合是通过它们的精确集成来实现的。与此同时，在我们的平台中设计的强大且高度可定制的光-物质相互作用实现了极端的非线性，包括由对称工程伪自旋、光子阻挡和合成规范场决定的选择规则的非线性效应。这种量身定制的光-物质相互作用产生的可调合成规范场开辟了一条在光子伪自旋子空间实现单一操作-可重编程量子门的途径。该项目由多学科活动办公室(MPS/OMA)、工程局(ENG)和技术前沿计划(TIP/TF)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical Abstract: This ExpandQISE program at The City College of New York seeks to advance the fundamental understanding of quantum phenomena in engineered optical structures endowed with additional degrees of freedom by manipulating the fundamental properties of light and its interaction with nanomaterials. This initiative aims at the development of nascent quantum materials with novel properties that can be attained by combining topological photonic properties and quantum properties of light and matter. This project advances the fields of integrated quantum photonics through the systematic discovery of new materials that possess the necessary functionalities to enable development of novel quantum devices. To maximize the effectiveness of the discovery process, this project combines theoretical and experimental efforts from interdisciplinary teams, including academia (City College and University of Central Florida) and industry. In addition to its direct scientific impact, the project will have a broad societal impact through the development of emerging technologies for quantum information processing and advances ongoing workforce development efforts thanks to the strong involvement of undergraduate students in all aspects of research. Outreach programs with active participation of high school and undergraduate students, with focus on underrepresented groups, will further broaden the project impact. Technical Abstract: This ExpandQISE program at The City College of New York seeks to address fundamental questions of materials science and light-matter interactions in artificial quantum optical materials endowed with additional synthetic degrees of freedom – pseudo-spins – and characterized by nontrivial topological properties. Our research team builds on our existing expertise in theoretical nano-photonics as well as advanced fabrication and experimental techniques to attain novel materials characteristics and functionalities emerging in quantum regimes. Specifically, this activity focuses on development of the concept of active quantum topological materials that will enable control over quantum excitations of both light and matter on a photonic chip. This effort enables generation and manipulation of quantum states of structured optical modes and topological boundary states endowed with synthetic degrees of freedom on a chip. Additionally, by harnessing the fundamental properties of such quantum photonic states this project enables novel polaritonic states with tailored properties that can be used for quantum technologies, such as control of pseudo-spins with synthetic gauge fields engineered at nanoscale, including actively via light-matter interactions. The possibility to imprint the state of a pseudo-spin onto quantum states of light emitted by integrated quantum emitters enables novel opportunities for integrated quantum photonics, where quantum information is encoded in the modal structure of optical states. Our approach to quantum materials design leverages a variety of quantum excitations in materials integrated into topological photonic structures, such as van der Waals materials, organic excitonic materials, and wide bandgap semiconductors. The coupling of structured light with quantum emitters is attained through their precise integration. At the same time, strong and highly tailorable light-matter interactions engineered in our platform enable extreme nonlinearities, including nonlinear effects with selection rules dictated by symmetry-engineered pseudo-spins, photon blockade and synthetic gauge fields. Tunable synthetic gauge fields emerging from such tailored light-matter interactions open a pathway to realize unitary operations – reprogrammable quantum gates – in the photonic pseudo-spin subspace.This project is jointly funded by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (MPS/OMA), the Directorate of Engineering (ENG), and the Technology Frontiers Program (TIP/TF).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.