Spin-guides and spin-splitters: Waveguide analogies in one-dimensional spin chains

摘要

Here we show a direct mapping between waveguide theory and spin chaintransport, opening an alternative approach to quantum information transport inthe solid-state. By applying temporally varying control profiles to a spinchain, we design a virtual waveguide or 'spin-guide' to conduct individual spinexcitations along defined space-time trajectories of the chain. We explicitlyshow that the concepts of confinement, adiabatic bend loss and beamsplittingcan be mapped from optical waveguide theory to spin-guides (and hence'spin-splitters'). Importantly, the spatial scale of applied control pulses isrequired to be large compared to the inter-spin spacing, and thereby allowingthe design of scalable control architectures.