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Efficient and tunable narrowband second-harmonic generation by a large-area etchless lithium niobate metasurface
Authors:
Yaping Hou,
Yigong Luan,
Yu Fan,
Alfonso Nardi,
Attilio Zilli,
Bobo Du,
Jinyou Shao,
Marco Finazzi,
Chunhui Wang,
Lei Zhang,
Michele Celebrano
Abstract:
Optical resonances in nanostructures enable strong enhancement of nonlinear processes at the nanoscale, such as second-harmonic generation (SHG), with high-$Q$ modes providing intensified light--matter interactions and sharp spectral selectivity for applications in filtering, sensing, and nonlinear spectroscopy. Thanks to the recent advances in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technology, these ke…
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Optical resonances in nanostructures enable strong enhancement of nonlinear processes at the nanoscale, such as second-harmonic generation (SHG), with high-$Q$ modes providing intensified light--matter interactions and sharp spectral selectivity for applications in filtering, sensing, and nonlinear spectroscopy. Thanks to the recent advances in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technology, these key features can be now translated to lithium niobate for realizing novel nanoscale nonlinear optical platforms. Here, we demonstrate a large-area metasurface, realized by scalable nanoimprint lithography, comprising a slanted titanium dioxide (TiO$_2$) nanograting on etchless TFLN for efficient narrowband SHG. This is enabled by the optimal coupling of quasi-bound state in the continuum (q-BIC) modes with a narrowband pulsed laser pump. The demonstrated normalized SHG efficiency is $0.15\%\,\mathrm{cm}^2/\mathrm{GW}$, which is among the largest reported for LN metasurfaces. The low pump peak intensity ($3.64~\mathrm{kW}/\mathrm{cm}^2$) employed, which enables SHG even by continuous-wave pumping, allows envisioning integrated and portable photonic applications. SHG wavelength tuning from $870$ to $920~\mathrm{nm}$ with stable output power as well as polarization control is also achieved by off-normal pump illumination. This versatile platform opens new opportunities for sensing, THz generation and detection, and ultrafast electro-optic modulation of nonlinear optical signals.
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Submitted 3 February, 2026; v1 submitted 31 January, 2026;
originally announced February 2026.
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Towards a hybrid 3D transmon qubit with topological insulator-based Josephson junctions
Authors:
Sheng-Wen Huang,
Ramya Suresh,
Jian Liao,
Botao Du,
Zachary Miles,
Leonid P. Rokhinson,
Yong P. Chen,
Ruichao Ma
Abstract:
Superconducting quantum circuits provide a versatile platform for studying quantum materials by leveraging precise microwave control and utilizing the tools of circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). Hybrid circuit devices incorporating novel quantum materials could also lead to new qubit functionalities, such as gate tunability and noise resilience. Here, we report experimental progress towards a…
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Superconducting quantum circuits provide a versatile platform for studying quantum materials by leveraging precise microwave control and utilizing the tools of circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). Hybrid circuit devices incorporating novel quantum materials could also lead to new qubit functionalities, such as gate tunability and noise resilience. Here, we report experimental progress towards a transmon-like qubit made with a superconductor-topological insulator-superconductor (S-TI-S) Josephson junction using exfoliated BiSbTeSe2. We present a design that enables us to systematically characterize the hybrid device, from DC transport of the S-TI-S junction, to RF spectroscopy, to full circuit QED control and measurement of the hybrid qubit. In addition, we utilize a high-quality-factor superconducting cavity to characterize material and fabrication-induced losses, thereby guiding our efforts to improve device quality.
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Submitted 22 June, 2025;
originally announced June 2025.
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Rejoining fragmented ancient bamboo slips with physics-driven deep learning
Authors:
Jinchi Zhu,
Zhou Zhao,
Hailong Lei,
Xiaoguang Wang,
Jialiang Lu,
Jing Li,
Qianqian Tang,
Jiachen Shen,
Gui-Song Xia,
Bo Du,
Yongchao Xu
Abstract:
Bamboo slips are a crucial medium for recording ancient civilizations in East Asia, and offers invaluable archaeological insights for reconstructing the Silk Road, studying material culture exchanges, and global history. However, many excavated bamboo slips have been fragmented into thousands of irregular pieces, making their rejoining a vital yet challenging step for understanding their content.…
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Bamboo slips are a crucial medium for recording ancient civilizations in East Asia, and offers invaluable archaeological insights for reconstructing the Silk Road, studying material culture exchanges, and global history. However, many excavated bamboo slips have been fragmented into thousands of irregular pieces, making their rejoining a vital yet challenging step for understanding their content. Here we introduce WisePanda, a physics-driven deep learning framework designed to rejoin fragmented bamboo slips. Based on the physics of fracture and material deterioration, WisePanda automatically generates synthetic training data that captures the physical properties of bamboo fragmentations. This approach enables the training of a matching network without requiring manually paired samples, providing ranked suggestions to facilitate the rejoining process. Compared to the leading curve matching method, WisePanda increases Top-50 matching accuracy from 36% to 52% among more than one thousand candidate fragments. Archaeologists using WisePanda have experienced substantial efficiency improvements (approximately 20 times faster) when rejoining fragmented bamboo slips. This research demonstrates that incorporating physical principles into deep learning models can significantly enhance their performance, transforming how archaeologists restore and study fragmented artifacts. WisePanda provides a new paradigm for addressing data scarcity in ancient artifact restoration through physics-driven machine learning.
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Submitted 2 July, 2025; v1 submitted 13 May, 2025;
originally announced May 2025.
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Tunneling Spectroscopy in Superconducting Circuit Lattices
Authors:
Botao Du,
Qihao Guo,
Santiago López,
Ruichao Ma
Abstract:
We demonstrate tunneling spectroscopy of synthetic quantum matter in superconducting circuit lattices. We measure site-resolved excitation spectra by coupling the lattice to engineered driven-dissipative particle baths that serve as local tunneling probes. Using incoherent particle source and drain, we independently extract quasi-particle and quasi-hole spectra and reconstruct the spatial structur…
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We demonstrate tunneling spectroscopy of synthetic quantum matter in superconducting circuit lattices. We measure site-resolved excitation spectra by coupling the lattice to engineered driven-dissipative particle baths that serve as local tunneling probes. Using incoherent particle source and drain, we independently extract quasi-particle and quasi-hole spectra and reconstruct the spatial structure of collective excitations. We perform spectroscopy of a strongly interacting Bose-Hubbard lattice at different densities, observing changes in energy gaps across the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition and the effects of three-body interactions. Our results provide a new toolset for characterizing many-body states in analog quantum simulators.
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Submitted 9 May, 2025; v1 submitted 12 November, 2024;
originally announced November 2024.
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Probing Site-Resolved Current in Strongly Interacting Superconducting Circuit Lattices
Authors:
Botao Du,
Ramya Suresh,
Santiago López,
Jeremy Cadiente,
Ruichao Ma
Abstract:
Transport measurements are fundamental for understanding condensed matter phenomena, from superconductivity to the fractional quantum Hall effect. Analogously, they can be powerful tools for probing synthetic quantum matter in quantum simulators. Here we demonstrate the measurement of in-situ particle current in a superconducting circuit lattice and apply it to study transport in both coherent and…
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Transport measurements are fundamental for understanding condensed matter phenomena, from superconductivity to the fractional quantum Hall effect. Analogously, they can be powerful tools for probing synthetic quantum matter in quantum simulators. Here we demonstrate the measurement of in-situ particle current in a superconducting circuit lattice and apply it to study transport in both coherent and bath-coupled lattices. Our method utilizes controlled tunneling in a double-well potential to map current to on-site density, revealing site-resolved current and current statistics. We prepare a strongly interacting Bose-Hubbard lattice at different lattice fillings, and observe the change in current statistics as the many-body states transition from superfluid to Mott insulator. Furthermore, we explore non-equilibrium current dynamics by coupling the lattice to engineered driven-dissipative baths that serve as tunable particle source and drain. We observe steady-state current in discrete conduction channels and interaction-assisted transport. These results establish a versatile platform to investigate microscopic quantum transport in superconducting circuits.
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Submitted 8 July, 2024; v1 submitted 18 March, 2024;
originally announced March 2024.
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Krylov Complexity in Calabi-Yau Quantum Mechanics
Authors:
Bao-ning Du,
Min-xin Huang
Abstract:
Recently, a novel measure for the complexity of operator growth is proposed based on Lanczos algorithm and Krylov recursion method. We study this Krylov complexity in quantum mechanical systems derived from some well-known local toric Calabi-Yau geometries, as well as some non-relativistic models. We find that for the Calabi-Yau models, the Lanczos coefficients grow slower than linearly for small…
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Recently, a novel measure for the complexity of operator growth is proposed based on Lanczos algorithm and Krylov recursion method. We study this Krylov complexity in quantum mechanical systems derived from some well-known local toric Calabi-Yau geometries, as well as some non-relativistic models. We find that for the Calabi-Yau models, the Lanczos coefficients grow slower than linearly for small $n$'s, consistent with the behavior of integrable models. On the other hand, for the non-relativistic models, the Lanczos coefficients initially grow linearly for small $n$'s, then reach a plateau. Although this looks like the behavior of a chaotic system, it is mostly likely due to saddle-dominated scrambling effects instead, as argued in the literature. In our cases, the slopes of linearly growing Lanczos coefficients almost saturate a bound by the temperature. During our study, we also provide an alternative general derivation of the bound for the slope.
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Submitted 26 April, 2023; v1 submitted 6 December, 2022;
originally announced December 2022.
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Observing frustrated quantum magnetism in two-dimensional ion crystals
Authors:
Mu Qiao,
Zhengyang Cai,
Ye Wang,
Botao Du,
Naijun Jin,
Wentao Chen,
Pengfei Wang,
Chunyang Luan,
Erfu Gao,
Ximo Sun,
Haonan Tian,
Jingning Zhang,
Kihwan Kim
Abstract:
Two-dimensional (2D) quantum magnetism is a paradigm in strongly correlated many-body physics. The understanding of 2D quantum magnetism can be expedited by employing a controllable quantum simulator that faithfully maps 2D-spin Hamiltonians. The 2D quantum simulators can exhibit exotic phenomena such as frustrated quantum magnetism and topological order and can be used to show quantum computation…
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Two-dimensional (2D) quantum magnetism is a paradigm in strongly correlated many-body physics. The understanding of 2D quantum magnetism can be expedited by employing a controllable quantum simulator that faithfully maps 2D-spin Hamiltonians. The 2D quantum simulators can exhibit exotic phenomena such as frustrated quantum magnetism and topological order and can be used to show quantum computational advantages. Many experimental platforms are being developed, including Rydberg atoms and superconducting annealers. However, with trapped-ion systems, which showed the most advanced controllability and quantum coherence, quantum magnetism was explored in one-dimensional chains. Here, we report simulations of frustrated quantum magnetism with 2D ion crystals. We create a variety of spin-spin interactions for quantum magnets, including those that exhibit frustration by driving different vibrational modes and adiabatically prepare the corresponding ground states. The experimentally measured ground states are consistent with the theoretical predictions and are highly degenerate for geometrically frustrated spin models in two dimensions. Quantum coherence of the ground states is probed by reversing the time evolution of the B-field to the initial value and then measuring the extent to which the remaining state coincides with the initial state. Our results open the door for quantum simulations with 2D ion crystals.
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Submitted 14 April, 2022;
originally announced April 2022.
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Critical Thickness in Dewetting Films
Authors:
B. Du,
Z. Yang,
O. K. C. Tsui
Abstract:
We study dewetting of thin polymer films with built-in topographical fluctuations produced by rubbing the film surface with a rayon cloth. By varying the density of imposed surface defects, we unambiguously distinguish spinodal dewetting, which dominates in liquid films thinner than a characteristic thickness = 13.3 nm, from heterogeneous nucleation in the thicker films. Invariance of this chara…
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We study dewetting of thin polymer films with built-in topographical fluctuations produced by rubbing the film surface with a rayon cloth. By varying the density of imposed surface defects, we unambiguously distinguish spinodal dewetting, which dominates in liquid films thinner than a characteristic thickness = 13.3 nm, from heterogeneous nucleation in the thicker films. Invariance of this characteristic thickness upon more than a decade change in the defect density makes kinetic effect an unseemly origin. A crossover of the spinodal line provides a consistent picture. This interpretation, however, contends the current understanding of molecular interactions in apolar liquid films.
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Submitted 6 October, 2001;
originally announced October 2001.