Homochiral Nanopropeller via Chiral Active Surface Growth.

Under the control of chiral ligand glutathione and in the presence of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, Au deposition on Au seeds is known to give chiral nanostructures. We have previously shown that the protruding chiral patterns, as opposed to flat facets, are likely caused by active surface growth, where nonuniform ligand coverage could be responsible for the focused growth at a few active sites. By pushing the limit of such a growth mode, here, we use decahedral seeds to prepare homochiral nanopropellers with intricate patterns of deep valleys and protruding ridges. Control experiments show that the focused growth depends on the rates of Au deposition by changing either the seed concentration or the reductant concentration, consistent with the proposed mechanism. The dynamic growth competition between the ligand-deficient active sites and the ligand-rich surfaces gradually focuses the growth onto a few active sites, causing the expansion of grooves, squeezing of steep ridges, and a surprising 36° rotation of the pentagonal outline. The imbalanced deposition on the prochiral slopes is responsible for the tilted grooves, the twisted walls, and thus the well-separated and distorted blades, which become the origin of the chiroptical responses.

Superhybrid Mode-Enhanced Optical Torques on Mie-Resonant Particles.

Circularly polarized light carries spin angular momentum, so it can exert an optical torque on the polarization-anisotropic particle by the spin momentum transfer. Here, we show that giant positive and negative optical torques on Mie-resonant (gain) particles arise from the emergence of superhybrid modes with magnetic multipoles and electric toroidal moments, excited by linearly polarized beams. Anomalous positive and negative torques on particles (doped with judicious amount of dye molecules) are over 800 and 200 times larger than the ordinary lossy counterparts, respectively. Meanwhile, a rotational motor can be configured by switching the s- and p-polarized beams, exhibiting opposite optical torques. These giant and reversed optical torques are unveiled for the first time in the scattering spectrum, paving another avenue toward exploring unprecedented physics of hybrid and superhybrid multipoles in metaoptics and optical manipulations.

Inverse Optical Torques on Dielectric Nanoparticles in Elliptically Polarized Light Waves.

Elliptically polarized light waves carry the spin angular momentum (SAM), so they can exert optical torques on nanoparticles. Usually, the rotation follows the same direction as the SAM due to momentum conservation. It is counterintuitive to observe the reversal of optical torque acting on an ordinary dielectric nanoparticle illuminated by an elliptically or circularly polarized light wave. Here, we demonstrate that negative optical torques, which are opposite to the direction of SAM, can ubiquitously emerge when elliptically polarized light waves are impinged on dielectric nanoparticles obliquely. Intriguingly, the rotation can be switched between clockwise and counterclockwise directions by controlling the incident angle of light. Our study suggests a new playground to harness polarization-dependent optical force and torque for advancing optical manipulations.

Subwavelength optical trapping and transporting using a Bloch mode.

Multi-functional optical manipulations, including optical trapping and transporting of subwavelength particles, are proposed using the Bloch modes in a dielectric photonic structure. We show that the Bloch modes in a periodic structure can generate a series of subwavelength trapping wells that are addressable by tuning the incident wavelength. This feature enables efficient optical trapping and transportation in a peristaltic way. Since we are using the guiding Bloch mode in a dielectric structure, rather than using plasmonic or dielectric resonant cavities, these operations are wide band and free from joule loss. The Bloch mode in a simple periodic dielectric structure provides a new platform for multi-functional optical operations and may find potential applications in nanophotonics and biomedicine.

Extraordinary Multipole Modes and Ultra-Enhanced Optical Lateral Force by Chirality.

Strong mode coupling and Fano resonances arisen from exceptional interaction between resonant modes in single nanostructures have raised much attention for their advantages in nonlinear optics, sensing, etc. Individual electromagnetic multipole modes such as quadrupoles, octupoles, and their counterparts from mode coupling (toroidal dipole and nonradiating anapole mode) have been well investigated in isolated or coupled nanostructures with access to high Q factors in bound states in the continuum. Albeit the extensive study on ordinary dielectric particles, intriguing aspects of light-matter interactions in single chiral nanostructures is lacking. Here, we unveil that extraordinary multipoles can be simultaneously superpositioned in a chiral nanocylinder, such as two toroidal dipoles with opposite moments, and electric and magnetic sextupoles. The induced optical lateral forces and their scattering cross sections can thus be either significantly enhanced in the presence of those multipoles with high-Q factors, or suppressed by the bound states in the continuum. This work for the first time reveals the complex correlation between multipolar effects, chiral coupling, and optical lateral force, providing a distinct way for advanced optical manipulation.

Momentum-Topology-Induced Optical Pulling Force.

We report an ingenious mechanism to obtain robust optical pulling force by a single plane wave via engineering the topology of light momentum in the background. The underlying physics is found to be the topological transition of the light momentum from a usual convex shape to a starlike concave shape in the carefully designed background, such as a photonic crystal structure. The principle and results reported here shed insightful concepts concerning optical pulling, and pave the way for a new class of advanced optical manipulation technique, with potential applications of drug delivery and cell sorting.

Driving many distant atoms into high-fidelity steady state entanglement via Lyapunov control.

Based on Lyapunov control theory in closed and open systems, we propose a scheme to generate W state of many distant atoms in the cavity-fiber-cavity system. In the closed system, the W state is generated successfully even when the coupling strength between the cavity and fiber is extremely weak. In the presence of atomic spontaneous emission or cavity and fiber decay, the photon-measurement and quantum feedback approaches are proposed to improve the fidelity, which enable efficient generation of high-fidelity W state in the case of large dissipation. Furthermore, the time-optimal Lyapunov control is investigated to shorten the evolution time and improve the fidelity in open systems.

Strong optical force and its confinement applications based on heterogeneous phosphorene pairs.

We study the plasmonic properties of face-to-face phosphorene pairs, including their optical constraints and optical gradient forces. The symmetric and anti-symmetric plasmonic modes occur due to the strong anisotropic dispersion of phosphorene. Compared with the anti-symmetric mode, the symmetric mode has a stronger optical constraint and much larger gradient force. Especially, the optical constraint of the symmetric mode can even reach as high as 96% when the two phosphorene layers are along the armchair and zigzag direction respectively. We also propose a scheme of an ultra-small phase shifter using phosphorene-based photonic devices.

Computational coherent imaging by rotating a cylindrical lens.

To overcome longitudinal sampling rate fluctuation in axial multi-image computational imaging, an effortless and high-efficient optical scanning imaging system via the rotation of single cylindrical lens (RSCL) is proposed for reconstructing the amplitude and phase information of sample. Here the cylinder is a non-axial-symmetry phase modulator for generating diffracted intensity patterns. To determine the explicit rotation angle as a core parameter in the perfect reconstruction of the light field, two-step Radon transform (TsRT) is designed to obtain accurate rotation status of the cylindrical lens with diffraction patterns at the focal plane. All rotation operations are at a lateral plane for keeping the same scale in this multiple parameter computational imaging system. As a kind of scanning imaging approach, the experiment of RSCL is greatly simplified.

Self-Induced Backaction Optical Pulling Force.

We achieve long-range and continuous optical pulling in a periodic photonic crystal background, which supports a unique Bloch mode with the self-collimation effect. Most interestingly, the pulling force reported here is mainly contributed by the intensity gradient force originating from the self-induced backaction of the object to the self-collimation mode. This force is sharply distinguished from the widely held conception of optical tractor beams based on the scattering force. Also, this pulling force is insensitive to the angle of incidence and can pull multiple objects simultaneously.

Generation of long-living entanglement between two distant three-level atoms in non-Markovian environments.

In this paper, a scheme for the generation of long-living entanglement between two distant Λ-type three-level atoms separately trapped in two dissipative cavities is proposed. In this scheme, two dissipative cavities are coupled to their own non-Markovian environments and two three-level atoms are driven by the classical fields. The entangled state between the two atoms is produced by performing Bell state measurement (BSM) on photons leaving the dissipative cavities. Using the time-dependent Schördinger equation, we obtain the analytical results for the evolution of the entanglement. It is revealed that, by manipulating the detunings of classical field, the long-living stationary entanglement between two atoms can be generated in the presence of dissipation.

Optical trapping of nanoparticles with tunable inter-distance using a multimode slot cavity.

Optical trapping of nano-objects (i.e., the nano-tweezers) has been investigated intensively. Most of those nano-tweezers, however, were focused on the trapping of a single nanoparticle, while the interactions between them were seldom considered. In this work, we propose a nano-tweezers in a slot photonic crystal cavity supporting multiple modes, where the relative positions of two trapped nanoparticles can be tuned by selective excitation of different resonant mode. Results show that both the nanoparticles are trapped at the center of the cavity when the first order mode is excited. When the incident source is tuned to the second order mode, however, these two nanoparticles push each other and are trapped stably at two separated positions. Also, the inter-distance between them can be tuned precisely by changing the relative power of the two modes. This provides a potential method to control the interactions between two nano-objects via optically tuning the separation between them, and may have applications in various related disciplinary.

Spin-controlled orbital motion in tightly focused high-order Laguerre-Gaussian beams.

Spin angular momentum can contribute to both optical force and torque exerted on spheres. Orbit rate of spheres located in tightly focused LG beams with the same azimuthal mode index l is spin-controlled due to spin-orbit coupling. Laguerre-Gaussian beams with high-order azimuthal mode are used here to study the orbit rate of dielectric spheres. Orbit rates of spheres with varying sizes and refravtive indices are investigated as well as optical forces acting on spheres in LG beams with different azimuthal modes. These results would be much helpful to investigation on optical rotation and transfer of spin and orbital angular momentum.

Flexible optical manipulation of ring resonator by frequency detuning and double-port excitation.

Optical force exerted on a ring resonator, which can move freely in plane, is investigated using the finite-difference in time-domain method. In order to manipulate the ring resonator more flexibly, two assistant waveguides are introduced to form a microring resonator based add-drop device. Results show that a blue tuned source is more suitable for the manipulation of the ring, rather than the central resonant frequency as expected. A red-tuned frequency, however, is difficult to trap the ring stably. When the frequency detuning is combined with selected double-port excitation, the ring can be trapped stably at some discrete positions, some determined regions, or be transported continuously along the waveguide. This optically reconfigurable opto-mechanical resonant system may find potential applications in tunable photonic devices and precise sensing.

Optical pulling using evanescent mode in sub-wavelength channels.

Optical evanescent wave in total internal reflection has been widely used in efficient optical manipulation, where the object is trapped by the intrinsic intensity gradient of the evanescent wave while transported by the scattering force along the orthogonal direction. Here, we propose a distinct optical manipulation scheme using the attenuated modes in subwavelength optical channels, where both the trapping and transportation forces are along the channel direction. We create such a mode in a sub-wavelength photonic crystal waveguide and quantitatively obtain the net pushing and pulling forces, which can overcome the Brownian motion within a critical length. Due to the presence of the physical channel, subwavelength trapping on the transverse direction is natural, and manipulation along bend trajectories is also possible without the assistance of the self-acceleration beams provided a channel is adopted. This optical manipulation method can be extended to any other channels that support attenuation mode, and may provide an alternate way for flexible optical manipulation.

Wide-angle and polarization independent perfect absorber based on one-dimensional fabrication-tolerant stacked array.

We propose a wide-angle, polarization independent and fabrication-tolerant perfect absorber, which is based on a one-dimensional stacked array consisted of vertically cascaded two pairs of metal-dielectric bilayers. The results show that the absorption peaks are over 99% at the wavelength of 5.25 µm for different polarization angles, and remain very high within wide ranges of incident and azimuthal angles. We attribute those excellent performances to the excitation of the magnetic resonance (MR) and the guided mode resonance (GMR) for the TM and TE polarization, respectively, and are further expounded by the inductor-capacitor (LC) circuit model and the eigen equation of the GMR, respectively. More importantly, this one-dimensional absorber is very robust to the spacing distance between the neighboring stacks and the metallic strip thickness, which releases degrees of freedom in design and makes the absorber extremely flexible and simple in fabrication, thus it can be a good candidate for many fascinating applications.

Spherical and sub-wavelength longitudinal magnetization generated by 4π tightly focusing radially polarized vortex beams.

Based on the vector diffraction theory and the inverse Faraday effect, we numerically study the light-induced magnetization near the focus of a 4π high numerical aperture focusing configuration under the illumination of two counter- propagating radially polarized hollow Gaussian vortex beams. The simulated results demonstrate that, by selecting higher-order vortex beam modes (e.g. n=4with n - the beam order) and proper truncation parameter (e.g. ß=1.75 with ß- the ratio of the pupil radius to the incident beam waist), spherical and sub-wavelength longitudinal magnetization can be generated in the vicinity of focus. Such special magnetization feature is attributed to not only the interaction between optical vortices and the radially polarized beams, but also the completely destructive interference of azimuthal components and the constructive interference of the longitudinal component of the two counter-propagating radially polarized vortex beams. This spherical and sub-wavelength longitudinal magnetization distribution may be of interest for applications in all-optical magnetic recording and confocal and magnetic resonance microscopy.

Achievement and steering of light-induced sub-wavelength longitudinal magnetization chain.

The light-induced magnetization distributions for a high numerical aperture focusing configuration with an azimuthally polarized Bessel-Gaussian beam modulated by optimized vortex binary filters are investigated based on the inverse Faraday effect. It is found that, by adjusting the radii of different rings of the single/ cascaded vortex binary filters, super-long (12λ) and sub-wavelength (0.416λ) longitudinal magnetization chain with single/dual channels can be achieved in the focal region. Such well-behaved magnetization trait is attributed to the mutual effect between the optical polarization singularities of the azimuthally polarized beam and single/cascaded spiral optical elements. In addition, we find that the displacement distance of the longitudinal magnetization chain is proportional to the phase difference between the inner circle and outer ring of the vortex binary filters, thus giving rise to the steerable magnetization chain. It is expected that the research outcomes can be applied in multiple atoms trapping and transport, multilayer magneto-optical data storage, fabrication of magnetic lattices for spin wave operation and development of ultra-compact optomagnetic devices.

Parallel LC circuit model for multi-band absorption and preliminary design of radiative cooling.

We perform a comprehensive analysis of multi-band absorption by exciting magnetic polaritons in the infrared region. According to the independent properties of the magnetic polaritons, we propose a parallel inductance and capacitance(PLC) circuit model to explain and predict the multi-band resonant absorption peaks, which is fully validated by using the multi-sized structure with identical dielectric spacing layer and the multilayer structure with the same strip width. More importantly, we present the application of the PLC circuit model to preliminarily design a radiative cooling structure realized by merging several close peaks together. This omnidirectional and polarization insensitive structure is a good candidate for radiative cooling application.

Equilibrium orientations of oblate spheroidal particles in single tightly focused Gaussian beams.

Based on a hybrid discrete dipole approximation (DDA) and T-matrix method, a powerful dynamic simulation model is used to find plausible equilibrium orientation landscapes of micro- and nano-spheroids of varying size and aspect ratio. Orientation landscapes of spheroids are described in both linearly and circularly polarized Gaussian beams. It's demonstrated that the equilibrium orientations of the prolate and oblate spheroids have different performances. Effect of beam polarization on orientation landscapes is revealed as well as new orientation of oblate spheroids. The torque efficiencies of spheroids at equilibrium are also studied as functions of tilt angle, from which the orientations of the spheroids can be affirmed. This investigation elucidates a solid background in both the function and properties of micro-and nano-spheroidal particles trapped in optical tweezers.