Photonic Newton’s Cradle for Remote Energy Transport
Zhen Feng, Zhen-Wei Gao, Lian-Ao Wu, Hao Tang, Ke Sun, Cheng-Qiu Hu, Yao Wang, Zhan-Ming Li, Xiao-Wei Wang, Yuan Chen, En-Ze Zhang, Zhi-Qiang Jiao, Xiao-Yun Xu, Jun Gao, Ai-Lin Yang, Xian-Min Jin · Physical Review Applied · 2019
The familiar ``Newton's cradle'' demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy using a series of swinging identical spheres. Reaching beyond desktop toys, the authors explore a photonic analog of Newton's cradle, and show its utility for energy transport in optical quantum information processing. In a chain of 21 coupled sites on a photonic chip, long-range interactions are mediated as single-photon excitations are transferred between pairs of remote sites, via simultaneous control of weak and strong couplings. This approach offers flexible Hamiltonian engineering beyond geometric limitations, enabling on-demand design and construction of integrated networks for quantum simulation.