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Synthetic gauge fields have recently emerged, arising in the context of quantum simulations, topological matter, and the protected transportation of excitations against defects. For example, an ultracold atom experiences a light-induced effective magnetic field when tunnelling in an optical lattice, and offering a platform to simulate the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators. Similarly, the magnetic field associated with photon transport between sites has been demonstrated in a coupled resonator array. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of a synthetic gauge field in the virtual dimension of bosonic modes in a single optomechanical resonator. By employing degenerate clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) optical modes and a mechanical mode, a controllable synthetic gauge field is realized by tuning the phase of the driving lasers. The non-reciprocal conversion between the three modes is realized for different synthetic magnetic fluxes. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we also show the dynamics of the system under a fast-varying synthetic gauge field. Our demonstration not only provides a versatile and controllable platform for studying synthetic gauge fields in high dimensions but also enables an exploration of ultra-fast gauge field tuning with a large dynamic range, which is restricted for a magnetic field., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Waves that are perfectly confined in the continuous spectrum of radiating waves without interaction with them are known as bound states in the continuum (BICs). Despite recent discoveries of BICs in nanophotonics, full routing and control of BICs are yet to be explored. Here, we experimentally demonstrate BICs in a fundamentally new photonic architecture by patterning a low-refractive-index material on a high-refractive-index substrate, where dissipation to the substrate continuum is eliminated by engineering the geometric parameters. Pivotal BIC-based photonic components are demonstrated, including waveguides, microcavities, directional couplers, and modulators. Therefore, this work presents the critical step of photonic integrated circuits in the continuum, and enables the exploration of new single-crystal materials on an integrated photonic platform without the fabrication challenges of patterning the single-crystal materials. The demonstrated lithium niobate platform will facilitate development of functional photonic integrated circuits for optical communications, nonlinear optics at the single photon level as well as scalable photonic quantum information processors., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures

Single-photon counters are single-pixel binary devices that click upon the absorption of a photon but obscure its spectral information, whereas resolving the colour of detected photons has been in critical demand for frontier astronomical observation, spectroscopic imaging and wavelength division multiplexed quantum communications. Current implementations of single-photon spectrometers either consist of bulky wavelength-scanning components or have limited detection channels, preventing parallel detection of broadband single photons with high spectral resolutions. Here, we present the first broadband chip-scale single-photon spectrometer covering both visible and infrared wavebands spanning from 600nm to 2000nm. The spectrometer integrates an on-chip dispersive echelle grating with a single-element propagating superconducting nanowire detector of ultraslow-velocity for mapping the dispersed photons with high spatial resolutions. The demonstrated on-chip single-photon spectrometer features small device footprint, high robustness with no moving parts and meanwhile offers more than 200 equivalent wavelength detection channels with further scalability.

Hybrid quantum systems in which acoustic resonators couple to superconducting qubits are promising quantum information platforms. High quality factors and small mode volumes make acoustic modes ideal quantum memories, while the qubit-phonon coupling enables the initialization and manipulation of quantum states. We present a scheme for quantum computing with multimode quantum acoustic systems, and based on this scheme, propose a hardware-efficient implementation of a quantum random access memory (QRAM). Quantum information is stored in high-Q phonon modes, and couplings between modes are engineered by applying off-resonant drives to a transmon qubit. In comparison to existing proposals that involve directly exciting the qubit, this scheme can offer a substantial improvement in gate fidelity for long-lived acoustic modes. We show how these engineered phonon-phonon couplings can be used to access data in superposition according to the state of designated address modes--implementing a QRAM on a single chip., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures; updated to include expanded supplementary material

Continuous-variable systems protected by bosonic quantum error-correcting codes have emerged as a promising platform for quantum information processing. To date, design of codewords has centered on optimizing the occupation of basis states in the error-relevant basis. Here, we propose utilizing the phase degree of freedom in basis state probability amplitudes to devise codes that feature destructive interference, and thus reduced overlap, between error codewords. To showcase, we first consider the correction of excitation loss using single-mode codes with Fock-space parity structure and show that, with a tailored "two-level" recovery, altering the signs of probability amplitudes can significantly suppress decoherence. We then study the joint channel of excitation loss and Kerr effect, and show the critical role of nontrivial phase for optimal quantum codes for such intricate yet important channels. The principle is extended to improve bosonic codes defined in other bases and multi-qubit codes, showing its wide applicability in quantum error correction.

Photonic integrated resonators stand out as reliable frequency converters due to their compactness and stability, with second-harmonic generation (SHG) efficiencies of up to 17000%/W reported recently in aluminum nitride microrings. In this work, a sufficiently strong second-harmonic (SH) signal up to microwatts was generated by a photonic integrated frequency doubler using a milliwatt infrared (IR) laser source. Furthermore, increased SHG bandwidth covering $^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb D$_2$ transition lines as well as saturated absorption spectroscopy (SAS) were demonstrated by tuning the pump power and chip temperature. Here, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first successful locking of an IR laser to Rb saturated absorption lines via a photonic chip frequency doubler., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Quantum key distribution (QKD) can distribute symmetric key bits between remote legitimate users with the guarantee of quantum mechanics principles. For practical applications, the compact and robust photonic components for QKD are essential, and there are increasing attention to integrate the source, detector and modulators on a photonic chip. However, the massive and parallel QKD based on wavelength multiplexing are still challenge, due to the limited coherent light sources on the chip. Here, we introduce the Kerr dissipative soliton in a microresonator, which provides the locked coherent frequency comb with 49GHz frequency spacing, for QKD. We demonstrate the parallel QKD by demulplexing the coherent comb lines form the soliton, and showing the potential of Gbps secret key rate if the hundreds of channels covering C and L bands are fully exploited. The demonstrated soliton based QKD architecture are compatible with the efforts of quantum photonic integrated circuits, which are compact, robust and low-cost, and provides a competitive platform of practical QKD chip.

The beam-splitter (BS) is one of the most common and important components in modern optics, and lossless BS which features unitary transformation induces Hermitian evolution of light. However, the practical BS based on the conversion between different degree of freedoms are naturally non-Hermitian, as a result of essentially open quantum dynamics. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a non-Hermitian BS for the interference between traveling photonic and localized magnonic modes. The non-Hermitian magnon-photon BS is achieved by the coherent and incoherent interaction mediated by the excited levels of atoms, which is reconfigurable by adjusting the detuning of excitation. Unconventional correlated interference pattern is observed at the photon and magnon output ports. Our work is potential for extending to single-quantum level to realize interference between a single photon and magnon, which provides an efficient and simple platform for future tests of non-Hermitian quantum physics.

Dissipative Kerr solitons (DKSs) in the high-Q micro-resonator corresponds to self-organized short pulse in time domain via double balance between dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity, as well as cavity loss and parametric gain. In this paper, we first experimentally demonstrate deterministic generation and switching of DKSs in a thermally controlled micro-ring resonator based on high-index doped silica glass platform. In our scheme, an auxiliary laser is introduced to timely balance the intra-cavity heat fluctuation. By decreasing the operating temperature through a thermo-electric cooler, soliton crystal is firstly generated, then increasing the temperature, DKSs switching and single soliton are robustly accessed, which is independent of the tuning speed. During the switching process, varieties of DKSs are identified by tens of featured discrete soliton-steps, which is favorable for study of on-chip soliton interactions and nonlinear applications., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

The coherent temporal soliton in optical microresonators has attracted great attention recently. Here, we demonstrate the dissipative Kerr soliton generation in a microrod resonator, by utilizing an auxiliary-laser-assisted thermal response control. By external stress tuning, the repetition rate of the soliton has been controlled over a large range of 30 MHz. Our platform promises precise tuning and locking of the repetition frequency of coherent mode-locked comb in the microresonator, and holds great potential for applications in spectroscopy and precision measurements., Comment: 5 Pages, 4 figures

The quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound (QCRB) provides an ultimate precision limit allowed by quantum mechanics in parameter estimation. Given any quantum state dependent on a single parameter, there is always a positive-operator valued measurement (POVM) saturating the QCRB. However, the QCRB-saturating POVM cannot always be implemented efficiently, especially in multipartite systems. In this paper, we show that the POVM based on local operations and classical communication (LOCC) is QCRB-saturating for arbitrary pure states or rank-two mixed states with varying probability distributions over fixed eigenbasis. Local measurements without classical communication, however, is not QCRB-saturating in general., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, published version

The quantum spin states of atomic ensemble are of special interesting for both fundamental studies and precision measurement applications. Here, we propose a scheme to prepare collective quantum states of an atomic ensemble placed in an optical cavity via homodyne measurement of probing light field. The effective interactions of atoms mediated by photons are enhanced by the optical cavity, and the output probe light could also be entangled with the collective spin states. By selectively measuring the quadrature of output light, we can prepare various quantum states, including superposition states of Dicke states and Dicke squeezed states. It is also demonstrated that the fidelity of prepared quantum state can be enhanced by repetitive homodyne detection and using longer probe laser pulses. Our scheme is feasible for experimental realization with current technologies, which may be used in future study of quantum mechanics and quantum metrology., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Generative adversarial learning is one of the most exciting recent breakthroughs in machine learning---a subfield of artificial intelligence that is currently driving a revolution in many aspects of modern society. It has shown splendid performance in a variety of challenging tasks such as image and video generations. More recently, a quantum version of generative adversarial learning has been theoretically proposed and shown to possess the potential of exhibiting an exponential advantage over its classical counterpart. Here, we report the first proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of quantum generative adversarial learning in a superconducting quantum circuit. We demonstrate that, after several rounds of adversarial learning, a quantum state generator can be trained to replicate the statistics of the quantum data output from a digital qubit channel simulator, with a high fidelity ($98.8\%$ on average) that the discriminator cannot distinguish between the true and the generated data. Our results pave the way for experimentally exploring the intriguing long-sought-after quantum advantages in machine learning tasks with noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Comments are welcome

A new category of optical microring resonator, which is analogous to the M\"obius strip, is proposed. The "M\"obius" microring resonator allows the conversion between modes with different polarizations in the ring and light must circulate two cycles to be converted back to the original polarization status, which is similar to a M\"obius strip. This topology structure of polarization leads to the free spectral range be half of that corresponds to the cavity round trip. The eigenmodes of this microring are hybridizations of different polarizations and the breaking of the rotation invariance of the ring makes the transmission be related with the polarization of input light. Our work opens the door towards the photonic devices with nontrivial mode topology and provides a novel way to engineering photonic structures for fundamental studies., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

A one-dimensional photonic-crystal (PC) cavity with nanoholes is proposed for extremely enhancing the THz electric fields by utilizing the electromagnetic (EM) boundary conditions, where both slot effect (for the perpendicular component of the electric displacement field) and anti-slot effect (for the parallel component of the electric field) contribute to the considerable field enhancement. The EM energy density can be enhanced in the high refractive index material by a factor of ({\epsilon}h/{\epsilon}l)^2, where {\epsilon}h and {\epsilon}l are the permittivities of the high and low refractive index materials, respectively. Correspondingly, the mode volume can be enhanced by a factor of 288 as compared with the regular THz PC cavity and is three orders of magnitude smaller than the diffraction limitation. While the proposed THz cavity design also supports the modes with high Q > 10^4, which lead to strong Purcell enhancement of spontaneous emission by a factor exceeds 10^6. Our THz cavity design is feasible and appealing for experimental demonstrations, since the semiconductor layer where the EM is maximized can naturally be filled with a quantum engineered active materials, which is potential for developing the room-temperature coherent THz radiation sources.

Universal control of quantum systems is a major goal to be achieved for quantum information processing, which demands thorough understanding of fundamental quantum mechanics and promises applications of quantum technologies. So far, most studies concentrate on ideally isolated quantum systems governed by unitary evolutions, while practical quantum systems are open and described by quantum channels due to their inevitable coupling to environment. Here, we experimentally simulate arbitrary quantum channels for an open quantum system, i.e. a single photonic qubit in a superconducting quantum circuit. The arbitrary channel simulation is achieved with minimum resource of only one ancilla qubit and measurement-based adaptive control. By repetitively implementing the quantum channel simulation, we realize an arbitrary Liouvillian for a continuous evolution of an open quantum system for the first time. Our experiment provides not only a testbed for understanding quantum noise and decoherence, but also a powerful tool for full control of practical open quantum systems., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Third-harmonic generation can be realized via both $\chi^{(3)}$ and cascaded $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinear processes in a triply-resonant microcavity. It is still unknown how these processes interfere with each other and the optimization of the conversion efficiency still remains as a question. In this work, the interplay between the direct third-harmonic generation and the cascaded process combining of the second-harmonic generation and the sum-frequency generation are investigated. It is found that the interference effect between these two processes can be used to improve the conversion efficiency. By optimizing the cavity resonance and the external coupling conditions, the saturation of the nonlinear conversion is mitigated and the third-harmonic conversion efficiency is increased. A design rule is provided for achieving efficient third-harmonic generation in an optical microcavity, which can be generalized further to the high-order harmonic generations., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

By harnessing the quantum states of light for illumination, precise phase and absorption estimations can be achieved with precision beyond the standard quantum limit. Despite their significance for precision measurements, quantum states are fragile in noisy environments which leads to difficulties in revealing the quantum advantage. In this work, we propose a scheme to improve optical absorption estimation precision by using the correlated photon pairs from spontaneous parametric down-conversion as the illumination. This scheme performs better than clasical illumination when the loss is below a critical value. Experimentally, the scheme is demonstrated by a scanning transmission type microscope that uses correlated photon illumination. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a two-photon image shows a $1.36$-fold enhancement over that of single-photon image for a single-layer graphene with a $0.98$ transmittance. This enhancement factor will be larger when using multi-mode squeezed state as the illumination., Comment: 7 Pages, 3 figures

Optical microcavities are often used to realize enhanced nonlinear optical interactions for highly efficient second-harmonic generation. With increased pump power, the efficiency of nonlinear frequency conversion can be increased further, while some other unwanted nonlinear effects will also emerge, leading to complicated dynamics or instability. Here, we study the interplay between cascaded second- and third-order nonlinear processes and investigate their impact on the second-harmonic generation in microcavities. It is found that the non-degenerate optical parametric oscillation (OPO) appears and the presence of $\chi^{(3)}$ process can modify the OPO threshold significantly when the multimode cavity is strongly pumped at the fundamental optical mode. One can even break the efficiency limitation of the second-harmonic mode restricted by the OPO by utilizing the interference between the OPO and the four-wave mixing. The present coherent interplay between nonlinear optical processes in microcavities is conducive to exploring new physics in the cavity nonlinear photonics., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Nonlinear optical effects have been studied extensively in microresonators as more photonics applications transition to integrated on-chip platforms. Due to low optical losses and small mode volumes, microresonators are demonstrably the state-of-the-art platform for second harmonic generation (SHG). However, the working bandwidth of such microresonator-based devices are relatively small, presenting a challenge for applications where a specifically targeted wavelength needs to be addressed. In this work, we analyzed the phase-matching window and resonance wavelength with respect to varying microring width, radius and temperature. A chip with precise design parameters was fabricated with phase-matching realized at the exact wavelength of two-photon transition of 85-Rubidium. This procedure can be generalized to any target pump wavelength in the telecom-band with picometer precision.

Leveraging the quantum information processing ability of superconducting circuits and long-distance distribution ability of optical photons promises the realization of complex and large-scale quantum networks. In such a scheme, a coherent and efficient quantum transducer between superconducting and photonic circuits is critical. However, such quantum transducer is still challenging since the use of intermediate excitations in current schemes introduces extra noise and limits bandwidth. Here we realize direct and coherent transduction between superconducting and photonic circuits based on triple-resonance electro-optics principle, with integrated devices incorporating both superconducting and optical cavities on the same chip. Electromagnetically induced transparency is observed, indicating the coherent interaction between microwave and optical photons. Internal conversion efficiency of 25.9\pm0.3\% has been achieved, with 2.05\pm0.04\% total efficiency. Superconducting cavity electro-optics offers broad transduction bandwidth and high scalability, and represents a significant step towards the integrated hybrid quantum circuits and distributed quantum computation.

Microresonator-based nonlinear processes are fundamental to applications including microcomb generation, parametric frequency conversion, and harmonics generation. While nonlinear processes involving either second- ($\chi^{(2)}$) or third- $\chi^{(3)}$) order nonlinearity have been extensively studied, the interaction between these two basic nonlinear processes has seldom been reported. In this letter, we demonstrate a coherent interplay between second- and third- order nonlinear processes. The parametric ($\chi^{(2)})$ coupling to a lossy ancillary mode shortens the lifetime of the target photonic mode and suppresses its density of states, preventing the photon emissions into the target photonic mode via Zeno effect. Such effect is then used to control the stimulated four-wave mixing process and realize a suppression ratio of $34.5$., Comment: 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

A method to generate the optical vortex beam with arbitrary superposition of different orders of orbital angular momentum (OAM) on a photonic chip is proposed. The distributed Fourier holographic gratings are proposed to convert the propagating wave in waveguides to a vortex beam in the free space, and the components of different OAMs can be controlled by the amplitude and phases of on-chip incident light based on the principle of Fourier transformation. As an example, we studied a typical device composed of nine Fourier holographic gratings on fan-shaped waveguides. By scalar diffraction calculation, the OAM of the optical beam from the reconfigurable vortex beam generator can be controlled on-demand from -2nd to 2nd by adjusting the phase of input light fields, which is demonstrated numerically with the fidelity of generated optical vortex beam above 0.69. The working bandwidth of the Fourier holographic grating is about 80 nm with a fidelity above 0.6. Our work provides an feasible method to manipulate the vortex beam or detect arbitrary superposition of OAMs, which can be used in integrated photonics structures for optical trapping, signal processing, and imaging., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators are critical components in wireless communications and many sensing applications. They have also recently emerged as subject of study in quantum acoustics at the single phonon level. Acoustic loss reduction and mode confinement are key performance factors in SAW resonators. Here we report the design and experimental realization of a high quality factor Fabry-Perot SAW resonators formed in between tapered phononic crystal mirrors patterned on a GaN-on-sapphire material platform . The fabricated SAW resonators are characterized by both electrical network analyzer and optical heterodyne vibrometer. We observed standing Rayleigh wave inside the cavity, with an intrinsic quality factor exceeding 13,000 at ambient conditions., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures