W01 - Imaging topological phases of laser-driven few- and many-particle systems

Project description

In project W01, we will address fundamental questions of topological features in quantum systems and photonics for strongly driven, interacting many-particle systems, as they occur in intense laser-matter interactions, for instance.  With our combined theoretical and experimental efforts we will answer how topological invariants can be properly defined in nonlinear systems, and what the shapes and characteristics of topological edge states in interacting or nonlinear systems are. Further, we will investigate how topological invariants and the associated topological features behave under dimensional mapping. With our findings we will pave the way to experimentally explore multi-electron dynamics using a photonic platform.

Cooperation projects

S01, S02, S03, S04, S05, S06, W02, W04, W05, W06, W07

Publications

  • State transfer in latent-symmetric networks
    J. Himmel, M. Ehrhardt, M. Heinrich, S. Weidemann, T.A.W. Wolterink, M. Röntgen, P. Schmelcher and A. Szameit
    eLight 6, 3 (2026)
     
  • Unbroken PT-symmetry in the absence of gain or loss
    J. Bentzien, J. Pinske, L.J. Maczewsky, S. Weimann, M. Heinrich, S. Scheel and A. Szameit
    Nat Commun 16, 8225 (2025)
     
  • Non-adiabatic holonomies for photonic quantum computing
    V. Neef, J. Pinske, T.A.W. Wolterink, K. Becker, M. Heinrich, S. Scheel and A. Szameit
    Optica Quantum 3, 93-98 (2025)
     
  • Selective filtering of photonic quantum entanglement via anti-parity-time symmetry
    M. A. Selim, M. Ehrhardt, Y. Ding, H. M. Dinani, Q. Zhong, A. Perez‐Leija, Ş. K. Özdemir, M. Heinrich, A. Szameit, D. N. Christodoulides and M. Khajavikhan
    Science 387,1424-1428, (2025)
     
  • Tracing Information Flow from Open Quantum Systems
    J. Dziewior, L. Ruscio, L. Knips, E. Meyer, A. Szameit and J.D.A. Meinecke
    Laser Photonics Rev 2400737 (2025)
     
  • Observation of Joule-Thomson photon-gas expansion
    M.S. Kirsch, G.G. Pyrialakos, R. Altenkirch, M.A. Selim, J. Beck, T.A.W. Wolterink, H.Z. Ren, P.S. Jung, M. Khajavikhan, A. Szameit, M. Heinrich and D.N. Christodoulides
    Nat. Phys. (2025)
     
  • Crossing exceptional points in non-Hermitian quantum systems
    F.U.J. Klauck, M. Heinrich, A. Szameit and T.A.W. Wolterink
    Sci. Adv. 11, eadr8275 (2025)
     
  • The attoscience of strong-field-driven solids
    S.M. Cavaletto, K.M. Kowalczyk, F.O. Navarrete and J. Rivera-Dean
    Nat Rev Phys 7, 38–49 (2025)
     
  • Demonstration of lossy linear transformations and two-photon interference on a photonic chip
    K. Wang, S.J.U. White, A. Szameit, A.A. Sukhorukov and A.S. Solntsev
    Phys. Rev. Research 6, 043076 (2024)
     
  • Topological Hong-Ou-Mandel interference
    M. Ehrhardt, C. Dittel, M. Heinrich and A. Szameit
    Science 384, 1340-1344 (2024)
     
  • Interaction-induced directional transport on periodically driven chains
    H. Drueeke and D. Bauer
    Phys. Rev. Research 6, 023032 (2024)
     
  • Discrete nonlinear topological photonics
    A. Szameit and M.C. Rechtsman
    Nat. Phys. 20, 905–912 (2024)
     
  • Harnessing collective radiative phenomena on a photonic Kagome lattice
    I. Salinas, J. Cornejo, A. Szameit, P. Solano and R.A. Vicencio
    APL Photonics 9(2), 20801 (2024)
     
  • Parity–time-symmetric photonic topological insulator
    A. Fritzsche, T. Biesenthal, L.J. Maczewsky, K. Becker, M. Ehrhardt, M. Heinrich, R. Thomale, Y. N. Joglekar and A. Szameit
    Nat. Mater. 23, 377-382, (2024)
     
  • The Vortex Surface in a Three-Body Quantum System
    T.A. Guarda, F. Navarrete, R.O. Barrachina
    Atoms 11(11), 147 (2023)
     
  • Exploring new states of matter with a photonic emulator
    F. Karbstein, S. Stützer, H. Gies, and A. Szameit
    Phys. Rev. Research 5(4) L042036 (2023)
     
  • Theory of nonlinear corner states in photonic fractal lattices
    B. Ren, Y. V. Kartashov, L. J. Maczewsky, M. S. Kirsch, H. Wang, A. Szameit, M. Heinrich and Y. Zhang
    Nanophotonics, 12(19), 3829-3838, (2023)
     
  • A Perspective on Synthetic Dimensions in Photonics
    M. Ehrhardt, S. Weidemann, L. J. Maczewsky, M. Heinrich and A. Szameit
    Laser Photon. Rev., 17(7), 2200518, (2023)
     
  • Supersymmetric Reshaping and Higher-Dimensional Rearrangement of Photonic Lattices
    T. A. W. Wolterink, M. Heinrich and A. Szameit
    Laser Photon. Rev., 17(10), 2300200, (2023)
     
  • Order-Invariant Two-Photon Quantum Correlations in PT-Symmetric Interferometers
    T. A. W. Wolterink, M. Heinrich, S. Scheel and A. Szameit
    ACS Photonics, 10(10), 3451-3457 (2023)
     
  • Steering edge currents through a Floquet topological insulator
    H. Drüeke, M. Meschede and D. Bauer
    Phys. Rev. Research 5(2), 023056 (2023)
     
  • The N-shaped partition method: A novel parallel implementation of the Crank Nicolson algorithm
    Y. Lutsyshyn, F. Navarrete and D. Bauer
    Comput. Phys. Commun. 287, 108713 (2023)
    (also available on arXiv)
     
  • Three-dimensional non-Abelian quantum holonomy
    V. Neef, J. Pinske, F. Klauck, L. Teuber, M. Kremer, M. Ehrhardt, M. Heinrich, S. Scheel and A. Szameit
    Nature Physics 19(1), 30-34 (2023)
     
  • Photonic topological insulator induced by a dislocation in three dimensions
    E. Lustig, L. J. Maczewsky, J. Beck, T. Biesenthal, M. Heinrich, Z. Yang, Y. Plotnik, A. Szameit and M. Segev
    Nature 609, 931-935 (2022)
     
  • News & Views: Optically sensing topological phase transitions
    D. Bauer
    Nat. Photon. 16(9), 614-615 (2022)
     
  • Topological triple phase transition in non-Hermitian Floquet quasicrystals
    S. Weidemann, M. Kremer, S. Longhi and A. Szameit
    Nature 601, 354-359 (2022)
     
  • Topologically protected frequency control of broadband signals in dynamically modulated waveguide arrays
    F. S. Piccioli, A. Szameit and Iacopo Carusotto
    Phys. Rev. A 105(5), 053519 (2022)
     
  • Observation-dependent suppression and enhancement of two-photon coincidences by tailored losses
    M. Ehrhardt, M. Heinrich and A. Szameit
    Nature Photonics 16(3), 191-195 (2022)
     
  • Getting topological photonics out of the laboratory
    B. Zhen,  A. Blanco Redondo, A. Szameit and P. Genevet 
    Nature Communications 13(1), 2249 (2022)
     
  • Bimorphic Floquet topological insulators
    G. G. Pyrialakos, J. Beck, M. Heinrich, L. J. Maczewsky, N. V. Kantartzis, M. Khajavikhan, A. Szameit and D. N. Christodoulides 
    Nature Materials 21(6), 634-639 (2022)
     
  • A braid for light
    S. Scheel and A. Szameit 
    Nature Photonics 16(5), 344-345 (2022)
     
  • Fractal photonic topological insulators
    T. Biesenthal, L. J. Maczewsky, Z. Yang, M. Kremer, M. Segev, A. Szameit and M. Heinrich
    Science 376, 1114-1119 (2022)
     
  • Observation of photonic constant-intensity waves and induced transparency in tailored non-Hermitian lattices
    A. Steinfurth, I. Krešić, S. Weidemann, M. Kremer, K. G. Makris, M. Heinrich, S. Rotter and A. Szameit
    Science Advances 8(21), eabl7412 (2022)
     
  • Observation of Anderson localization beyond the spectrum of the disorder
    A. Dikopoltsev, S. Weidemann, M. Kremer, A. Steinfurth, H. Herzig Sheinfux, A. Szameit and M. Segev
    Science Advances 8(21), eabn7769 (2022)

Project leaders

Prof. Alexander Szameit
Phone: +49 (0)381 498 6790
Email: alexander.szameituni-rostockde

Prof. Dieter Bauer
Phone: +49 (0)381 498 6940
Email: dieter.baueruni-rostockde

Institution

University of Rostock
Institute of Physics
Albert-Einstein-Str. 23
18059 Rostock