Phonon blockade in a nanomechanical resonator quadratically coupled to a two-level system.

We investigate phonon statistics in a nanomechanical resonator (NAMR), which is quadratically coupled to a two-level system, by driving the NAMR and two-level system simultaneously. We find that unconventional phonon blockade (UCPNB), i.e., strong phonon antibunching effect based on quantum interference, can be observed when driven fields are weak. By increasing the strengths of the driving fields, we show the crossover from the UCPNB to the conventional phonon blockade (CPNB), which is induced by the strong nonlinear interaction of the system. Moreover, under the strong coupling condition for CPNB, quantum interference effect can also be used to enhanced the phonon blockade by optimizing the phase difference of the two external driving fields.

Tunable phonon blockade in quadratically coupled optomechanical systems.

We theoretically investigate the phonon statistics of a quadratically coupled optomechanical system, in which an effective second-order nonlinear interaction between an optical mode and a mechanical mode is induced by a strong optical driving field on two-phonon red-sideband resonance. We show that strong phonon antibunching can be observed even if the strength of the effective second-order nonlinear interaction is much weaker than the decay rates of the system, by driving the optical and mechanical modes with weak driving fields respectively. Moreover, the phonon statistics can be dynamically controlled by tuning the strengths and the phase difference of the weak driving fields. The scheme proposed here can be used to realize tunable single-phonon sources with quadratically optomechanical coupling.

Dependence of the sliding distance of a one-dimensional atom chain on initial velocity.

In our daily lives, a body with a high initial velocity sliding freely on a rough surface moves a longer distance than that with a low initial velocity. However, such a phenomenon may not occur in the microscopic world. The dynamical behavior of a one-dimensional atom chain (1DAC) sliding on a substrate is investigated in this study by using a modified Frenkel-Kontorova model, in which the vibration of atoms on the substrate is considered. The dependence of sliding distance on initial velocity is examined. Result shows that although sliding distance is proportional to the initial value for most velocities, such a linear relation does not exist in some special velocities. This phenomenon is explained by a theoretical analysis of phonon excitation. The physical process is divided into three stages. The first stage is a superlubric sliding process with small amplitude of the vibrication of the atoms. The single-mode phonon is excited in the second stage. In the third stage, the system exhibits instability because of multiple-mode phonon excitations. In addition, the dependence of the coupling strength between 1DAC and the substrate is investigated. The findings are helpful in understanding the energy dissipation mechanism of friction.

Helical edge states and edge-state transport in strained armchair graphene nanoribbons.

A helical type edge state, which is generally supported only on graphene with zigzag boundaries, is found to also appear in armchair graphene nanoribbons in the presence of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and a suitable strain. At a critical strain, there appears a quantum phase transition from a quantum spin Hall state to a trivial insulator state. Further investigation shows that the armchair graphene nanoribbons with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, Rashba spin-orbit coupling, effective exchange fields and strains also support helical-like edge states with a unique spin texture. In such armchair graphene nanoribbons, the spin directions of the counterpropogating edge states on the same boundary are always opposite to each other, while is not conserved and the spins are canted away from the -direction due to the Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which is different from the case of the zigzag graphene nanoribbons. Moreover, the edge-state energy gap is smaller than that in zigzag graphene nanoribbons, even absent in certain cases.

Edge states and quantum phase transition in graphene under in-plane effective exchange fields.

We investigated the edge states and quantum phase transition in graphene under an in-plane effective exchange field. The result shows that the combined effects of the in-plane effective exchange field and a staggered sublattice potential can induce zero-energy flat bands of edge states. Such flat-band edge states can evolve into helical-like ones in the presence of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, with a unique spin texture. We also find that the bulk energy gap induced by the spin-orbit coupling and staggered sublattice potential can be closed and reopened with the in-plane effective exchange field, and the reopened bulk gap can be even larger than that induced by only the spin-orbit coupling and staggered sublattice potential, which is different from the case of an out-of-plane effective exchange field. The calculated spin-dependent Chern numbers suggest that the bulk gap closing and reopening is accompanied by a quantum phase transition from a trivial insulator phase across a metal phase into a spin-dependent quantum Hall phase.

Tunable THz absorption in graphene-based heterostructures.

We investigate THz absorption properties of graphene-based heterostructures by using characteristics matrix method based on conductivity. We demonstrate that the proposed structure can lead to perfect THz absorption because of strong photon localization in the defect layer of the heterostructure. The THz absorption may be tuned continuously from 0 to 100% by controlling the chemical potential through a gate voltage. By adjusting the incident angle or the period number of the two PCs with respect to the graphene layer, one can tailor the maximum THz absorption value. The position of the THz absorption peaks can be tuned by changing either the center wavelength or the thicknesses ratio of the layers constituting the heterostructure. Our proposal may have potentially important applications in optoelectronic devices.

Omnidirectional bandgaps in Fibonacci quasicrystals containing single-negative materials.

The band structure and bandgaps of one-dimensional Fibonacci quasicrystals composed of epsilon-negative materials and mu-negative materials are studied. We show that an omnidirectional bandgap (OBG) exists in the Fibonacci structure. In contrast to the Bragg gaps, such an OBG is insensitive to the incident angle and the polarization of light, and the width and location of the OBG cease to change with increasing Fibonacci order, but vary with the thickness ratio of both components, and the OBG closes when the thickness ratio is equal to the golden ratio. Moreover, the general formulations of the higher and lower band edges of the OBG are obtained by the effective medium theory. These results could lead to further applications of Fibonacci structures.

Negative and positive lateral shift of a light beam reflected from a grounded slab.

We consider the lateral shift (LS) of a light beam reflecting from a dielectric slab backed by a metal. It is found that the LS of the reflected beam can be negative while the intensity of reflected beam is almost equal to the incident one under a certain condition. The explanation for the negativity of the LS is given in terms of the interference of the reflected waves from the two interfaces. It is also shown that the LS can be enhanced or suppressed under some other conditions. The numerical calculation on the LS for a realistic Gaussian-shaped beam confirms our theoretical prediction.

Spontaneous emission field of a two-level atom embedded in one-dimensional left-handed- and right-handed-material photonic crystals.

We investigate the spontaneous emission (SpE) of a two-level atom embedded in one-dimensional photonic crystals composed of left-hand material (LHM) and right-hand material. A complete set of mode functions is constructed for quantizing the radiation field. The radiated field distribution under the condition of impedance matching is calculated. The radiated field is focused in each layer and propagates along the direction normal to each layer due to the LHM. With such a structure we can control the propagation of the SpE field without changing the SpE rate.

Superluminal propagation of light pulses: A result of interference.

The propagation of pulses through dispersive media was investigated by solving Maxwell's equations without any approximation. We show that the superluminal propagation of pulses through anomalous dispersive media is a result of the interference of different frequency components composed of the pulse. The coherence of the pulse plays an important role for the superluminal propagation. With the decrease of the coherence of the pulse, the propagation changes from superluminal to subluminal. We have shown that the anomalous dispersion (the real part of the susceptibility) not the amplification (the imaginary part of the susceptibility) plays the essential role in the superluminal propagation. Although the superluminality always exists as long as the spectrum of the coherent pulse is within the anomalously dispersive region, both the energy propagation velocity and the frontal velocity never exceed the light speed in the vacuum. The output pulse through the medium is not the original pulse; instead it carries the information of the original pulse and the information of the prepared medium.

Superluminal pulse propagation through one-dimensional photonic crystals with a dispersive defect.

The propagation of a pulse through one-dimensional photonic crystals that contain a dispersive and absorptive defect layer doped with two-level atoms is discussed. The dynamical evolution of the pulse inside the photonic crystal is presented. Superluminal negative group velocity (the peak appears at the exit end before it reaches the input end) is discovered. Although the group velocity is larger than c and even negative, the velocity of energy propagation never exceeds the vacuum light speed. The appearance of the superluminal advance or subluminal delay of the pulse peak inside the photonic crystal or at the exit end is due to the wave interference from Bragg reflections.