Latent-Symmetric Photonic Systems and Their Eigenmodes

Developing photonic systems with desired functionality is imperative for optical information processing. Despite the various established platforms for their realization, ranging from nanophotonic metasurfaces to integrated waveguide structures, the fundamental behaviour of most of these devices can be captured in terms of the interaction of individual modes. In such a coupled-mode description, the presence of symmetries is of major importance, as they heavily affect the system dynamics. In this work, we investigate how the recently discovered concept of latent symmetry [1] can influence the dynamics of photonic systems and their eigenmodes, both in the classical and quantum domain.