Synthetic dimension in photonics
Open accessAbstract
The physics of a photonic structure is commonly described in terms of its apparent geometric dimensionality. On the other hand, with the concept of synthetic dimension, it is in fact possible to explore physics in a space with a dimensionality that is higher as compared to the apparent geometrical dimensionality of the structures. In this review, we discuss the basic concepts of synthetic dimension in photonics, and highlighting the various approaches towards demonstrating such synthetic dimension for fundamental physics and potential applications.
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Three- and higher-dimensional configurations require synthetic dimension schemes where extra spatial dimensions are encoded in other degrees of freedom of the photon, such as different cavity modes of a ring resonator.
“three-and higher-dimensional configurations require the use of synthetic dimension schemes where extra spatial dimension are encoded in some other degrees of freedom of the photon, e.g. the different cavity modes of a ring resonator [134][135][136].”
From How to exploit driving and dissipation to stabilize and manipulate quantum many-body states (2025) · cites this paper as [136]
The Introduction (pp. 2–3) describes synthetic dimensions formed from photonic degrees of freedom, and Topological Photonics (p. 15) gives a three-dimensional lattice model using frequency modes of ring resonators. But the Introduction (p. 2) explicitly says three-dimensional physics can be explored in three-dimensional structures, so synthetic dimensions are not required for all three-dimensional configurations. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
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Self-citationSynthetic Non-Abelian Gauge Fields for Non-Hermitian Systems
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- Authors
- Yuan, L., Lin, Q., Xiao, M., & Fan, S.
- Venue
- Optica
- Publisher
- Optica Publishing Group
- Published
- 2018-10-31
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1396
- ISSN
- 2334-2536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2884420390
- Cited by
- 545
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 62 · 2025: 111 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 46 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 19.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Optica (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) (N00014-17-1-3030)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (FA9550-17-1-0002)
- National Science Foundation (NSF) (CBET-1641069)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photonic Crystals and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Keywords
- synthetic dimensions, photonic structures, higher-dimensional lattices, optical lattices, fundamental physics, photonic applications
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