ECE PhD Prospectus Defense Anthony Manni

ECE PhD Prospectus Defense Anthony Manni

Title: Directionally Unbiased Multiports for Enhanced Interferometric Sensitivity

Presenter: Anthony Manni

Advisor: Professor Alexander Sergienko

Chair: Professor Roberto Paiella

Committee: Professor Alexander Sergienko, Professor Roberto Paiella, Professor David Simon

Google Scholar Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wz2AGsAAAAAJ&hl=en

Abstract: Optical interferometers are devices composed primarily of beam splitters and mirrors, and are widely used in many areas of photonics such as laser design, metrology, gravitational wave detection, and quantum information processing. The replacement of conventional beam splitters with directionally unbiased multiports, such as four port Grover coins, has created a new class of interferometers with enhanced sensitivity and novel readout mechanisms due to the coupled cavity dynamics established by coherent feedback. Novel quantum optical effects, such as linear optical entanglement routing, higher-dimensional two-photon interference, and rich quantum walk dynamics, can be achieved by cascading Grover coins into networks or nesting them within other interferometers. Due to the resource count required to build a Grover coin that operates in free space, applications that employ networks of the like will benefit from miniaturized components. In this work, we detail new operating conditions and applications of the Grover-Michelson interferometer, and investigate the design of on-chip Grover coins in the form of multilayer dielectric gratings (MDGs) and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Simulation results and preliminary experimental data for integrated Grover coins are presented in this prospectus, along with future directions of this work.