Single-step fabrication of surface waveguides in fused silica with few-cycle laser pulses.

Direct laser writing of surface waveguides with ultrashort pulses is a crucial achievement towards all-laser manufacturing of photonic integrated circuits sensitive to their environment. In this Letter, few-cycle laser pulses (with a sub-10 fs duration) are used to produce subsurface waveguides in a non-doped, non-coated fused-silica substrate. The fabrication technique relies on laser-induced microdensification below the threshold for nanopore formation. The optical losses of the fabricated waveguides are governed by the optical properties of the superstrate. We have measured losses ranging from less than 0.1 dB/mm (air superstrate) up to 2.8 dB/mm when immersion oil is applied on top of the waveguide.

Measuring the Aharonov-Anandan phase in multiport photonic systems.

Beyond the adiabatic limit, the Aharonov-Anandan phase is a generalized description of Berry's phase. In this regime, systems with time-independent Hamiltonians may also acquire observable geometric phases. Here we report on a measurement of the Aharonov-Anandan phase in photonics. Different from previous optical experiments on geometric phases, the implementation is based on light modes confined in evanescently coupled waveguides rather than polarization-like systems, thereby physical models in more than two-dimensional Hilbert spaces are achievable. In a tailored photonic lattice, we realize time-independent quantum-driven harmonic oscillators initially prepared in the vacuum state and achieve a measurement of the Aharonov-Anandan phase via integrated interferometry.

Discrete-like diffraction dynamics in free space.

We introduce a new class of paraxial optical beams exhibiting discrete-like diffraction patterns reminiscent to those observed in periodic evanescently coupled waveguide lattices. It is demonstrated that such paraxial beams are analytically described in terms of generalized Bessel functions. Such effects are elucidated via pertinent examples.

Observation of Bloch-like revivals in semi-infinite Glauber-Fock photonic lattices.

We report the first experimental implementation of Glauber-Fock oscillator lattices. Bloch-like revivals are observed in these optical structures in spite of the fact that the photonic array is effectively semi-infinite and the waveguide coupling is not uniform. This behavior is entirely analogous to the dynamics exhibited by a driven quantum harmonic oscillator. Our observations are in excellent agreement to the analytical results obtained in this fully integrable lattice system.

Anderson localization in optical waveguide arrays with off-diagonal coupling disorder.

We report on the observation of Anderson wave localization in one-dimensional waveguide arrays with off-diagonal disorder. The waveguide elements are inscribed in silica glass, and a uniform random distribution of coupling parameters is achieved by a precise variation of the relative waveguide positions. In the absence of disorder we observe ballistic transport as expected from discrete diffraction in periodic arrays. When off-diagonal disorder is deliberately introduced into the array we observe Anderson localization. The strength of the localization signature increases with higher levels of disorder.

Classical analogue of displaced Fock states and quantum correlations in Glauber-Fock photonic lattices.

Coherent states and their generalizations, displaced Fock states, are of fundamental importance to quantum optics. Here we present a direct observation of a classical analogue for the emergence of these states from the eigenstates of the harmonic oscillator. To this end, the light propagation in a Glauber-Fock waveguide lattice serves as equivalent for the displacement of Fock states in phase space. Theoretical calculations and analogue classical experiments show that the square-root distribution of the coupling parameter in such lattices supports a new family of intriguing quantum correlations not encountered in uniform arrays. Because of the broken shift invariance of the lattice, these correlations strongly depend on the transverse position. Consequently, quantum random walks with this extra degree of freedom may be realized in Glauber-Fock lattices.

Topological protection versus degree of entanglement of two-photon light in photonic topological insulators.

Topological insulators combine insulating properties in the bulk with scattering-free transport along edges, supporting dissipationless unidirectional energy and information flow even in the presence of defects and disorder. The feasibility of engineering quantum Hamiltonians with photonic tools, combined with the availability of entangled photons, raises the intriguing possibility of employing topologically protected entangled states in optical quantum computing and information processing. However, while two-photon states built as a product of two topologically protected single-photon states inherit full protection from their single-photon "parents", a high degree of non-separability may lead to rapid deterioration of the two-photon states after propagation through disorder. In this work, we identify physical mechanisms which contribute to the vulnerability of entangled states in topological photonic lattices. Further, we show that in order to maximize entanglement without sacrificing topological protection, the joint spectral correlation map of two-photon states must fit inside a well-defined topological window of protection.

Glauber-Fock photonic lattices.

We show that classical analogs to quantum coherent and displaced Fock states can emerge in one-dimensional semi-infinite photonic lattices having a square root law for the coupling coefficients. Beam dynamics in these fully integrable structures is described in closed form, irrespective of the site of excitation. The trajectories of these beams are closely examined, and pertinent examples are provided for their realization.

Advanced-Retarded Differential Equations in Quantum Photonic Systems.

We propose the realization of photonic circuits whose dynamics is governed by advanced-retarded differential equations. Beyond their mathematical interest, these photonic configurations enable the implementation of quantum feedback and feedforward without requiring any intermediate measurement. We show how this protocol can be applied to implement interesting delay effects in the quantum regime, as well as in the classical limit. Our results elucidate the potential of the protocol as a promising route towards integrated quantum control systems on a chip.

Harnessing click detectors for the genuine characterization of light states.

The key requirement for harnessing the quantum properties of light is the capability to detect and count individual photons. Of particular interest are photon-number-resolving detectors, which allow one to determine whether a state of light is classical or genuinely quantum. Existing schemes for addressing this challenge rely on a proportional conversion of photons to electrons. As such, they are capable of correctly characterizing small photon fluxes, yet are limited by uncertainties in the conversion rate. In this work, we employ a divide-and-conquer approach to infallibly discerning non-classicality of states of light. This is achieved by transforming the incident fields into uniform spatial distributions that readily lend themselves for characterization by standard on-off detectors. Since the exact statistics of the light stream in multiplexed on-off detectors are click statistics, our technique is freely scalable to accommodate-in principle-arbitrarily large photon fluxes. Our experiments pave the way towards genuine integrated photon-number-resolving detection for advanced on-chip photonic quantum networks.

Implementation of quantum and classical discrete fractional Fourier transforms.

Fourier transforms, integer and fractional, are ubiquitous mathematical tools in basic and applied science. Certainly, since the ordinary Fourier transform is merely a particular case of a continuous set of fractional Fourier domains, every property and application of the ordinary Fourier transform becomes a special case of the fractional Fourier transform. Despite the great practical importance of the discrete Fourier transform, implementation of fractional orders of the corresponding discrete operation has been elusive. Here we report classical and quantum optical realizations of the discrete fractional Fourier transform. In the context of classical optics, we implement discrete fractional Fourier transforms of exemplary wave functions and experimentally demonstrate the shift theorem. Moreover, we apply this approach in the quantum realm to Fourier transform separable and path-entangled biphoton wave functions. The proposed approach is versatile and could find applications in various fields where Fourier transforms are essential tools.

Experimental observation of N00N state Bloch oscillations.

Bloch oscillations of quantum particles manifest themselves as periodic spreading and relocalization of the associated wave functions when traversing lattice potentials subject to external gradient forces. Albeit this phenomenon is deeply rooted into the very foundations of quantum mechanics, all experimental observations so far have only contemplated dynamics of one and two particles initially prepared in separable local states. Evidently, a more general description of genuinely quantum Bloch oscillations will be achieved on excitation of a Bloch oscillator by nonlocal states. Here we report the observation of Bloch oscillations of two-particle N00N states, and discuss the nonlocality on the ground of Bell-like inequalities. The time evolution of two-photon N00N states in Bloch oscillators, whether symmetric, antisymmetric or partially symmetric, reveals transitions from particle antibunching to bunching. Consequently, the initial states can be tailored to produce spatial correlations akin to those of bosons, fermions and anyons, presenting potential applications in photonic quantum simulation.