Xi-Wang Luo’s research while affiliated with The University of Texas at Dallas and other places

Photonic synthetic dimensions offer a novel approach to generating additional dimensions in photonic systems by harnessing non-spatial degrees of freedom. This technique has demonstrated significant potential for the development of advanced all-optical devices. Here, we present a design and experimental demonstration of tunable high-order filters based on driving photon propagation in synthetic orbital angular momentum and polarization dimensions in a single cavity. We provide rigorous proof for the equality between the coupled ring resonator arrays and the synthetic lattice in a resonant cavity. We illustrate the dispersion relation of the constructed cavity and show that the synthetic dimension-based filter has an electric-controlled tunable center frequency and passband bandwidth. Our all-optical filter design would inspire the invention of functional optical devices using photonic synthetic lattices.

We study the propagation of dark-bright solitons in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with general nonlinear parameters, and explore how nonlinear interactions enrich the soliton dynamics giving rise to nonsinusoidal oscillations under constant forces. Treating the bright soliton as an effective barrier, we reveal that such oscillations are characterized by the Josephson equations with self-adapted critical current and bias voltage, whose explicit analytic expressions are derived using the Lagrangian variational method. The dynamical phase diagram in nonlinear parameter space is presented, identifying oscillation regions with different skewed sinusoidal dependence, and diffusion regions with irreversible soliton spreading due to instability of the barrier. Furthermore, we obtain periodic dispersion relations of the solitons, indicating a switch between positive and negative inertial masses, consistent with the oscillation behaviors. Our results provide a general and comprehensive theoretical framework for soliton oscillation dynamics and pave the way for investigating various nonlinear transports and their potential applications.

With recent advances in simulating quantum phenomena in cold atoms, the higher-rank spin tensor Hall effect was discovered in larger spin systems with spin-tensor-momentum coupling, which is an extension of the celebrated spin Hall effects in larger spins. Previously, it has been proposed that a 2D electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling can generate dissipationless transverse spin current, namely the spin Hall effect. However, later work showed that the spin current is canceled by vertex correction, which was subsequently proven by a cancellation theorem that does not depend on any assumptions related to the scattering mechanism, the strength of spin-orbit coupling, or the Fermi energy. While the recent proposal demonstrates a universal intrinsic spin-tensor Hall conductivity, it is unclear if it vanishes similarly to the spin Hall effect. In this work, we address this critical problem and show that the rank-2 spin-tensor current can be divergent by considering the contributions of both interbranch and intrabranch transitions, which resembles the quantum Hall effect in some sense. So the \textit{universal} spin-tensor Hall effect can not be observed in a system with finite size. However, we further show that there is an \textit{observable non-zero} resonance of spin-tensor Hall conductivity as the Landau levels cross under the magnetic field. Our work reveals interesting conductivity properties of larger-spin systems and will provide valuable guidance for experimental explorations of higher-rank spin-tensor Hall effects, as well as their potential device applications.

We study charge pumping in generic non-Hermitian settings and show that quantized charge pumping is only guaranteed under a biorthogonal formalism therein, where the charge transport is evaluated using the left and right eigenvectors of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Specifically, for biorthogonal charge pumping in generic one-dimensional non-Hermitian models, we demonstrate how quantized transport is related to the Chern number in the parameter space. When the non-Hermitian model possesses the non-Hermitian skin effect, under which Bloch states in the bulk are deformed and localize toward boundaries, we propose a scenario where the pumped charge is related to the non-Bloch Chern number defined in the parameter space involving the generalized Brillouin zone. We illustrate the validity of our analytic results using concrete examples and, in the context of the biorthogonal charge pumping, discuss in detail a recent experiment where quantized charge pumping was observed in a lossy environment.

The momentum space Josephson effect describes the supercurrent flow between weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) at two discrete momentum states. Here, we experimentally observe this exotic phenomenon using a BEC with Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling, where the tunneling between two local band minima is implemented by the momentum kick of an additional optical lattice. A sudden quench of the Raman detuning induces coherent spin-momentum oscillations of the BEC, which is analogous to the ac Josephson effect. We observe both plasma and regular Josephson oscillations in different parameter regimes. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical model and numerical simulation and showcase the important role of nonlinear interactions. We also show that the measurement of the Josephson plasma frequency gives the Bogoliubov zero quasimomentum gap, which determines the mass of the corresponding pseudo-Goldstone mode, a long-sought phenomenon in particle physics. The observation of momentum space Josephson physics offers an exciting platform for quantum simulation and sensing utilizing momentum states as a synthetic degree.

We demonstrate a 1D topological laser with well-defined non-Hermitian topological bulk, implemented on the III-V compounds platform using the micro-ring array. This system results in high efficiency and robust edge-lasing.

Recent studies of disorder or non-Hermiticity induced topological insulators inject new ingredients for engineering topological matter. Here, we consider the effect of purely non-Hermitian disorders, a combination of these two ingredients, in a 1D coupled-cavity array with disordered gain and loss. Topological photonic states can be induced by increasing gain-loss disorder strength with topological invariants carried by localized states in the complex bulk spectra. The system showcases rich phase diagrams and distinct topological states from Hermitian disorders. The non-Hermitian critical behavior is characterized by the biorthogonal localization length of zero-energy edge modes, which diverges at the critical transition point and establishes the bulk-edge correspondence. Furthermore, we show that the bulk topology may be experimentally accessed by measuring the biorthogonal chiral displacement, which can be extracted from a proper Ramsey interferometer that works in both clean and disordered regions. The proposed coupled-cavity photonic setup relies on techniques that have been experimentally demonstrated and, thus, provides a feasible route toward exploring such non-Hermitian disorder driven topological insulators.