Demonstration of a Tunable Non-Hermitian Nonlinear Microwave Dimer

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Salcedo-Gallo, Juan S., Burgelman, Michiel, Flynn, Vincent P., Carney, Alexander S., Hamdan, Majd, Gerg, Tunmay, Smallwood, Daniel C., Viola, Lorenza, Fitzpatrick, Mattias
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912538078216192
author Salcedo-Gallo, Juan S.
Burgelman, Michiel
Flynn, Vincent P.
Carney, Alexander S.
Hamdan, Majd
Gerg, Tunmay
Smallwood, Daniel C.
Viola, Lorenza
Fitzpatrick, Mattias
author_facet Salcedo-Gallo, Juan S.
Burgelman, Michiel
Flynn, Vincent P.
Carney, Alexander S.
Hamdan, Majd
Gerg, Tunmay
Smallwood, Daniel C.
Viola, Lorenza
Fitzpatrick, Mattias
contents Achieving and controlling non-reciprocity in engineered photonic structures is of fundamental interest in science and engineering. Here, we introduce a tunable, non-Hermitian, nonlinear microwave dimer designed to precisely implement phase-non-reciprocal hopping dynamics between two spatially separated cavities at room temperature. Our system incorporates simple components such as three-dimensional microwave cavities, unidirectional amplifiers, digital attenuators, and a digital phase shifter. By dividing the energy transfer into forward and backward paths, our platform enables precise control over the amplitude and phase of the propagating signals in each direction. Through a combination of theoretical and numerical analysis, we model the dynamics of the system under different operating conditions, including a parameter regime where the gain not only compensates for but significantly exceeds the inherent loss. Our model quantitatively reproduces the observed weak-drive transmission spectra, the amplitude and frequency of self-sustained limit cycles, and the phase locking synchronization effect between the limit cycle and an external microwave tone. Our results may have implications in areas ranging from sensing and synthetic photonic materials to neuromorphic computing and quantum networks, while providing new insight into the interplay between non-Hermitian and nonlinear dynamics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_13364
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Demonstration of a Tunable Non-Hermitian Nonlinear Microwave Dimer
Salcedo-Gallo, Juan S.
Burgelman, Michiel
Flynn, Vincent P.
Carney, Alexander S.
Hamdan, Majd
Gerg, Tunmay
Smallwood, Daniel C.
Viola, Lorenza
Fitzpatrick, Mattias
Quantum Physics
Achieving and controlling non-reciprocity in engineered photonic structures is of fundamental interest in science and engineering. Here, we introduce a tunable, non-Hermitian, nonlinear microwave dimer designed to precisely implement phase-non-reciprocal hopping dynamics between two spatially separated cavities at room temperature. Our system incorporates simple components such as three-dimensional microwave cavities, unidirectional amplifiers, digital attenuators, and a digital phase shifter. By dividing the energy transfer into forward and backward paths, our platform enables precise control over the amplitude and phase of the propagating signals in each direction. Through a combination of theoretical and numerical analysis, we model the dynamics of the system under different operating conditions, including a parameter regime where the gain not only compensates for but significantly exceeds the inherent loss. Our model quantitatively reproduces the observed weak-drive transmission spectra, the amplitude and frequency of self-sustained limit cycles, and the phase locking synchronization effect between the limit cycle and an external microwave tone. Our results may have implications in areas ranging from sensing and synthetic photonic materials to neuromorphic computing and quantum networks, while providing new insight into the interplay between non-Hermitian and nonlinear dynamics.
title Demonstration of a Tunable Non-Hermitian Nonlinear Microwave Dimer
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13364