Topological phase transition and surface states in a non-Abelian charged nodal line photonic crystal.

Topological charges of nodal lines in a multigap system are represented by non-Abelian numbers, and the Euler class, a topological invariant, can be used to explain their topological phase transitions, such as pair-annihilation of nodal lines. Up until now, no discussion of phase transitions of nodal lines in photonic crystals using the Euler class has been reported, despite the fact that the Euler class and topological phase transition have recently been addressed in metallic or acoustic crystals. Here, we show how the deformation of a photonic crystal causes topological phase transitions in the nodal lines, and the Euler class can be used to theoretically predict the nodal lines' stability based on the non-Abelian topological charge theory.

Surface potential-adjusted surface states in 3D topological photonic crystals.

Surface potential in a topological matter could unprecedentedly localize the waves. However, this surface potential is yet to be exploited in topological photonic systems. Here, we demonstrate that photonic surface states can be induced and controlled by the surface potential in a dielectric double gyroid (DG) photonic crystal.

Curved InGaAs nanowire array lasers grown directly on silicon-on-insulator.

Catalyst-free, selective nano-epitaxy of III-V nanowires provides an excellent materials platform for designing and fabricating ultra-compact, bottom-up photonic crystal lasers. In this work, we propose a new type of photonic crystal laser with a curved cavity formed by InGaAs nanowires grown directly on silicon-on-insulator. This paper investigates the effect of the radius of the curved cavity on the emission wavelength, quality factor as well as laser beam emission angle.

Nodal lines in momentum space: topological invariants and recent realizations in photonic and other systems.

Topological insulators constitute one of the most intriguing phenomena in modern condensed matter theory. The unique and exotic properties of topological states of matter allow for unidirectional gapless electron transport and extremely accurate measurements of the Hall conductivity. Recently, new topological effects occurring at Dirac/Weyl points have been better understood and demonstrated using artificial materials such as photonic and phononic crystals, metamaterials and electrical circuits.

Block copolymer gyroids for nanophotonics: significance of lattice transformations.

A gyroid crystal possesses a peculiar structural feature that can be conceptualized as a triply periodic surface with a constant mean curvature of zero. The exotic optical properties such as the photonic bandgap and optical chirality can emerge from this three-dimensional (3D) morphological feature. As such, gyroid crystals have been considered as the promising structures for photonic crystals and optical metamaterials.

Tailoring topological edge states with photonic crystal nanobeam cavities.

The realization of topological edge states (TESs) in photonic systems has provided unprecedented opportunities for manipulating light in novel manners. The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model has recently gained significant attention and has been exploited in a wide range of photonic platforms to create TESs. We develop a photonic topological insulator strategy based on SSH photonic crystal nanobeam cavities.

Suppressing spatiotemporal lasing instabilities with wave-chaotic microcavities.

Spatiotemporal instabilities are widespread phenomena resulting from complexity and nonlinearity. In broad-area edge-emitting semiconductor lasers, the nonlinear interactions of multiple spatial modes with the active medium can result in filamentation and spatiotemporal chaos. These instabilities degrade the laser performance and are extremely challenging to control.

Frequency-domain modelling of gain in pump-probe experiment by an inhomogeneous medium.

Introduction of a gain medium in lossy plasmonic metamaterials reduces and compensates losses or even amplifies an incident light often with nonlinear optical effect. Here, optical gain in a pump-probe experimental setup is effectively calculated in the frequency-domain by approximating a gain material as an inhomogeneous medium. Spatially varying local field amplitudes of the pump and probe beams are included in the model to reproduce the inhomogeneous gain effect, in which population inversion occurs most strongly near the surface and decays along the propagation direction.

Control of terahertz nonlinear transmission with electrically gated graphene metadevices.

Graphene, which is a two-dimensional crystal of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, has attracted a great amount of attention due to its outstanding mechanical, thermal and electronic properties. Moreover, graphene shows an exceptionally strong tunable light-matter interaction that depends on the Fermi level - a function of chemical doping and external gate voltage - and the electromagnetic resonance provided by intentionally engineered structures. In the optical regime, the nonlinearities of graphene originated from the Pauli blocking have already been exploited for mode-locking device applications in ultrafast laser technology, whereas nonlinearities in the terahertz regime, which arise from a reduction in conductivity due to carrier heating, have only recently been confirmed experimentally.

Chiral metamaterials: enhancement and control of optical activity and circular dichroism.

The control of the optical activity and ellipticity of a medium has drawn considerable attention due to the recent developments in metamaterial design techniques and a deeper understanding of the light matter interaction in composite metallic structures. Indeed, recently proposed designs of metaatoms have enabled the realisation of materials with unprecedented chiral optical properties e.g.

Optical activity enhanced by strong inter-molecular coupling in planar chiral metamaterials.

The polarization of light can be rotated in materials with an absence of molecular or structural mirror symmetry. While this rotating ability is normally rather weak in naturally occurring chiral materials, artificial chiral metamaterials have demonstrated extraordinary rotational ability by engineering intra-molecular couplings. However, while in general, chiral metamaterials can exhibit strong rotatory power at or around resonances, they convert linearly polarized waves into elliptically polarized ones.

Tunable 3D extended self-assembled gold metamaterials with enhanced light transmission.

The optical properties of metamaterials made by block copolymer self-assembly are tuned by structural and environmental variations. The plasma frequency red-shifts with increasing lattice constant and blue-shifts as the network filling fraction increases. Infiltration with dielectric liquids leads also to a red-shift of the plasma edge.

On the origin of chirality in nanoplasmonic gyroid metamaterials.

Metallic single gyroids, a new class of self-assembled nanoplasmonic metamaterials, are analyzed on the basis of a tri-helical metamaterial model. The physical mechanisms underlying the chiral optical behavior of the nanoplasmonic single gyroid are identified and it is shown that the optical chirality in this metallic structure is primarily determined by structural chirality and the connectivity of helices along the main cubic axes.

Self-collimation phenomena of surface waves in structured perfect electric conductors and metal surfaces.

We demonstrate that surface waves in structured perfect electric conductor surfaces can be self-collimated using the finite-difference time-domain method. The self-collimation frequency is obtained from the equi-frequency contours of a perfect electric conductor patterned with an array of square holes. The field patterns of the self-collimated surface wave, obtained using the periodic boundary conditions, show that the surface waves propagate with almost no spreading.