NSF Award
2409353
Just as the miniaturization of electronic circuits to micro- and nano-scale has enabled the development of modern high-performance computing technology, current efforts to miniaturize optical circuits hold great promise to launch a new technology paradigm for computers and sensors. In optical circuits, signals are carried by light rather than by electrical voltages; optical circuits and large-scale networks are already being used to carry information across the globe for communication purposes. Interest in optical information technology has grown recently because optical devices and circuits can naturally span the gap between current computing architectures based on classical physics, and emerging ideas that employ novel phenomena of quantum physics to enhance computational performance. The primary aims of this research program will be to develop deeper insights into the transition regime of optical circuits, in which quantum phenomena first become significant as the optical circuits are miniaturized in both size and power consumption. The research program includes both theoretical and experimental components in order to propose new ways of understanding this mesoscopic transition regime and to test new ideas in the laboratory.<br/><br/>The technical focus of this research encompasses emergent quantum non-Gaussian dynamics in mesoscopic nonlinear nanophotonics with characteristic energy scales on the order of tens of photons. This regime will soon become accessible using nanopatterned lithium niobate devices and ultrafast laser sources. Theoretical work will consider experimentally realistic models and develop new modeling frameworks for simulation and analysis of dissipative quantum dynamics and cascaded quantum devices in the non-Gaussian mesoscopic regime. Experimental work will implement and test a novel approach leveraging ultrafast nonlinear dynamics to characterize pulse-to-pulse quantum correlations, which could have important future applications for on-chip quantum metrology. The broader impacts of this proposal include technologically significant impact on the long-term direction of nanophotonics and quantum engineering and will advance a long-term program of assimilating quantum conceptual insights from fields such as cavity quantum electrodynamics into ultrafast nonlinear optics, which traditionally has limited its focus to semiclassical theory.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
