Engineering photonic Floquet Hamiltonians through Fabry–Pérot resonators. (7th March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sommer, Ariel; Simon, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: New journal of physics. Volume 18:Number 3(2016:Mar.)
• Publication Date: 2016-03-07
• Subjects: optical resonators -- photonic materials -- Floquet dynamics -- synthetic gauge fields -- synthetic spacetime curvature; Physics -- Periodicals; Physics; Periodicals; 530.05
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/18/3/035008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-2630

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper we analyze an optical Fabry–Pérot resonator as a time-periodic driving of the (2D) optical field repeatedly traversing the resonator, uncovering that resonator twist produces a synthetic magnetic field applied to the light within the resonator, while mirror aberrations produce relativistic dynamics, anharmonic trapping and spacetime curvature. We develop a Floquet formalism to compute the effective Hamiltonian for the 2D field, generalizing the idea that the intra-cavity optical field corresponds to an ensemble of non-interacting, massive, harmonically trapped particles. This work illuminates the extraordinary potential of optical resonators for exploring the physics of quantum fluids in gauge fields and exotic space–times.