Avik Dutt publishes in Nature Physics

Avik Dutt (IPST/Mechanical Engineering) with Christian Leefmans (California Institute of Technology) et al. published the article “Topological dissipation in a time-multiplexed photonic resonator network,” in Nature Physics, February 14, 2022.  The article was highlighted in the publication’s “News and Views”.

The team show that, in dissipatively coupled systems, non-trivial topological invariants can emerge purely in a system’s dissipation. This is in stark contrast to most previous work on conservatively coupled topological systems. Using a highly scalable and easily reconfigurable time-multiplexed photonic resonator network, they experimentally demonstrate one- and two-dimensional lattices that host robust topological edge states with isolated dissipation rates, measure a dissipation spectrum that possesses a topological invariant, and demonstrate topological protection of the network’s quality factor. These demonstrations expose new opportunities to engineer dissipation in both classical and quantum systems. Their platform’s straightforward scaling to higher dimensions and its ability to implement inhomogeneous, non-reciprocal and long-range couplings may enable future work in the study of synthetic dimensions.

 The team anticipates that dissipative couplings will enable new topological devices with applications to quantum computing and photonics.