arXiv subjects

Daniil M. Lukin

Publications and source records attributed to Daniil M. Lukin.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Observation of quadrature-dependent unidirectional flow of light

Unidirectional transport of light is a central capability in photonics, enabling critical functionalities such as isolation and routing. Ordinarily, this directionality depends on the mode of light, but not its phase. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate phase-dependent unidirectional transport of light for the first time. Specifically, we realize a system where conjugate quadratures of an optical field decouple and propagate in opposite directions. Our all-optical approach uses multiple pump frequencies in a high-$Q$ nanophotonic micro-resonator to achieve Hamiltonian programming through Kerr nonlinearity. Even though we rely on optical nonlinearity, our approach is not limited to any minimal power requirement on the signal. We demonstrate the ultimate limit of this by measuring the effect of quadrature-dependent transport on vacuum fluctuations. Our approach unlocks a fundamental new capability for controlling light, and can enable previously inaccessible regimes of phase-sensitive directional amplification, sensing, and routing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Integrated Dual-Resonator Architecture for Telecom Photon-Memory Entanglement

Scalable quantum networks require the efficient generation and storage of entanglement between photonic qubits and quantum memories. Quantum repeaters based on absorptive rare-earth-ion photonic memories offer a promising route toward highly multiplexed quantum networking, but unifying spectrally matched photon sources and quantum memories within a common architecture remains a major challenge. Here we demonstrate an integrated photonic architecture for telecom photon-memory entanglement generation based on dual self-similar silicon carbide microring resonators. Connected by a fiber link, one resonator operates as an entangled photon-pair source, while the other functions as a cavity-enhanced atomic-frequency-comb quantum memory. The memory resonator reaches an ensemble cooperativity of 1.9 after hyperfine initialization and is spectrally matched to the source, enabling storage of entangled telecom photons without spectral modification. We generate and characterize photon-memory entanglement from a quantum interference visibility preserved before and after storage. Harnessing the strong source correlations and the high multimode capacity of the memory, we access high-dimensional entanglement spanning 63 temporal modes, reaching a maximum photon information efficiency of 5.1 Ebits per detected photon and a peak on-chip photon-memory entanglement rate of 5.6 kEbits per second. These results establish a route toward chip-scale quantum networking hardware operating over telecommunications infrastructure.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quadrature-Dependent Lattice Dynamics of Dissipative Microcombs

The study of coupled networks with parametric amplification of the vacuum fluctuations has garnered increasing interest due to its intricate physics and potential applications. In these systems, parametric interactions lead to beam-splitter coupling and two-mode squeezing, creating quadrature-dependent dynamics. These systems can be modeled as bosonic networks, arrays or lattices, exhibiting exotic effects such as unidirectional amplification and non-Hermitian chiral transport which influence multimode squeezing. However, exploring and controlling these network dynamics experimentally in all-optical systems remains challenging. Recent advancements in integrated nonlinear micro-resonators, known as Kerr microcombs, enable the generation and control of broadband high-repetition pulses on microchips. Kerr microcombs exhibit intriguing nonlinear dynamics, where coherent photons occupy discrete spectral lines, leading to multimode squeezed vacuum states. In this work, we explore the lattice dynamics of vacuum fluctuations driven by dissipative Kerr microcombs. We design a photonic chip where a spontaneously emergent pair of pulses creates extended multimode states of parametrically amplified vacuum fluctuations. These states exhibit oscillatory dynamics, with implications on squeezing and secondary comb formation. By employing integrated micro-heaters, we tune the vacuum fluctuations to eliminate the oscillations, establishing a fundamental connection between non-Hermitian lattice symmetries and Kerr combs, paving the way for exotic quadrature-dependent optical networks with broad implications for quantum and classical photonic technologies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Low-Dissipation Nanomechanical Devices from Monocrystalline Silicon Carbide

The applications of nanomechanical resonators range from biomolecule mass sensing to hybrid quantum interfaces. Their performance is often limited by internal material damping, which can be greatly reduced by using crystalline materials. Crystalline silicon carbide is appealing due to its exquisite mechanical, electrical and optical properties, but has suffered from high internal damping due to material defects. Here we resolve this by developing nanomechanical resonators fabricated from bulk monocrystalline 4H-silicon carbide. This allows us to achieve damping as low as 2.7 mHz, more than an order-of-magnitude lower than any previous crystalline silicon carbide resonator and corresponding to a quality factor as high as 20 million at room temperature. The volumetric dissipation of our devices reaches the material limit for silicon carbide for the first time. This provides a path to greatly increase the performance of silicon carbide nanomechanical resonators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Mesoscopic cavity quantum electrodynamics with phase-disordered emitters in a Kerr nonlinear resonator

The field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) has seen a recent resurgence of interest in few- and many-body physics owing to the realization that the breaking of symmetries and the presence of disorder can give rise to entirely new phenomena. Here we demonstrate a few-emitter cavity QED system capable of realizing new Hamiltonians in quantum optics based on breaking of symmetries and the realization of an in situ Kerr nonlinearity. Our experiment relies on a high-finesse silicon carbide whispering gallery mode resonator hosting an ensemble of silicon vacancy color centers. The simultaneous presence of spectral and spatial disorder of the mesoscopic atom system gives rise to emergent chirality, and the optical nonlinearity of the silicon carbide host crystal enables the observation of atom-photon correlations induced by a four-photon nonlinear process. This work demonstrates the potential for solid state defect systems to realize emerging proposals and to study fundamental physics in quantum electrodynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics in Finite-Bandwidth Squeezed Reservoir

Light-matter interaction with squeezed vacuum has received much interest for the ability to enhance the native interaction strength between an atom and a photon with a reservoir assumed to have an infinite bandwidth. Here, we study a model of parametrically driven cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) for enhancing light-matter interaction while subjected to a finite-bandwidth squeezed vacuum drive. Our method is capable of unveiling the effect of relative bandwidth as well as squeezing required to observe the anticipated anti-crossing spectrum and enhanced cooperativity without the ideal squeezed bath assumption. Furthermore, we analyze the practicality of said models when including intrinsic photon loss due to resonators imperfection. With these results, we outline the requirements for experimentally implementing an effectively squeezed bath in solid-state platforms such as InAs quantum dot cavity QED such that \textit{in situ} control and enhancement of light-matter interaction could be realized.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Titanium:Sapphire-on-insulator for broadband tunable lasers and high-power amplifiers on chip

Titanium:Sapphire (Ti:Sa) lasers have been essential for advancing fundamental research and technological applications. Ti:Sa lasers are unmatched in bandwidth and tuning range, yet their use is severely restricted due to their large size, cost, and need for high optical pump powers. Here, we demonstrate a monocrystalline Ti:Sa-on-insulator (Ti:SaOI) photonics platform which enables dramatic miniaturization, cost-reduction, and scalability of Ti:Sa technology. First, through fabrication of low-loss whispering gallery mode resonators, we realize a Ti:Sa laser operating with an ultra-low lasing threshold of 290 $μ$W. Then, through orders-of-magnitude improvement in mode confinement in Ti:SaOI waveguides, we realize the first integrated solid-state (i.e., non-semiconductor) optical amplifier operating below 1 $μ$m, with an ultra-wide bandwidth of 700 - 950 nm and peak gain of 64 dB/cm. We demonstrate unprecedented 17 dB distortion-free amplification of picosecond pulses to up to 2.3 nJ pulse energy, corresponding to a peak power of 1.0 kW. Finally, we demonstrate the first tunable integrated Ti:Sa laser, featuring narrow linewidths and a 24.7 THz tuning range, which, for the first time, can be pumped with low-cost, miniature, off-the-shelf green laser diodes. This opens doors to new modalities of Ti:Sa lasers (now occupying a footprint less than 0.15 mm$^2$), such as massively-scalable Ti:Sa laser array systems for a variety of applications. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we employ a Ti:SaOI laser array as the sole optical control for a cavity quantum electrodynamics experiment with artificial atoms in silicon carbide. This work is a key step towards the democratization of Ti:Sa technology through a three orders-of-magnitude reduction in cost and footprint, as well as the introduction of solid-state broadband amplification of sub-micron wavelength light.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Inverse-designed Silicon Carbide Quantum and Nonlinear Photonics

Inverse design has revolutionized the field of photonics, enabling automated development of complex structures and geometries with unique functionalities unmatched by classical design. However, the use of inverse design in nonlinear photonics has been limited. In this work, we demonstrate quantum and classical nonlinear light generation in silicon carbide nanophotonic inverse-designed Fabry-Pérot cavities. We achieve ultra-low reflector losses while targeting a pre-specified anomalous dispersion to reach optical parametric oscillation. By controlling dispersion through inverse design, we target a second-order phase-matching condition to realize second- and third-order nonlinear light generation in our devices, thereby extending stimulated parametric processes into the visible spectrum. This first realization of computational optimization for nonlinear light generation highlights the power of inverse design for nonlinear optics, in particular when combined with highly nonlinear materials such as silicon carbide.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

A Quantum Optical Microphone in the Audio Band

The ability to perform high-precision optical measurements is paramount to science and engineering. Laser interferometry enables interaction-free sensing with a precision ultimately limited by shot noise. Quantum optical sensors can surpass this limit, but single- or multi-photon schemes are challenged by low experimental sampling rates, while squeezed-light approaches require complex optical setups and sophisticated time gating. Here, we introduce a simple method that infers optical phase shifts through standard intensity measurements while still maintaining the quantum advantage in the measurement precision. Capitalising on the robustness and high sampling rates of our device, we implement a quantum optical microphone in the audio band. Its performance is benchmarked against a classical laser microphone in a standardised medically-approved speech recognition test on 45 subjects. We find that quantum-recorded words improve the speech recognition threshold by $-0.57\, \text{dB}_{\text{SPL}}$, thus making the quantum advantage audible. Not only do these results open the door towards applications in quantum nonlinear interferometry, but they also show that quantum phenomena can be experienced by humans.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Optical superradiance of a pair of color centers in an integrated silicon-carbide-on-insulator microresonator

An outstanding challenge for color center-based quantum information processing technologies is the integration of optically-coherent emitters into scalable thin-film photonics. Here, we report on the integration of near-transform-limited silicon vacancy (V$_{\text{Si}}$) defects into microdisk resonators fabricated in a CMOS-compatible 4H-Silicon Carbide-on-Insulator platform. We demonstrate a single-emitter cooperativity of up to 0.8 as well as optical superradiance from a pair of color centers coupled to the same cavity mode. We investigate the effect of multimode interference on the photon scattering dynamics from this multi-emitter cavity quantum electrodynamics system. These results are crucial for the development of quantum networks in silicon carbide and bridge the classical-quantum photonics gap by uniting optically-coherent spin defects with wafer-scalable, state-of-the-art photonics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Inverse-designed multi-dimensional silicon photonic transmitters

Modern microelectronic processors have migrated towards parallel computing architectures with many-core processors. However, such expansion comes with diminishing returns exacted by the high cost of data movement between individual processors. The use of optical interconnects has burgeoned as a promising technology that can address the limits of this data transfer. While recent pushes to enhance optical communication have focused on developing wavelength-division multiplexing technology, this approach will eventually saturate the usable bandwidth, and new dimensions of data transfer will be paramount to fulfill the ever-growing need for speed. Here we demonstrate an integrated intra- and inter-chip multi-dimensional communication scheme enabled by photonic inverse design. Using inverse-designed mode-division multiplexers, we combine wavelength- and mode- multiplexing and send massively parallel data through nano-photonic waveguides and optical fibres. Crucially, as we take advantage of an orthogonal optical basis, our approach is inherently scalable to a multiplicative enhancement over the current state of the art.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Quantum optics of soliton microcombs

Soliton microcombs -- phase-locked microcavity frequency combs -- have become the foundation of several classical technologies in integrated photonics, including spectroscopy, LiDAR, and optical computing. Despite the predicted multimode entanglement across the comb, experimental study of the quantum optics of the soliton microcomb has been elusive. In this work, we use second-order photon correlations to study the underlying quantum processes of soliton microcombs in an integrated silicon carbide microresonator. We show that a stable temporal lattice of solitons can isolate a multimode below-threshold Gaussian state from any admixture of coherent light, and predict that all-to-all entanglement can be realized for the state. Our work opens a pathway toward a soliton-based multimode quantum resource.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Integrated quantum photonics with silicon carbide: challenges and prospects

Optically-addressable solid-state spin defects are promising candidates for storing and manipulating quantum information using their long coherence ground state manifold; individual defects can be entangled using photon-photon interactions, offering a path toward large scale quantum photonic networks. Quantum computing protocols place strict limits on the acceptable photon losses in the system. These low-loss requirements cannot be achieved without photonic engineering, but are attainable if combined with state-of-the-art nanophotonic technologies. However, most materials that host spin defects are challenging to process: as a result, the performance of quantum photonic devices is orders of magnitude behind that of their classical counterparts. Silicon carbide (SiC) is well-suited to bridge the classical-quantum photonics gap, since it hosts promising optically-addressable spin defects and can be processed into SiC-on-insulator for scalable, integrated photonics. In this Perspective, we discuss recent progress toward the development of scalable quantum photonic technologies based on solid state spins in silicon carbide, and discuss current challenges and future directions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Spectrally reconfigurable quantum emitters enabled by optimized fast modulation

The ability to shape photon emission facilitates strong photon-mediated interactions between disparate physical systems, thereby enabling applications in quantum information processing, simulation and communication. Spectral control in solid state platforms such as color centers, rare earth ions, and quantum dots is particularly attractive for realizing such applications on-chip. Here we propose the use of frequency-modulated optical transitions for spectral engineering of single photon emission. Using a scattering-matrix formalism, we find that a two-level system, when modulated faster than its optical lifetime, can be treated as a single-photon source with a widely reconfigurable photon spectrum that is amenable to standard numerical optimization techniques. To enable the experimental demonstration of this spectral control scheme, we investigate the Stark tuning properties of the silicon vacancy in silicon carbide, a color center with promise for optical quantum information processing technologies. We find that the silicon vacancy possesses excellent spectral stability and tuning characteristics, allowing us to probe its fast modulation regime, observe the theoretically-predicted two-photon correlations, and demonstrate spectral engineering. Our results suggest that frequency modulation is a powerful technique for the generation of new light states with unprecedented control over the spectral and temporal properties of single photons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Optical parametric oscillation in silicon carbide nanophotonics

Silicon carbide (SiC) is rapidly emerging as a leading platform for the implementation of nonlinear and quantum photonics. Here, we find that commercial SiC, which hosts a variety of spin qubits, possesses low optical absorption that can enable SiC integrated photonics with quality factors exceeding $10^7$. We fabricate microring resonators with quality factors as high as 1.1 million, and observe low-threshold (8.5 $\pm$ 0.5 mW) optical parametric oscillation as well as optical microcombs spanning 200 nm. Our demonstration is an essential milestone in the development of photonic devices that harness the unique optical properties of SiC, paving the way toward the monolithic integration of nonlinear photonics with spin-based quantum technologies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Inverse-Designed Diamond Photonics

Diamond hosts optically active color centers with great promise in quantum computation, networking, and sensing. Realization of such applications is contingent upon the integration of color centers into photonic circuits. However, current diamond quantum optics experiments are restricted to single devices and few quantum emitters because fabrication constraints limit device functionalities, thus precluding color center integrated photonic circuits. In this work, we utilize inverse design methods to overcome constraints of cutting-edge diamond nanofabrication methods and fabricate compact and robust diamond devices with unique specifications. Our design method leverages advanced optimization techniques to search the full parameter space for fabricable device designs. We experimentally demonstrate inverse-designed photonic free-space interfaces as well as their scalable integration with two vastly different devices: classical photonic crystal cavities and inverse-designed waveguide-splitters. The multi-device integration capability and performance of our inverse-designed diamond platform represents a critical advancement toward integrated diamond quantum optical circuits.

physics.app-ph↗