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Nature Communications

Coherent Ising machine based on polarization symmetry breaking in a driven Kerr resonator

Liam Quinn, Yiqing Xu, Julien Fatome, Gian‐Luca Oppo, Stuart G. Murdoch, Miro J. Erkintalo, Stéphane Coen

Published Jan 28, 2026• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Time-multiplexed networks of degenerate optical parametric oscillators have demonstrated remarkable success in simulating coupled Ising spins, thus providing a promising route to solving complex combinatorial optimization problems. In these systems, referred to as coherent Ising machines, spins are encoded in the oscillator phases, and measured at the system output using phase-sensitive techniques, making intricate phase stabilization necessary. Here, we introduce an optical Ising machine based on spontaneous polarization symmetry breaking in a coherently driven fiber Kerr nonlinear resonator. In our architecture, the spins are encoded in the polarization state, allowing robust, all-intensity readout with off-the-shelf telecom components. By operating in a newly-discovered regime where nonlinearity and topology lock the system's symmetry, we eliminate drift and bias, enabling uninterrupted Ising trials at optical speeds for over an hour, without manual intervention. This all-fiber platform not only simplifies the hardware but also opens a path to more stable, high-throughput coherent optical optimization devices for applications from finance to drug design and beyond.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-026-68794-6

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Time-multiplexed networks of degenerate optical parametric oscillators have demonstrated remarkable success in simulating coupled Ising spins, thus providing a promising route to solving complex combinatorial optimization problems. In these systems, referred to as coherent Ising machines, spins are encoded in the oscillator phases, and measured at the system output using phase-sensitive techniques, making intricate phase stabilization necessary. Here, we introduce an optical Ising machine based on spontaneous polarization symmetry breaking in a coherently driven fiber Kerr nonlinear resonator. In our architecture, the spins are encoded in the polarization state, allowing robust, all-intensity readout with off-the-shelf telecom components. By operating in a newly-discovered regime where nonlinearity and topology lock the system's symmetry, we eliminate drift and bias, enabling uninterrupted Ising trials at optical speeds for over an hour, without manual intervention. This all-fiber platform not only simplifies the hardware but also opens a path to more stable, high-throughput coherent optical optimization devices for applications from finance to drug design and beyond.
Time-multiplexed networks of degenerate optical parametric oscillators have demonstrated remarkable success in simulating coupled Ising spins, thus providing a promising route to solving complex combinatorial optimization problems. In these systems $\unicode{x2014}$ referred to as coherent Ising machines $\unicode{x2014}$ the spins are encoded in the phases of the oscillators, and spin states are measured at the system output using phase-sensitive techniques. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of a conceptually new optical Ising machine based upon spontaneous polarization symmetry breaking within a coherently-driven optical fibre Kerr nonlinear resonator. In our scheme, the spin states are encoded using polarization, which allows the state of the network to be robustly read out using straightforward intensity measurements. Furthermore, by operating within a recently-discovered regime where the interplay between nonlinearity and topology fundamentally safeguards the system's symmetry, we ensure that our spins evolve without unwanted biases. This enables continuous Ising machine trials at optical data rates for up to an hour without resetting or manual adjustments. With an all-fibre implementation that relies solely on standard telecommunications components, we believe our work paves the way for substantial advances in the performance and stability of coherent optical Ising machines for applications ranging from financial modeling to drug discovery and machine learning.
This thesis experimentally and theoretically investigates the applications of spontaneous symmetry breaking in nonlinear resonators. Symmetry breaking refers to the transition of an initially symmetric system into a pair of asymmetric states. In a resonator with two equally driven polarization components, the intensities of the two fields would typically be expected to remain equal. However, this symmetry can spontaneously break as a result of small changes to the input conditions, causing one polarization component to increase in intensity while the other decreases. In practice, the selection enacted by symmetry-breaking is not entirely random, due to experimental asymmetries that bias the outcome. In this thesis we will experimentally and numerically explore a remarkable technique which can eliminate said biases through a nonlinear symmetry protection mechanism. Operation in this symmetry protected regime allows for a truly random selection of states, even in the presence of experimental imperfections. We experimentally verified the efficacy of the symmetry-protection mechanism by constructing an all-optical random number generator. Using an optical fiber resonator coherently driven with a train of pulses, we have achieved optical random bit generation at rates exceeding 3 Mbit/s without post-processing. We evaluated the randomness of the system with a variety of metrics, demonstrating the high fidelity of the random number generator. We extended this platform further to develop a novel optical Ising machine, a computational platform demonstrated to offer efficient solutions to combinatorial optimization problems which arise in a variety of contexts. Our proof-of-concept experimental results demonstrate continuous operation with up to 100 coupled spins for over an hour, enabled by the symmetry-protection protocol that ensures highly robust operation. Furthermore, the ability to measure artificial spins through optical intensity offers advantages over existing phase-based Ising implementations. We support our experimental findings with numerical simulations, which highlight the platform’s future potential for scaling to larger systems, with all-to-all coupling.
We report a coherent Ising machine (CIM), which is a network of degenerate optical parametric oscillators for simulating the Ising model. Using a long-distance fiber cavity that includes a telecom-band phase sensitive amplifier, we generated large number of degenerate optical parametric oscillator (DOPO) pulses multiplexed in time domain, which represent the Ising spins. By using a measurement and feedback scheme, we could implement all-to-all coupling among 2048 DOPOs. We experimentally confirmed that the CIM could find solutions to maximum cut problems for graphs with as many as 2000 nodes.
The analysis and optimization of complex systems can be reduced to mathematical problems collectively known as combinatorial optimization. Many such problems can be mapped onto ground-state search problems of the Ising model, and various artificial spin systems are now emerging as promising approaches. However, physical Ising machines have suffered from limited numbers of spin-spin couplings because of implementations based on localized spins, resulting in severe scalability problems. We report a 2000-spin network with all-to-all spin-spin couplings. Using a measurement and feedback scheme, we coupled time-multiplexed degenerate optical parametric oscillators to implement maximum cut problems on arbitrary graph topologies with up to 2000 nodes. Our coherent Ising machine outperformed simulated annealing in terms of accuracy and computation time for a 2000-node complete graph.
Coherent Ising machines (CIMs) constitute a promising approach to solve computationally hard optimization problems by mapping them to ground state searches of the Ising model and implementing them with optical artificial spin-networks. However, while CIMs promise speed-ups over conventional digital computers, they are still challenging to build and operate. Here, we propose and test a concept for a fully programmable CIM, which is based on opto-electronic oscillators subjected to self-feedback. Contrary to current CIM designs, the artificial spins are generated in a feedback induced bifurcation and encoded in the intensity of coherent states. This removes the necessity for nonlinear optical processes or large external cavities and offers significant advantages regarding stability, size and cost. We demonstrate a compact setup for solving MAXCUT optimization problems on regular and frustrated graphs with 100 spins and can report similar or better performance compared to CIMs based on degenerate optical parametric oscillators.
Many tasks in our modern life, such as planning an efficient travel, image processing and optimizing integrated circuit design, are modeled as complex combinatorial optimization problems with binary variables. Such problems can be mapped to finding a ground state of the Ising Hamiltonian, thus various physical systems have been studied to emulate and solve this Ising problem. Recently, networks of mutually injected optical oscillators, called coherent Ising machines, have been developed as promising solvers for the problem, benefiting from programmability, scalability and room temperature operation. Here, we report a 16-bit coherent Ising machine based on a network of time-division-multiplexed femtosecond degenerate optical parametric oscillators. The system experimentally gives more than 99.6% of success rates for one-dimensional Ising ring and nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard instances. The experimental and numerical results indicate that gradual pumping of the network combined with multiple spectral and temporal modes of the femtosecond pulses can improve the computational performance of the Ising machine, offering a new path for tackling larger and more complex instances.