Synthetic photonic lattices: new routes towards all-optical photonic devices

摘要

All-optical photonic devices are crucial for many important photonictechnology and applications, ranging from optical communication to quantuminformation processing. Conventional design of all-optical devices is based onphoton propagation and interference in real space, which may reply on largenumbers of optical elements and are challenging for precise control. Here wepropose a new route for engineering all-optical devices using photon internaldegrees of freedom, which form photonic crystals in such synthetic dimensionsfor photon propagation and interference. We demonstrate this new design conceptby showing how important optical devices such as quantum memory and opticalfilter can be realized using synthetic orbital angular momentum (OAM) latticesin a single main degenerate cavity. The new designing route utilizing syntheticphotonic lattices may significantly reduce the requirement for numerous opticalelements and their fine tuning in conventional design, paving the way forrealistic all-optical photonic devices with novel functionalities.