Quantized Hall Drift in a Frequency-Encoded Photonic Chern Insulator
Year: 2026
Authors: Chynier A., d’Aligny B., Pellerin F., Blanchard P.E., Ozawa T., Carusotto I., St-Jean P.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Montreal, Dept Phys, CP 6128,Succursale Ctr Ville, Montreal, PQ H3C 3J7, Canada; CNR INO, Pitaevskii BEC Ctr, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Univ Trento, Dipartimento Fis, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Inst Polytech Paris, Ecole Polytech, F-91128 Palaiseau, France; Tohoku Univ, Adv Inst Mat Res WPI AIMR, Sendai 9808577, Japan; Univ Montreal, Inst Courtois, Montreal, PQ, Canada.
Abstract: The quantization of transport and its resilience to backscattering are key features for leveraging topological matter in applications that demand stringent noise mitigation, such as metrology and quantum information processing. Because of the bosonic nature of light, engineering such robust, oneway channels in synthetic photonic systems imposes the implementation of topological models with broken time-reversal symmetry; this is challenging, since photons possess neither an electric charge nor a magnetic moment. Here, we propose and demonstrate an approach to realizing photonic Chern insulators-topological insulators with broken time-reversal symmetry-by encoding a Haldane-like model in the synthetic frequency dimension of an optical fiber loop platform. The bands’ topology is assessed by reconstructing the Bloch state geometry across the Brillouin zone. We further highlight its consequences by measuring a driven-dissipative analog of the quantized transverse Hall conductivity. Our results open avenues for harnessing topologically protected light propagation in frequencymultiplexed photonic systems, with applications ranging from precision metrology to photonic quantum processors.
Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW X
Volume: 16 (1) Pages from: 11020-1 to: 11020-18
More Information: We acknowledge insightful discussions with W. A. Coish. P. S.-J. acknowledges financial support from Quebec’s Fonds de Recherche-Nature et Technologies (FRQNT), Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC ), the Alliance Quantum Program grant funded by NSERC for the project entitled A new generation of hardware efficient superconducting qubits and Quebec’s Minstere de l’Economie, de l’Innovation et de l’Energie. I. C. acknowledges financial support from the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, from the Q@TN Initiative, and from the National Quantum Science and Technology Institute through the PNRR MUR Project under Grant No. PE0000023-NQSTI, cofunded by the European Union-NextGeneration EU. T. O. acknowledges financial support from JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. JP24K00548, JST PRESTO Grant No. JPMJPR2353, and JST CREST Grant No. JPMJCR19T1.KeyWords: Realization; Crystals; States; Matter; ModelDOI: 10.1103/2dyh-yhrb
