Work

Disorder and dephasing as control knobs for light transport in optical fiber cavity networks

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: Transport phenomena represent a very interdisciplinary topic with applications in many fields of science, such as physics, chemistry, and biology. In this context, the possibility to design a perfectly controllable experimental setup, where to tune and optimize its dynamics parameters, is a challenging but very relevant task to emulate, for instance, the transmission of energy in light harvesting processes. Here, we experimentally build a scalable and controllable transport emulator based on optical fiber cavity networks where the system noise parameters can be finely tuned while maximizing the transfer efficiency. In particular, we demonstrate that disorder and dephasing noise are two control knobs allowing one to play with constructive and destructive interference to optimize the transport paths towards an exit site. These optical setups, on one side, mimic the transport dynamics in natural photosynthetic organisms and, on the other, are very promising platforms to artificially design optimal nanoscale structures for novel, more efficient, clean energy technologies.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/srep37791

Authors: Silvia Viciani, Stefano Gherardini, Manuela Lima, Marco Bellini, Filippo Caruso

Institutions: European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, National Institute of Optics, University of Florence, Quantum Science and Technology in Arcetri

Language: English

Topic: Random lasers and scattering media

Subfield: Acoustics and Ultrasonics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,690