arXiv subjects

Xufeng Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Xufeng Zhang.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Quantum optics of single electrons in quantum liquid and solid helium-4

Single electrons can be conceived as the simplest quantum nodes in a quantum network. Between electrons, single photons can act as quantum channels to exchange quantum information. Despite this appealing picture, in conventional materials, it is extremely difficult to make individual electrons and photons coherently interact with each other at the visible-infrared wavelengths suitable for long-distance communication. Here we theoretically demonstrate that the self-confined single-electron structure in condensed helium-4 can be a fascinating candidate for single-electron quantum nodes. Each electron in helium forms a bubble of 1 to 2 nm radius and coherently interacts with mid-infrared photons. A parametrically amplified femtosecond laser can drive the electrons into any superposition between the ground and excited states. An electron inside a slot-waveguide cavity can strongly couple with cavity photons and exhibits vacuum Rabi oscillations. Two electrons in the cavity naturally generate entanglement through their respective coupling to the lossy cavity. The electron-in-helium system offers unique insight in understanding nonequilibrium quantum dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Experimental observation of exceptional surface in synthetic dimensions with magnon polaritons

Exceptional points (EPs) are singularities of energy levels in non-Hermitian systems. In this Letter, we demonstrate the surface of EPs on a magnon polariton platform composed of coupled magnons and microwave photons. Our experiments show that EPs form a three-dimensional exceptional surface (ES) when the system is tuned in a four-dimensional synthetic space. We demonstrated that there exists an exceptional saddle point (ESP) in the ES which originates from the unique couplings between magnons and microwave photons. Such an ESP exhibits unique anisotropic behaviors in both the real and imaginary part of the eigenfrequencies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental observation of ES, opening up new opportunities for high-dimensional control of non-Hermitian systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Patterned growth of crystalline Y$_{3}$Fe$_{5}$O$_{12}$ nanostructures with engineered magnetic shape anisotropy

We demonstrate patterned growth of epitaxial yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films using lithographically defined templates on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates. The fabricated YIG nanostructures yield the desired crystallographic orientation, excellent surface morphology, and narrow ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth (~ 4 Oe). Shape-induced magnetic anisotropy is clearly observed in a patterned array of nanobars engineered to exhibit the larger coercivity (40 Oe) compared with that of continuous films. Both hysteresis loop and angle-dependent FMR spectra measurements indicate that the easy axis aligns along the longitudinal direction of the nanobars, with an effective anisotropy field of 195 Oe. Our work overcomes difficulties in patterning YIG thin films and provides an effective means to control their magnetic properties and magnetic bias conditions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Low loss spin wave resonances in organic-based ferrimagnet vanadium tetracyanoethylene thin films

We experimentally demonstrate high quality factor spin wave resonances in an encapsulated thin film of the organic-based ferrimagnet vanadium tetracyanoethylene (V[TCNE]$_\textit{x~2}$) coated on an a-plane sapphire substrate by low temperature chemical vapor deposition. The thickness standing wave modes are observed in a broad frequency range (1 GHz ~ 5 GHz) with high quality factor exceeding 3,200 in ambient air at room temperature, rivaling those of inorganic magnetic materials. The exchange constant of V[TCNE]$_\textit{x~2}$, a crucial material parameter for future study and device design of the V[TCNE]$_\textit{x~2}$, is extracted from the measurement with a value of $(4.61\pm 0.35)\times 10^{-16} \mathrm{\: m^{2}}$. Our result establishes the feasibility of using organic-based materials for building hybrid magnonic devices and circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Optomagnonics in Magnetic Solids

Coherent conversion of photons to magnons, and back, provides a natural mechanism for rapid control of interactions between stationary spins with long coherence times and high-speed photons. Despite the large frequency difference between optical photons and magnons, coherent conversion can be achieved through a three-particle interaction between one magnon and two photons whose frequency difference is resonant with the magnon frequency, as in optomechanics with two photons and a phonon. The large spin density of a transparent ferromagnetic insulator (such as the ferrite yttrium iron garnet) in an optical cavity provides an intrinsic photon-magnon coupling strength that we calculate to exceed reported optomechanical couplings. A large cavity photon number and properly selected cavity detuning produce a predicted effective coupling strength sufficient for observing electromagnetically induced transparency and the Purcell effect, and even to reach the ultra-strong coupling regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Cavity magnomechanics

A dielectric body couples with electromagnetic fields through radiation pressure and electrostrictive forces, which mediate phonon-photon coupling in cavity optomechanics. In a magnetic medium, according to Korteweg-Helmholtz formula, magnetostrictive forces should arise and lead to phonon-magnon interaction. Here we report such a coupled phonon-magnon system based on ferrimagnetic spheres, which we term as cavity magnomechanics, by analogy to cavity optomechanics. Coherent phonon-magnon interactions, including electromagnetically induced transparency and absorption, are demonstrated. Excitingly, due to strong hybridization of magnon and microwave photon modes and their high tunability, our platform exhibits new features including parametric amplification of magnons and phonons, triply resonant photon-magnon-phonon coupling and phonon lasing. Our work demonstrates the fundamental principle of cavity magnomechanics and its application as a new information transduction platform based on coherent coupling between photons, phonons and magnons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Optomagnonic whispering gallery microresonators

Magnons in ferrimagnetic insulators such as yttrium iron garnet (YIG) have recently emerged as promising candidates for coherent information processing in microwave circuits. Here we demonstrate optical whispering gallery modes of a YIG sphere interrogated by a silicon nitride photonic waveguide, with quality factors approaching $10^6$ in the telecom c-band after surface treatments. Moreover, in contrast to conventional Faraday setup, this implementation allows input photon polarized colinearly to the magnetization to be scattered to a sideband mode of orthogonal polarization. This Brillouin scattering process is enhanced through triply resonant magnon, pump and signal photon modes - all of whispering gallery nature - within an "optomagnonic cavity". Our results show the potential use of magnons for mediating microwave-to-optical carrier conversion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Magnon dark modes and gradient memory

Extensive efforts have been expended in developing hybrid quantum systems to overcome the short coherence time of superconducting circuits by introducing the naturally long-lived spin degree of freedom. Among all the possible materials, single-crystal yttrium iron garnet has shown up very recently as a promising candidate for hybrid systems, and various highly coherent interactions, including strong and even ultra-strong coupling, have been demonstrated. One distinct advantage of these systems is that the spins are in the form of well-defined magnon modes, which allows flexible and precise tuning. Here we demonstrate that by dissipation engineering, a non-Markovian interaction dynamics between the magnon and the microwave cavity photon can be achieved. Such a process enables us to build a magnon gradient memory to store information in the magnon dark modes, which decouple from the microwave cavity and thus preserve a long life-time. Our findings provide a promising approach for developing long-lifetime, multimode quantum memories.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Electric-field coupling to spin waves in a centrosymmetric ferrite

We experimentally demonstrate that the spin-orbit interaction can be utilized for direct electric-field tuning of the propagation of spin waves in a single-crystal yttrium iron garnet magnonic waveguide. Magnetoelectric coupling not due to the spin-orbit interaction, and hence an order of magnitude weaker, leads to electric-field modification of the spin-wave velocity for waveguide geometries where the spin-orbit interaction will not contribute. A theory of the phase shift, validated by the experiment data, shows that, in the exchange spin wave regime, this electric tuning can have high efficiency. Our findings point to an important avenue for manipulating spin waves and developing electrically tunable magnonic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Strongly coupled magnons and cavity microwave photons

We realize a cavity magnon-microwave photon system in which magnetic dipole interaction mediates strong coupling between collective motion of large number of spins in a ferrimagnet and the microwave field in a three-dimensional cavity. By scaling down the cavity size and increasing number of spins, an ultrastrong coupling regime is achieved with a cooperativity reaching 12600. Interesting dynamic features including classical Rabi oscillation, magnetically induced transparency, and Purcell effect are demonstrated in this highly versatile platform, highlighting its great potential for coherent information processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Optical frequency comb generation from aluminum nitride micro-ring resonator

Aluminum nitride is an appealing nonlinear optical material for on-chip wavelength conversion. Here we report optical frequency comb generation from high quality factor aluminum nitride micro-ring resonators integrated on silicon substrates. By engineering the waveguide structure to achieve near-zero dispersion at telecommunication wavelengths and optimizing the phase matching for four-wave mixing, frequency combs are generated with a single wavelength continuous-wave pump laser. The Kerr coefficient (n2) of aluminum nitride is further extracted from our experimental results.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Nonlinear optical effects of ultrahigh-Q silicon photonic nanocavities immersed in superfluid helium

Photonic nanocavities are a key component in many applications because of their capability of trapping and storing photons and enhancing interactions of light with various functional materials and structures. The maximal number of photons that can be stored in silicon photonic cavities is limited by the free-carrier and thermo-optic effects at room temperature. To reduce such effects, we performed the first experimental study of optical nonlinearities in ultrahigh-Q silicon disk nanocavities at cryogenic temperatures in a superfluid helium environment. At elevated input power, the cavity transmission spectra exhibit distinct blue-shifted bistability behavior when temperature crosses the liquid helium lambda point. At even lower temperatures, the spectra restore to symmetric Lorentzian shapes. Under this condition, we obtain a large stored intracavity photon number of about 40,000, which is limited ultimately by the local helium phase transition. These new discoveries are explained by theoretical calculations and numerical simulations.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

A superhigh-frequency optoelectromechanical system based on a slotted photonic crystal cavity

We develop an all-integrated optoelectromechanical system that operates in the superhigh frequency band. This system is based on an ultrahigh-Q slotted photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity formed by two PhC membranes, one of which is patterned with electrode and capacitively driven. The strong simultaneous electromechanical and optomechanical interactions yield efficient electrical excitation and sensitive optical transduction of the bulk acoustic modes of the PhC membrane. These modes are identified up to a frequency of 4.20 GHz, with their mechanical Q factors ranging from 240 to 1,730. Directly linking signals in microwave and optical domains, such optoelectromechanical systems will find applications in microwave photonics in addition to those that utilize the electromechanical and optomechanical interactions separately.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

A 1.16-μm-radius disk cavity in a sunflower-type circular photonic crystal with ultrahigh quality factor

We present a 1.16-\mum-radius disk cavity with ultrahigh quality (Q) factor by embedding the disk into a sunflower-type circular photonic crystal (CPC). The band gap of the CPC reduces the bending loss of the whispering-gallery mode of the disk, leading to a simulated Q of 10^7, at least one order of magnitude higher than a bare disk of the same size. The design is experimentally verified with a record high loaded Q of 7.4 \times 10^5 measured from an optimized device fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator substrate.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

High-Q silicon optomechanical microdisk resonators at gigahertz frequencies

We report disk-shaped silicon optomechanical resonators with frequency up to 1.75 GHz in the ultrahigh frequency band. Optical transduction of the thermal motion of the disks' in-plane vibrational modes yields a displacement sensitivity of 4.1 \times 10^(-17) m/Hz^(1/2). Due to the reduced clamping loss, these disk resonators possess high mechanical quality factors (Q), with the highest value of 4370 for the 1.47 GHz mode measured in ambient air. Numerical simulation on the modal frequency and mechanical Q for disks of varying undercut shows modal coupling and suggests a realistic pedestal size to achieve the highest possible Q.

physics.optics↗