Chilean physicists participate in the creation of light “molecules” through the fusion of optical fibers

A group of Chilean physicists participated in the creation of light “molecules” through the fusion of optical fibers, reported the University of Chile.

The international study was published in the journal Nano Letters, one of the most recognized in the area. The experiment explores the fabrication of molecular photonic networks.

“Our laboratory in the Department of Physics, in Beauchef (Santiago Centro), is capable of manufacturing waveguides (optical fibers) inside glass, where each one of them can be thought of as if it were an atom. So, by manufacturing these structures very close in space – 7 micrometers or less – we were able to create light molecules and study their properties within this ecosystem,” explains Rodrigo Vicencio, academic at the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile.

The group developed a technique that manages to correct imperfections during the construction of devices, stabilizing structures and allowing advances to favor the creation of optical and quantum memories. These networks behave in a similar way to atoms in an atomic network, and their arrangement allows key physical properties to be studied, comments the researcher.

He also adds that the use of “these molecules had previously been proposed with other techniques, but they had not been developed and studied in a specific network and, furthermore, through the excitation of different orbital states,” adds the scientist.

The method and the future

The team used computational and simulation techniques in the theoretical study phase. Subsequently, experiments were carried out using a femtosecond laser to write the photonic molecules.

The characterization of the samples was carried out with a supercontinuous laser to study their spectral response. The next step will be to explore and identify other more effective geometries, including the study of orbital states at a “magic angle”, which we believe will induce invisibility between nearby waveguides.

Together with Vicencio, Diego Román and Christopher Cid, from the Department of Physics of the University of Chile and the MIRO Institute, participated in this research, along with Maxim Gorlach and Maxim Mazanov, from ITMO University, Russia, and Gabriel Cáceres, from the University of Rostock, Germany.

You can see the article HERE.