Quantized topological energy pumping and Weyl points in Floquet synthetic dimensions with a driven-dissipative photonic molecule

Abstract

Topological effects manifest in a wide range of physical systems, such as solid crystals, acoustic waves, photonic materials and cold atoms. These effects are characterized by `topological invariants' which are typically integer-valued, and lead to robust quantized channels of transport in space, time, and other degrees of freedom. The temporal channel, in particular, allows one to achieve higher- dimensional topological effects, by driving the system with multiple incommensurate frequencies. However, dissipation is generally detrimental to such topological effects, particularly when the systems consist of quantum spins or qubits. Here we introduce a photonic molecule subjected to multiple RF/optical drives and dissipation as a promising candidate system to observe quantized transport along Floquet synthetic dimensions. Topological energy pumping in the incommensurately modulated photonic molecule is enhanced by the driven-dissipative nature of our platform. Furthermore, we provide a path to realizing Weyl points and measuring the Berry curvature emanating from these reciprocal-space (k-space) magnetic monopoles, illustrating the capabilities for higher-dimensional topological Hamiltonian simulation in this platform. Our approach enables direct k-space engineering of a wide variety of Hamiltonians using modulation bandwidths that are well below the free-spectral range (FSR) of integrated photonic cavities.