Coupled Cavity Array to control quantum systems
… to mimic a material called a photonic topological insulator, which can guide light along its edges in a very controlled and unusual way
An EPFL report:
Qubits, or quantum bits, are mostly known for their role in quantum computing, but they are also used in analog quantum simulation, which uses one well-controlled quantum system to simulate another, more complex one. An analog quantum simulator can be more efficient than a digital computer simulation, in the same way that it is simpler to use a wind tunnel to simulate the laws of aerodynamics instead of solving many complicated equations to predict airflow.
Key to both digital quantum computing and analog quantum simulation is the ability to shape the environment with which the qubits are interacting. One tool for doing this effectively is a coupled cavity array (CCA), tiny structures made of multiple microwave cavities arranged in a repeating pattern where each cavity can interact with its neighbors. These systems can give scientists new ways to design and control quantum systems.
Similarly to electrons in crystals, which can block the flow of electricity at certain frequencies, giving rise to semiconductors and insulators, in CCAs, light, in the form of can only propagate at specific wavelengths. By carefully tailoring the geometry of these resonators, scientists can precisely select the wavelengths at which photons can go through, and those at which they can’t.
An EPFL team, led by Prof. Pasquale Scarlino, head of the Hybrid Quantum Circuits Laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Marco Scigliuzzo from the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements at EPFL, and Prof. Oded Zilberberg from the University of Konstanz, has developed an innovative design for a CCA using niobium nitride (NbN), a superconductor relying on an advanced material property called high kinetic inductance, in which Scarlino’s laboratory is a leading expert …. more
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