arXiv subjects

Vittorio Peano

Publications and source records attributed to Vittorio Peano.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Artificial discovery of lattice models for wave transport

Wave transport devices, such as amplifiers, frequency converters, and nonreciprocal devices, are essential for modern communication, signal processing, and sensing applications. Of particular interest are traveling wave setups, which offer excellent gain and bandwidth properties. So far, the conceptual design of those devices has relied on human ingenuity. This makes it difficult and time-consuming to explore the full design space under a variety of constraints and target functionalities. In our work, we present a method which automates this challenge. By optimizing the discrete and continuous parameters of periodic coupled-mode lattices, our approach identifies the simplest lattices that achieve the target transport functionality, and we apply it to discover new schemes for directional amplifiers, isolators, and frequency demultiplexers. Leveraging automated symbolic regression tools, we find closed analytical expressions that facilitate the discovery of generalizable construction rules. Moreover, we utilize important conceptual connections between the device transport properties and non-Hermitian topology. The resulting structures can be implemented on a variety of platforms, including microwave, optical, and optomechanical systems. Our approach opens the door to extensions like the artificial discovery of lattice models with desired properties in higher dimensions or with nonlinear interactions.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Nonreciprocity in Quantum Technology

Nonreciprocity-the ability to transmit signals in one direction while blocking them in the reverse-has become a powerful resource in quantum technologies, enabling directional amplification, routing of quantum information, and topologically protected quantum states. Recent experimental advances have demonstrated nonreciprocal behavior in low-loss, fully integrated devices operating with weak or no magnetic bias, enabled by synthetic gauge fields, optomechanical interactions, and chiral light-matter coupling. These achievements overcome the limitations of more traditional approaches, making nonreciprocity compatible with superconducting circuits and scalable quantum photonic architectures as well as an integral part of the next generation of modular quantum computers, distributed quantum networks, and precision metrology. Here we highlight the key concepts for engineering nonreciprocity in quantum systems and describe how this functionality can be employed for high-fidelity qubit readout, robust quantum state transfer, and boosting the sensitivity of quantum sensors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Automated Discovery of Coupled Mode Setups

In optics and photonics, a small number of building blocks, like resonators, waveguides, arbitrary couplings, and parametric interactions, allow the design of a broad variety of devices and functionalities, distinguished by their scattering properties. These include transducers, amplifiers, and nonreciprocal devices, like isolators or circulators. Usually, the design of such a system is handcrafted by an experienced scientist in a time-consuming process where it remains uncertain whether the simplest possibility has indeed been found. In our work, we develop the discovery algorithm AutoScatter [https://github.com/jlandgr/autoscatter] that automates this challenge. By optimizing the continuous and discrete system properties our automated search identifies the minimal resources required to realize the requested scattering behavior. In the spirit of artificial scientific discovery, it produces a complete list of interpretable solutions and leads to generalizable insights, as we illustrate in several examples. This opens the door towards automated discovery of scattering setups for photonics, microwaves and optomechanics, with possible future extensions to periodic structures, sensing, and electronic devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Engineering Arbitrary Hamiltonians in Phase Space

We introduce a general method to engineer arbitrary Hamiltonians in the Floquet phase space of a periodically driven oscillator, based on the non-commutative Fourier transformation (NcFT) technique. We establish the relationship between an arbitrary target Floquet Hamiltonian in phase space and the periodic driving potential in real space. We obtain analytical expressions for the driving potentials in real space that can generate novel Hamiltonians in phase space, e.g., rotational lattices and sharp-boundary well. Our protocol can be realised in a range of experimental platforms for nonclassical states generation and bosonic quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering with Feedback

Efficient approaches to quantum control and feedback are essential for quantum technologies, from sensing to quantum computation. Open-loop control tasks have been successfully solved using optimization techniques, including methods like gradient-ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE), relying on a differentiable model of the quantum dynamics. For feedback tasks, such methods are not directly applicable, since the aim is to discover strategies conditioned on measurement outcomes. In this work, we introduce feedback-GRAPE, which borrows some concepts from model-free reinforcement learning to incorporate the response to strong stochastic (discrete or continuous) measurements, while still performing direct gradient ascent through the quantum dynamics. We illustrate its power considering various scenarios based on cavity QED setups. Our method yields interpretable feedback strategies for state preparation and stabilization in the presence of noise. Our approach could be employed for discovering strategies in a wide range of feedback tasks, from calibration of multi-qubit devices to linear-optics quantum computation strategies, quantum-enhanced sensing with adaptive measurements, and quantum error correction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Tunneling-induced fractal transmission in Valley Hall waveguides

The Valley Hall effect provides a popular route to engineer robust waveguides for bosonic excitations such a photons and phonons. The almost complete absence of backscattering in many experiments has its theoretical underpinning in a smooth-envelope approximation that neglects large momentum transfer and is accurate only for small bulk band gaps and/or smooth domain walls. For larger bulk band gaps and hard domain walls backscattering is expected to become significant. Here, we show that in this experimentally relevant regime, the reflection of a wave at a sharp corner becomes highly sensitive on the orientation of the outgoing waveguide relative to the underlying lattice. Enhanced backscattering can be understood as being triggered by resonant tunneling transitions in quasimomentum space. Tracking the resonant tunneling energies as a function of the waveguide orientation reveals a self-repeating fractal pattern that is also imprinted in the density of states and the backscattering rate at a sharp corner.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Topologically Protected Transport in Engineered Mechanical Systems

Mechanical vibrations are being harnessed for a variety of purposes and at many length scales, from the macroscopic world down to the nanoscale. The considerable design freedom in mechanical structures allows to engineer new functionalities. In recent years, this has been exploited to generate setups that offer topologically protected transport of vibrational waves, both in the solid state and in fluids. Borrowing concepts from electronic physics and being cross-fertilized by concurrent studies for cold atoms and electromagnetic waves, this field of topological transport in engineered mechanical systems offers a rich variety of phenomena and platforms. In this review, we provide a unifying overview of the various ideas employed in this area, summarize the different approaches and experimental implementations, and comment on the challenges as well as the prospects.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Phase Space Crystal Vibrations: Chiral Edge States with Preserved Time-reversal Symmetry

It was recently discovered that atoms subject to a time-periodic drive can give rise to a crystal structure in phase space. In this work, we point out the atom-atom interactions give rise to collective phonon excitations of phase-space crystal via a pairing interaction with intrinsically complex phases that can lead to a phonon Chern insulator, accompanied by topologically robust chiral transport along the edge of the phase-space crystal. This topological phase is realized even in scenarios where the time-reversal transformation is a symmetry, which is surprising because the breaking of time-reversal symmetry is a strict precondition for topological chiral transport in the standard setting of real-space crystals. Our work has also important implications for the dynamics of 2D charged particles in a strong magnetic field.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Tunneling in the Brillouin Zone: Theory of Backscattering in Valley Hall Edge Channels

A large set of recent experiments has been exploring topological transport in bosonic systems, e.g. of photons or phonons. In the vast majority, time-reversal symmetry is preserved, and band structures are engineered by a suitable choice of geometry, to produce topologically nontrivial bandgaps in the vicinity of high-symmetry points. However, this leaves open the possibility of large-quasimomentum backscattering, destroying the topological protection. Up to now, it has been unclear what precisely are the conditions where this effect can be sufficiently suppressed. In the present work, we introduce a comprehensive semiclassical theory of tunneling transitions in momentum space, describing backscattering for one of the most important system classes, based on the valley Hall effect. We predict that even for a smooth domain wall effective scattering centres develop at locations determined by both the local slope of the wall and the energy. Moreover, our theory provides a quantitative analysis of the exponential suppression of the overall reflection amplitude with increasing domain wall smoothness.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Rapid Exploration of Topological Band Structures using Deep Learning

The design of periodic nanostructures allows to tailor the transport of photons, phonons, and matter waves for specific applications. Recent years have seen a further expansion of this field by engineering topological properties. However, what is missing currently are efficient ways to rapidly explore and optimize band structures and to classify their topological characteristics, for arbitrary unit cell geometries. In this work, we show how deep learning can address this challenge. We introduce an approach where a neural network first maps the geometry to a tight-binding model. This allows us to exploit any underlying space group and predict the symmetries of Bloch waves. We demonstrate how that helps to rapidly categorize a large set of geometries in terms of their band representations, identifying designs for fragile topologies. Engineering of domain walls and optimization are also accelerated by orders of magnitude. The approach is general enough to permit future applications to the geometry discovery in other classes of materials (e.g. active and nonlinear metamaterials).

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Topological phonon transport in an optomechanical system

Recent advances in cavity-optomechanics have now made it possible to use light not just as a passive measuring device of mechanical motion, but also to manipulate the motion of mechanical objects down to the level of individual quanta of vibrations (phonons). At the same time, microfabrication techniques have enabled small-scale optomechanical circuits capable of on-chip manipulation of mechanical and optical signals. Building on these developments, theoretical proposals have shown that larger scale optomechanical arrays can be used to modify the propagation of phonons, realizing a form of topologically protected phonon transport. Here, we report the observation of topological phonon transport within a multiscale optomechanical crystal structure consisting of an array of over $800$ cavity-optomechanical elements. Using sensitive, spatially resolved optical read-out we detect thermal phonons in a $0.325-0.34$GHz band traveling along a topological edge channel, with substantial reduction in backscattering. This represents an important step from the pioneering macroscopic mechanical systems work towards topological phononic systems at the nanoscale, where hypersonic frequency ($\gtrsim$GHz) acoustic wave circuits consisting of robust delay lines and non-reciprocal elements may be implemented. Owing to the broadband character of the topological channels, the control of the flow of heat-carrying phonons, albeit at cryogenic temperatures, may also be envisioned.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Nonreciprocal topological phononics in optomechanical arrays

We propose a platform for robust and tunable nonreciprocal phonon transport based on arrays of optomechanical microtoroids. In our approach, time-reversal symmetry is broken by the interplay of photonic spin-orbit coupling, engineered using a state-of-the-art geometrical approach, and the optomechanical interaction. We demonstrate the topologically protected nature of this system by investigating its robustness to imperfections. This type of system could find application in phonon-based information storage and signal processing devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Quantum state transfer via acoustic edge states in a 2D optomechanical array

We propose a novel hybrid platform where solid-state spin qubits are coupled to the acoustic modes of a two-dimensional array of optomechanical nano cavities. Previous studies of coupled optomechanical cavities have shown that in the presence of strong optical driving fields, the interplay between the photon-phonon interaction and their respective inter-cavity hopping allows the generation of topological phases of sound and light. In particular, the mechanical modes can enter a Chern insulator phase where the time-reversal symmetry is broken. In this context, we exploit the robust acoustic edge states as a chiral phononic waveguide and describe a state transfer protocol between spin qubits located in distant cavities. We analyze the performance of this protocol as a function of the relevant system parameters and show that a high-fidelity and purely unidirectional quantum state transfer can be implemented under experimentally realistic conditions. As a specific example, we discuss the implementation of such topological quantum networks in diamond based optomechanical crystals where point defects such as silicon-vacancy centers couple to the chiral acoustic channel via strain.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Chimera states in small disordered optomechanical arrays

Synchronization of weakly-coupled non-linear oscillators is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has been observed across the natural sciences. We study the dynamics of optomechanical arrays - networks of mechanically compliant structures that interact with the radiation pressure force - which are driven to self-oscillation. These systems offer a convenient platform to study synchronization phenomena and have potential technological applications. We demonstrate that this system supports the existence of long-lived chimera states, where parts of the array synchronize whilst others do not. Through a combined numerical and analytical analysis we show that these chimera states can only emerge in the presence of disorder.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Topological edge states for disordered bosonic systems

Quadratic bosonic Hamiltonians over a one-particle Hilbert space can be described by a Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonian on a particle-hole Hilbert space. In general, the BdG Hamiltonian is not selfadjoint, but only $J$-selfadjoint on the particle-hole space viewed as a Krein space. Nevertheless, its energy bands can have non-trivial topological invariants like Chern numbers or winding numbers. By a thorough analysis for tight-binding models, it is proved that these invariants lead to bosonic edge modes which are robust to a large class of possibly disordered perturbations. Furthermore, general scenarios are presented for these edge states to be dynamically unstable, even though the bulk modes are stable.

math-ph↗

arXiv2017

L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields

Topology has appeared in different physical contexts. The most prominent application is topologically protected edge transport in condensed matter physics. The Chern number, the topological invariant of gapped Bloch Hamiltonians, is an important quantity in this field. Another example of topology, in polarization physics, are polarization singularities, called L lines and C points. By establishing a connection between these two theories, we develop a novel technique to visualize and potentially measure the Chern number: it can be expressed either as the winding of the polarization azimuth along L lines in reciprocal space, or in terms of the handedness and the index of the C points. For mechanical systems, this is directly connected to the visible motion patterns.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Snowflake Topological Insulator for Sound Waves

We show how the snowflake phononic crystal structure, which has been realized experimentally recently, can be turned into a topological insulator for sound waves. This idea, based purely on simple geometrical modifications, could be readily implemented on the nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Pseudomagnetic fields for sound at the nanoscale

There is a growing effort in creating chiral transport of sound waves. However, most approaches so far are confined to the macroscopic scale. Here, we propose a new approach suitable to the nanoscale which is based on pseudomagnetic fields. These fields are the analogon for sound of the pseudomagnetic field for electrons in strained graphene. In our proposal, they are created by simple geometrical modifications of an existing and experimentally proven phononic crystal design, the snowflake crystal. This platform is robust, scalable, and well-suited for a variety of excitation and readout mechanisms, among them optomechanical approaches.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗