title: Photon propagation in a discrete fiber network: an interplay of coherence and losses.
abstract: We study light propagation in a photonic system that shows stepwise evolution in a discretized environment. It resembles a discrete-time version of photonic waveguide arrays or quantum walks. By introducing controlled photon losses to our experimental setup, we observe unexpected effects like subexponential energy decay and formation of complex fractal patterns. This demonstrates that the interplay of linear losses, discreteness and energy gradients leads to genuinely new coherent phenomena in classical and quantum optical experiments. Moreover, the influence of decoherence is investigated.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alois
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Regensburger
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bersch
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hinrichs
authors.forename: Georgy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Onishchukov
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silberhorn
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Peschel