Scalable manufacturing of high-index atomic layer-polymer hybrid metasurfaces for metaphotonics in the visible.

Metalenses are attractive alternatives to conventional bulky refractive lenses owing to their superior light-modulating performance and sub-micrometre-scale thicknesses; however, limitations in existing fabrication techniques, including high cost, low throughput and small patterning area, have hindered their mass production. Here we demonstrate low-cost and high-throughput mass production of large-aperture visible metalenses using deep-ultraviolet argon fluoride immersion lithography and wafer-scale nanoimprint lithography. Once a 12″ master stamp is imprinted, hundreds of centimetre-scale metalenses can be fabricated using a thinly coated high-index film to enhance light confinement, resulting in a substantial increase in conversion efficiency. As a proof of concept, an ultrathin virtual reality device created with the printed metalens demonstrates its potential towards the scalable manufacturing of metaphotonic devices.

Programmable Photonic Time Circuits for Highly Scalable Universal Unitaries.

Programmable photonic circuits (PPCs) have garnered substantial interest for their potential in facilitating deep learning accelerations and universal quantum computations. Although photonic computation using PPCs offers ultrafast operation, energy-efficient matrix calculations, and room-temperature quantum states, its poor scalability hinders integration. This challenge arises from the temporally one-shot operation of propagating light in conventional PPCs, resulting in a light-speed increase in device footprints. Here we propose the concept of programmable photonic time circuits, utilizing time-cycle-based computations analogous to gate cycling in the von Neumann architecture and quantum computation. Our building block is a reconfigurable SU(2) time gate, consisting of two resonators with tunable resonances, and coupled via time-coded dual-channel gauge fields. We demonstrate universal U(N) operations with high fidelity using an assembly of the SU(2) time gates, substantially improving scalability from O(N^{2}) to O(N) in terms of both the footprint and the number of gates. This result paves the way for PPC implementation in very large-scale integration.

Photonic Topological Spin Pump in Synthetic Frequency Dimensions.

Reducing geometrical complexity while preserving desired wave properties is critical for proof-of-concept studies in wave physics, as evidenced by recent efforts to realize photonic synthetic dimensions, isospectrality, and hyperbolic lattices. Laughlin's topological pump, which elucidates quantum Hall states in cylindrical geometry with a radial magnetic field and a time-varying axial magnetic flux, is a prime example of these efforts. Here we propose a two-dimensional dynamical photonic system for the topological pumping of pseudospin modes by exploiting synthetic frequency dimensions. The system provides the independent control of pseudomagnetic fields and electromotive forces achieved by the interplay between mode-dependent and mode-independent gauge fields. To address the axial open boundaries and azimuthal periodicity of the system, we define the adjusted local Chern marker with rotating azimuthal coordinates, proving the nontrivial topology of the system. We demonstrate the adiabatic pumping for crosstalk-free frequency conversion with wave front molding. Our approach allows for reproducing Laughlin's thought experiment at room temperature with a scalable setup.

Acoustic Amplifying Diode Using Nonreciprocal Willis Coupling.

We propose a concept called acoustic amplifying diode combining signal isolation and amplification in a single device. The signal is exponentially amplified in one incident direction with no reflection and is perfectly absorbed in another. The reflection is eliminated from the device in both directions with impedance matching, preventing backscattering to the signal source. Here, we demonstrate the amplifying diode using an active metamaterial with nonreciprocal Willis coupling. We also discuss the situation with the presence of both reciprocal and nonreciprocal Willis couplings for more flexibility in implementation. The coexistence of both amplifier and perfect absorber in opposite incident directions extends the regime of sound isolation and further enables applications in sensing and communication, in which nonreciprocity can play an important role.

Control of localization and optical properties with deep-subwavelength engineered disorder.

The effect of deep subwavelength disorder in one-dimensional dichromic multilayer films on the optical transmission, localization length, and Goos-Hänchen shift around the critical angle is analyzed using sets of disordered multilayer films with different degrees of order metric τ. For each Gaussian-perturbed multilayer film designed by a Metropolis algorithm targeting the predetermined order metric τ, the numerically obtained localization length and transmission show excellent agreement with the recent theoretical analysis developed for disordered multilayer films, further revealing τ-dependence of the Goos-Hänchen shift across the critical angle. Emphasizing the role of deep subwavelength structures in disorder-induced transmission enhancement, our result thus paves the way toward the inverse design of a deep subwavelength disordered structural landscape for the targeted order metric τ or abnormal optical responses - including the Goos-Hänchen shift.

Topology-Changing Broadband Metamaterials Enabled by Closable Nanotrenches.

One of the most straightforward methods to actively control optical functionalities of metamaterials is to apply mechanical strain deforming the geometries. These deformations, however, leave symmetries and topologies largely intact, limiting the multifunctional horizon. Here, we present topology manipulation of metamaterials fabricated on flexible substrates by mechanically closing/opening embedded nanotrenches of various geometries. When an inner bending is applied on the substrate, the nanotrench closes and the accompanying topological change results in abrupt switching of metamaterial functionalities such as resonance, chirality, and polarization selectivity. Closable nanotrenches can be embedded in metamaterials of broadband spectrum, ranging from visible to microwave. The 99.9% extinction performance is robust, enduring more than a thousand bending cycles. Our work provides a wafer-scale platform for active quantum plasmonics and photonic application of subnanometer phenomena.

Topological Hyperbolic Lattices.

Non-Euclidean geometry, discovered by negating Euclid's parallel postulate, has been of considerable interest in mathematics and related fields for the description of geographical coordinates, Internet infrastructures, and the general theory of relativity. Notably, an infinite number of regular tessellations in hyperbolic geometry-hyperbolic lattices-are expected to extend Euclidean Bravais lattices and the consequent wave phenomena to non-Euclidean geometry. However, topological states of matter in hyperbolic lattices have yet to be reported. Here we investigate topological phenomena in hyperbolic geometry, exploring how the quantized curvature and edge dominance of the geometry affect topological phases. We report a recipe for the construction of a Euclidean photonic platform that inherits the topological band properties of a hyperbolic lattice under a uniform, pseudospin-dependent magnetic field, realizing a non-Euclidean analog of the quantum spin Hall effect. For hyperbolic lattices with different quantized curvatures, we examine the topological protection of helical edge states and generalize Hofstadter's butterfly, by employing two empirical parameters that measure the edge confinement and defect immunity. We demonstrate that the proposed platforms exhibit the unique spectral-magnetic sensitivity of topological immunity in highly curved hyperbolic planes. Our approach is applicable to general non-Euclidean geometry and enables the exploitation of infinite lattice degrees of freedom for band theory.

Steering second-harmonic radiation through local excitations of plasmon.

We propose an approach of steering the second harmonic (SH) emission from a single plasmonic structure, through local excitations of plasmon. The proposed idea is confirmed experimentally, by adjusting the incident beam position at the fundamental frequency, on a single plasmonic antenna. A significant directivity change ( ± 52°) for the SH emission is observed with submicrometer adjustment ( ± 250 nm) of the excitation beam position, over broadband SH frequencies. Providing a simple method of controlling the directivity of frequency-converted light, our approach paves the way to new design strategy for nonlinear optical devices with various nonlinear wavefronts.

Design of Transverse Spinning of Light with Globally Unique Handedness.

Access to the transverse spin of light has unlocked new regimes in topological photonics. To achieve the transverse spin from nonzero longitudinal fields, various platforms that derive transversely confined waves based on focusing, interference, or evanescent waves have been suggested. Nonetheless, because of the transverse confinement inherently accompanying sign reversal of the field derivative, the resulting transverse spin handedness of each field experiences spatial inversion, which leads to a mismatch between the intensities of the field and its spin component and hinders the global observation of the transverse spin. Here, we reveal a globally pure transverse spin of the electric field in which the field intensity signifies the spin distribution. Starting from the target spin mode for the inverse design of required spatial profiles of anisotropic permittivities, we show that the elliptic-hyperbolic transition around the epsilon-near-zero permittivity allows for the global conservation of transverse spin handedness of the electric field across the topological interface between anisotropic metamaterials. Extending to the non-Hermitian regime, we develop annihilated transverse spin modes to cover the entire Poincaré sphere of the meridional plane. This result realizes the complete optical analogy of three-dimensional quantum spin states.

Bohmian Photonics for Independent Control of the Phase and Amplitude of Waves.

The de Broglie-Bohm theory is one of the nonstandard interpretations of quantum phenomena that focuses on reintroducing definite positions of particles, in contrast to the indeterminism of the Copenhagen interpretation. In spite of intense debate on its measurement and nonlocality, the de Broglie-Bohm theory based on the reformulation of the Schrödinger equation allows for the description of quantum phenomena as deterministic trajectories embodied in the modified Hamilton-Jacobi mechanics. Here, we apply the Bohmian reformulation to Maxwell's equations to achieve the independent manipulation of optical phase evolution and energy confinement. After establishing the deterministic design method based on the Bohmian approach, we investigate the condition of optical materials enabling scattering-free light with bounded or random phase evolutions. We also demonstrate a unique form of optical confinement and annihilation that preserves the phase information of incident light. Our separate tailoring of wave information extends the notion and range of artificial materials.

A terahertz metamaterial with unnaturally high refractive index.

Controlling the electromagnetic properties of materials, going beyond the limit that is attainable with naturally existing substances, has become a reality with the advent of metamaterials. The range of various structured artificial 'atoms' has promised a vast variety of otherwise unexpected physical phenomena, among which the experimental realization of a negative refractive index has been one of the main foci thus far. Expanding the refractive index into a high positive regime will complete the spectrum of achievable refractive index and provide more design flexibility for transformation optics. Naturally existing transparent materials possess small positive indices of refraction, except for a few semiconductors and insulators, such as lead sulphide or strontium titanate, that exhibit a rather high peak refractive index at mid- and far-infrared frequencies. Previous approaches using metamaterials were not successful in realizing broadband high refractive indices. A broadband high-refractive-index metamaterial structure was theoretically investigated only recently, but the proposed structure does not lend itself to easy implementation. Here we demonstrate that a broadband, extremely high index of refraction can be realized from large-area, free-standing, flexible terahertz metamaterials composed of strongly coupled unit cells. By drastically increasing the effective permittivity through strong capacitive coupling and decreasing the diamagnetic response with a thin metallic structure in the unit cell, a peak refractive index of 38.6 along with a low-frequency quasi-static value of over 20 were experimentally realized for a single-layer terahertz metamaterial, while maintaining low losses. As a natural extension of these single-layer metamaterials, we fabricated quasi-three-dimensional high-refractive-index metamaterials, and obtained a maximum bulk refractive index of 33.2 along with a value of around 8 at the quasi-static limit.

Terahertz field enhancement in asymmetric and tapered nano-gaps.

We investigate field enhancement inside metal-insulator-metal gaps with asymmetric thicknesses and tapered shapes in the terahertz regime. Finite-difference time-domain simulations were conducted for calculation of field enhancement factor. The calculation indicates that for asymmetric sample, field enhancement increases proportionally with the decrease of the thinner of the two metal film thicknesses surrounding the gap. Concomitantly, angle variation has little effect on the field enhancement if the thickness of the narrowest gap region is fixed. A model based on the capacitor concept is proposed for intuitive understanding of the phenomena.

A Vanadium Dioxide Metamaterial Disengaged from Insulator-to-Metal Transition.

We report that vanadium dioxide films patterned with λ/100000 nanogaps exhibit an anomalous transition behavior at millimeter wavelengths. Most of the hybrid structure's switching actions occur well below the insulator to metal transition temperature, starting from 25 °C, so that the hysteresis curves completely separate themselves from their bare film counterparts. It is found that thermally excited intrinsic carriers are responsible for this behavior by introducing enough loss in the context of the radically modified electromagnetic environment in the vicinity of the nanogaps. This phenomenon newly extends the versatility of insulator to metal transition devices to encompass their semiconductor properties.

One-way optical modal transition based on causality in momentum space.

The concept of parity-time (PT) symmetry has been used to identify a route toward unidirectional dynamics in optical k-space: imposing asymmetry on the flow of light. Although PT-symmetric potentials have been implemented under the requirement of V(x) = V*(-x), this precondition has only been interpreted within the mathematical framework for the symmetry of Hamiltonians and has not been directly linked to unidirectionality induced by PT symmetry. In this paper, within the context of light-matter interactions, we develop an alternative route toward unidirectionality in k-space by employing the concept of causality. We demonstrate that potentials with real and causal momentum spectra produce unidirectional transitions of optical modes inside the k-continuum, which corresponds to an exceptional point on the degree of PT symmetry. Our analysis reveals a critical link between non-Hermitian problems and spectral theory and also enables multi-dimensional designer manipulation of optical modes, in contrast to the one-dimensional approach that used a Schrödinger-like equation in previous PT-symmetric optics.

Selective electric and magnetic sensitivity of aperture probes.

We report the effect of geometrical factors governing the polarization profiles of near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) probes. The most important physical parameter controlling the selective electric or magnetic field sensitivity is found to be the width of the metal rim surrounding aperture. Probes with metal rim width w < λ/2 selectively senses the optical electric field, while those with w > λ/2 selectively senses the optical magnetic field. Intensity variation of optical Hertz standing wave formed upon reflection at oblique incidence shows a phase difference of π/2 between electric and magnetic probes: an analogue of the classical Wiener's experiment. Our work paves way towards electromagnetic engineering of nanostructures.

Toward plasmonics with nanometer precision: nonlinear optics of helium-ion milled gold nanoantennas.

Plasmonic nanoantennas are versatile tools for coherently controlling and directing light on the nanoscale. For these antennas, current fabrication techniques such as electron beam lithography (EBL) or focused ion beam (FIB) milling with Ga(+)-ions routinely achieve feature sizes in the 10 nm range. However, they suffer increasingly from inherent limitations when a precision of single nanometers down to atomic length scales is required, where exciting quantum mechanical effects are expected to affect the nanoantenna optics. Here, we demonstrate that a combined approach of Ga(+)-FIB and milling-based He(+)-ion lithography (HIL) for the fabrication of nanoantennas offers to readily overcome some of these limitations. Gold bowtie antennas with 6 nm gap size were fabricated with single-nanometer accuracy and high reproducibility. Using third harmonic (TH) spectroscopy, we find a substantial enhancement of the nonlinear emission intensity of single HIL-antennas compared to those produced by state-of-the-art gallium-based milling. Moreover, HIL-antennas show a vastly improved polarization contrast. This superior nonlinear performance of HIL-derived plasmonic structures is an excellent testimonial to the application of He(+)-ion beam milling for ultrahigh precision nanofabrication, which in turn can be viewed as a stepping stone to mastering quantum optical investigations in the near-field.

Unusual Otto excitation dynamics and enhanced coupling of light to TE plasmons in graphene.

Transverse-electric (TE) plasmons are a unique and unusual aspect of graphene's plasmonic response that are predicted to manifest when the sign of imaginary part of conductivity changes to negative near the spectral onset of interband transitions. Although thus far, a feasible platform for the direct experimental detection of TE plasmons at finite temperature is yet to be suggested. Here we analyze the dynamics of Otto-Kretschmann excitation of TE plasmons in graphene. We show that TE plasmons supported by graphene in an Otto configuration unusually exhibit a cutoff thickness between the coupling prism and the graphene layer that forbids their efficient coupling to an incident wave in the case of a single-layer graphene at typical finite temperatures. In contrast, significantly increased coupling in the case of an N-layer graphene insulator stack, owing to an N-fold increase of the effective graphene conductivity as the insulator thickness approaches zero, is predicted to provide a TE plasmon resonance that is easily detectable at room temperature.

Embedding metal electrodes in thick active layers for ITO-free plasmonic organic solar cells with improved performance.

We propose and numerically investigate the optical performance of a novel plasmonic organic solar cell with metallic nanowire electrodes embedded within the active layer. A significant improvement (~15%) in optical absorption over both a conventional ITO organic solar cell and a conventional plasmonic organic solar cell with top-loaded metallic grating is predicted in the proposed structure. Optimal positioning of the embedded metal electrodes (EME) is shown to preserve the condition for their strong plasmonic coupling with the metallic back-plane, meanwhile halving the hole path length to the anode which allows for a thicker active layer that increases the optical path length of propagating modes. With a smaller sheet resistance than a typical 100 nm thick ITO film transparent electrode, and an increased optical absorption and hole collection efficiency, our EME scheme could be an excellent alternative to ITO organic solar cells.

Theoretical study on the generation of a low-noise plasmonic hotspot by means of a trench-assisted circular nano-slit.

We propose a novel trench-assisted circular metal nano-slit (CMNS) structure implementable on a fiber platform for the generation of a low-noise cylindrical surface plasmon (CSP) hotspot. We design trench structures based on a multi-pole cancellation method in order that a converging surface plasmon signal is well separated from co-propagating non-confined diffracted light (NCDL) at the hotspot location. In fact, the secondary radiation by the quasi-pole oscillation at the edge of the trench cancels the primary NCDL, thereby enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the CSP hotspot. In particular, we investigate two types of trench structures: a rectangular-trench (RT) structure and an asymmetric-parabolic-trench (APT) structure, which are considered for the sake of the simplicity of fabrication and of the maximal enhancement of the SNR, respectively. In comparison with a conventional CMNS having no trenches, we highlight that the mean SNR of the CSP hotspot is enhanced by 6.97 and 11.89 dB in case of the optimized RT and APT CMNSs, respectively. The proposed schemes are expected to be useful for increasing the SNR of plasmonic devices that are interfered by NCDL, such as various types of nano-slits for generating high-resolution plasmonic signals, for example.

Colossal absorption of molecules inside single terahertz nanoantennas.

Molecules have extremely small absorption cross sections in the terahertz range even under resonant conditions, which severely limit their detectability, often requiring tens of milligrams. We demonstrate that nanoantennas tailored for the terahertz range resolves the small molecular cross section problem. The extremely asymmetric electromagnetic environment inside the slot antenna, which finds the electric field being enhanced by thousand times with the magnetic field changed little, forces the molecular cross section to be enhanced by >10(3) accompanied by a colossal absorption coefficient of ~170,000 cm(-1). Tens of nanograms of small molecules such as 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) and lactose drop-cast over an area of 10 mm(2), with only tens of femtograms of molecules inside the single nanoslot, can readily be detected. Our work enables terahertz sensing of chemical and biological molecules in ultrasmall quantities.