Photonic Simulation of System-Environment Interaction: Non-Markovian Process and Dynamical Decoupling

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The system-environment interaction is simulated by light propagating in coupled photonic waveguides. The profile of the electromagnetic field provides intuitive physical insight to study the Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems. The transition from non-Markovian to Markovian process is demonstrated by increasing the size of environment, as the energy evolution changes from oscillating to an exponential decay, and the revival period increases. Moreover, the dynamical decoupling with a sequence of phase modulations is introduced to such a photonic open system to form a band structure in time dimension, where the energy dissipation can be significantly accelerated or inhibited. It opens the possibility to tune the dissipation in photonic system, similar to the dynamic decoupling of spins.