The ability to enhance light-matter interactions by increasing the energy stored in optical resonators is inherently dependent on their coupling to the incident wavefront. In practice, weak coupling may result from resonators' irregular shapes and/or the scrambling of waves in the surrounding scattering environment. Here, we present a non-invasive wavefront shaping technique providing optimal coupling to resonators. The coherent control of the incident wavefront relies on the lengthening of delay times of waves efficiently exciting the resonator. We demonstrate our concept in microwave experiments by injecting in-situ optimal wavefronts that maximize the energy stored in multiple high-permittivity dielectric scatterers and extended leaky cavities embedded in a complex environment. We expect our framework to find important applications in the enhancement of light-matter interactions in photonic materials as well as to enhance energy harvesting.
We evaluate the transient response of an optically tunable meta-atom composed of an electric inductor-capacitor resonator that is loaded with a piece of high-resistivity silicon and perform a proof-of-concept experiment to demonstrate the storage and release of electromagnetic waves using this meta-atom in the microwave region. The transient time of the meta-atom immediately after commencing laser light illumination of the silicon in the meta-atom is found to be inversely proportional to the incident laser power. The transmittance of the meta-atom at the resonance frequency increases to ten ti…
Superresolution, extraordinary transmission, total absorption, and localization of electromagnetic waves are currently attracting growing attention. These phenomena are related to different physical objects and are usually studied within the context of different, sometimes rather sophisticated, physical approaches. Remarkably, all these seemingly unrelated phenomena owe their origin to the same underlying physical mechanism - wave interaction with an open resonator. Here we show that it is possible to describe all of these effects in a unified way, mapping each system onto a simple resonator m…
Fully reconfigurable metasurfaces would enable new classes of optical devices that provide unprecedented control of electromagnetic beamforms. The principal challenge for achieving reconfigurability is the need to generate large tunability of subwavelength, low-Q metasurface resonators. Here, we demonstrate large refractive index tuning can be efficiently facilitated at mid-infrared wavelengths using novel temperature-dependent control over free-carrier refraction. In doped InSb we demonstrate nearly two-fold increase in the electron effective mass leading to a positive refractive index shift …
We prove that optimal control of light energy storage in disordered media can be reached by wavefront shaping. For this purpose, we build an operator for dwell-times from the scattering matrix, and characterize its full eigenvalue distribution both numerically and analytically in the diffusive regime, where the thickness $L$ of the medium is much larger than the mean free path $\ell$. We show that the distribution has a finite support with a maximal dwell-time larger than the most likely value by a factor $(L/\ell)^2\gg 1 $. This reveals that the highest dwell-time eigenstates deposit more ene…
Light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been shown to be of use in a disparate range of fields ranging from astronomy to optical trapping, and as a promising new dimension for multiplexing signals in optical communications and data storage. A challenge to many of these applications is a reliable and dynamic method that sorts incident OAM states without altering them. Here we report a wavelength-independent technique capable of dynamically filtering individual OAM states based on the resonant transmission of a tunable optical cavity. The cavity length is piezo-controlled to facilitate…
We theoretically and experimentally study the effect of the coupled-resonator-induced transparency in the Michelson interferometer with the dual-recycled configuration, which is equivalent to the adjustable coupled resonator. The coupling strength, corresponding to the splitting of the reflection spectrum and associated with the width of the coupled-resonator-induced transparent window,can be controlled by adjusting the arm lengths, i.e., the relative phase of the interference arms on the 50/50 beam splitter. Thus, this tunability of the coupling strength can be very fast, and the absorptive a…
We study the propagation of waves in a quasi 1D homogeneous host medium filled with various resonators. We first prove that a far field coupling between the elements explains its dispersive nature. This coupling is interpreted as a Fano interference between the incoming wave and the waves re-radiated by each resonator, which experience a phase shift at resonance. We propose a simple formalism that gives the complete dispersion relation of the medium in terms of the far field response of a single resonator. We prove that our approach applies to and unifies various domains such as metamaterials,…
Quantum memories for light are important components for future long distance quantum networks. We present on-chip quantum storage of telecommunications band light at the single photon level in an ensemble of erbium-167 ions in an yttrium orthosilicate photonic crystal nanobeam resonator. Storage times of up to 10 $μ$s are demonstrated using an all-optical atomic frequency comb protocol in a dilution refrigerator under a magnetic field of 380 mT. We show this quantum storage platform to have high bandwidth, high fidelity, and multimode capacity, and we outline a path towards an efficient erbium…
The ability to control the spin-orbit interaction of light in optical microresonators is of fundamental importance for future photonics. Organic microcrystals, due to their giant optical anisotropy, play a crucial role in spin-optics and topological photonics. Here we realize controllable and wavelength-dependent Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction, attributed to the anisotropic excitonic response in an optical microcavity filled with an organic microcrystalline. We also investigate the transition of the spin-orbit interaction from dominant photonic type caused by the splitting of the tr…
We demonstrate the existence of breathing dissipative light bullets in a birefringent optical resonator filled with Kerr media. The propagation of light inside the cavity for each polarized component, which is coupled by cross-phase modulation, is described by the coupled Lugiato-Lefever equations. The space-time dynamics of breathing light bullets are described using Stokes parameters and frequency spectra.
Light is generally expected to travel through isotropic media independent of its direction. This makes it challenging to develop non-reciprocal optical elements like optical diodes or circulators, which currently rely on magneto-optical effects and birefringent materials. Here we present measurements of non-reciprocal transmission and spontaneous symmetry breaking between counter-propagating light in dielectric microresonators. The symmetry breaking corresponds to a resonance frequency splitting that allows only one of two counter-propagating (but otherwise identical) light waves to circulate …
We consider adiabatic interaction of five-level atomic systems and their media with four short laser pulses under the condition of all two-photon detunings being zero. We derive analytical expressions for eigenvalues of the system's Hamiltonian and determine conditions of adiabaticity for both the atom and the medium. We analyse, in detail, the system's behaviour when the eigenvalue with non-vanishing energy is realized. As distinct from the usual dark state of a five-level system (corresponding to zero eigenvalue), which is a superposition of three states, in our case the superposition of fou…
In this paper we investigate the properties of self induced transparency (SIT) solitons, propagating in a $Λ$-type medium. It was found that the interaction between SIT solitons can lead to trapping with their phase preserved in the ground state coherence of the medium. These phases can be altered in a systematic way by the application of appropriate light fields, such as additional SIT solitons. Furthermore, multiple independent SIT solitons can be made to propagate as bi-solitons through their mutual interaction with a separate light field. Finally, we demonstrate that control of the SIT sol…
We develop a theoretical formalism for collectively responding point scatterers where the radiating electromagnetic fields from each emitter are considered in the electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole approximation. The contributions of the electric quadrupole moment to electromagnetically-mediated interactions between the scatterers are derived in detail for a system where each scatterer represents a linear $RLC$ circuit resonator, representing common metamaterial resonators in radiofrequency, microwave, and optical regimes. The resulting theory includes a closed set of eq…
Many novel properties of non-Hermitian systems are found at or near the exceptional points-branch points of complex energy surfaces at which eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce. In particular, higher-order exceptional points can result in optical structures that are ultrasensitive to external perturbations. Here we show that an arbitrary order exceptional point can be achieved in a simple system consisting of identical resonators placed near a waveguide. Unidirectional coupling between any two chiral dipolar states of the resonators mediated by the waveguide mode leads to the exceptional poi…
In the presence of arbitrary three-dimensional linear media with material loss and amplification, we present an electromagnetic field quantization scheme for quasinormal modes (QNMs), extending previous work for lossy media [Franke et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 213901 (2019)]. Applying a symmetrization transformation, we show two fundamentally different ways for constructing a QNM photon Fock space, including (i) where there is a separate operator basis for both gain and loss, and (ii) where the loss and gain degrees of freedom are combined into a single basis. These QNM operator bases are sub…
Magnetic metamaterials consist of magnetic resonators smaller in size than their excitation wavelengths. Their unique electromagnetic properties were characterized by the effective media theory at the early stage. However, the effective media model does not take into account the interactions between magnetic elements; thus, the effective properties of bulk metamaterials are the result of the "averaged effect" of many uncoupled resonators. In recent years, it has been shown that the interaction between magnetic resonators could lead to some novel phenomena and interesting applications that do n…
Spintronic emitters are a unique class of terahertz (THz) sources due to their quasi-two-dimensional geometry and thereby their capability to couple to resonator near fields. Global excitation of the emitters often obstructs the intricate details of the coupling mechanisms between local THz dipoles and the individual modes of resonator structures. Here, we demonstrate the spatial mapping of the coupling strength between a local terahertz source on a spintronic emitter and far-field light mediated by a structured metallic environment. For a bow-tie geometry, experimental results are reproduced …
Resonant photoelastic coupling in semiconductor nanostructures opens new perspectives for strongly enhanced light-sound interaction in optomechanical resonators. One potential problem, however, is the reduction of the cavity Q-factor induced by dissipation when the resonance is approached. We show in this letter that cavity-polariton mediation in the light-matter process overcomes this limitation allowing for a strongly enhanced photon-phonon coupling without significant lifetime reduction in the strongly-coupled regime. Huge optomechanical coupling factors in the PetaHz/nm range are envisaged…
Temporal coupled-mode theory (TCMT) provides a simple yet powerful platform to model and analyze electromagnetic resonator systems. Nevertheless, restrictive assumptions and lack of rigorous connection to Maxwell's equations limit the TCMT formulation's generality and robustness. Herein, we present the Black-box Coupled-Mode Theory (BBCMT), a general ab initio CMT framework developed from Maxwell's equations and quasinormal mode (QNM) theory to model the electromagnetic interactions of dispersive, lossy, and open resonators. BBCMT development is enabled by employing Poynting's and conjugated r…
Coherent inter-conversion between an optical and a mechanical excitation in an optomechanical resonator can be used for the storage of an optical pulse as an excitation in a mechanical oscillator. This optomechanical light storage is enabled by external writing and readout pulses at one mechanical frequency below the optical resonance. In this paper, we expand an earlier experimental study [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 133601 (2011)] on storing an optical pulse as a radial breathing mode in a silica microsphere. We show that the heterodyne beating between a readout pulse and the corresponding retriev…
