Topological energy transfer in an optomechanical system with exceptional points

摘要

Topological operations have the merit of achieving certain goals withoutrequiring accurate control over local operational details. To date, topologicaloperations have been used to control geometric phases, and have been proposedas a means for controlling the state of certain systems within their degeneratesubspaces[1-8]. More recently, it was predicted that topological operations canbe extended to transfer energy between normal modes, provided that the systempossesses a specific type of degeneracy known as an exceptional point(EP)[9-11]. Here we demonstrate the transfer of energy between two modes of acryogenic optomechanical device by topological operations. We show that thistransfer arises from the presence of an EP in the device's spectrum. We alsoshow that this transfer is non-reciprocal[12-14]. These results open newdirections in system control; they also open the possibility of exploring otherdynamical effects related to EPs[15,16], as well as the behavior of thermal andquantum fluctuations in the vicinity of EPs.