Research
Interferometric Readout of Momentum-Space Topology in a Programmable Dissipative Photonic Circuit
feeds.aps.org · By Andrea Cataldo, Emil J. Bergholtz, Daniel Leykam, Jun Gao & Ali W. Elshaari ·
The Brief
- A programmable photonic circuit uses unitary dilation and interferometry to measure momentum-space topological invariants.
- The method targets strongly dissipative non-Hermitian systems.
- The work is published in Physical Review (APS feed, dated 2026-11-12).
Why it matters
It offers an experimental route to read out topological invariants in non-Hermitian photonic systems, where conventional approaches are harder to apply, which could help photonics researchers characterise dissipative topological devices.
Who’s affected
- photonics and quantum optics researchers
- researchers working on non-Hermitian and topological physics
- #photonics
- #topology
- #non-hermitian physics
- #interferometry
- #programmable circuits
Author(s): Andrea Cataldo, Emil J. Bergholtz, Daniel Leykam, Jun Gao, and Ali W. Elshaari A programmable photonic circuit uses unitary dilation and interferometry to directly measure momentum-space topological invariants in strongly dissipative non-Hermitian systems. [Phys. Rev…