Topological photonics has attracted widespread research attention in the past decade due to its fundamental interest and unique manner in controlling light propagation for advanced applications. Paradigmatic approaches have been proposed to achieve topological phases including topological insulators in a variety of photonic systems. In particular, photonic lattices composed of evanescently coupled waveguide arrays have been employed conveniently to explore and investigate topological physics. In this article, we review our recent work on demonstration of topological phenomena in reconfigurable photonic lattices established by site-to-site cw-laser-writing or multiple-beam optical induction in photorefractive nonlinear crystals. We focus on the study of topological states realized in the celebrated one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattices, including nonlinear topological edge states and gap solitons, nonlinearity-induced coupling to topological edge states, and nonlinear control of non-Hermitian topological states. In the two-dimensional case, we discuss two typical examples: universal mapping of momentum-space topological singularities through Dirac-like photonic lattices and realization of real-space nontrivial loop states in flatband photonic lattices. Our work illustrates how photorefractive materials can be employed conveniently to build up various synthetic photonic microstructures for topological studies, which may prove relevant and inspiring for exploration of fundamental phenomena in topological systems beyond photonics.
Thin-film lithium niobate is an attractive integrated photonics platform due to its low optical loss and favorable optical nonlinear and electro-optic properties. However, in applications such as second harmonic generation, frequency comb generation, and microwave-to-optics conversion, the device performance is strongly impeded by the photorefractive effect inherent in thin-films. In this paper, we show that the dielectric cladding on lithium niobate microring resonator has a significant influence on the photorefractive effect. By removing the dielectric cladding layer, the photorefractive eff…
We have reviewed recent developments of some aspects of optical spatial solitons in photorefractive media. Underlying principles governing the dynamics of photorefractive nonlinearity have been discussed using band transport model. Nonlinear dynamical equations for propagating solitons have been derived considering single as well as two-photon photorefractive processes. Fundamental properties of three types of solitons, particularly, screening, photovoltaic and screening photovoltaic solitons have been considered. For each type of solitons, three different configurations i.e., bright, dark and…
We investigate the impact of photorefractive effect on lithium niobate integrated quantum photonic circuits dedicated to continuous variable on-chip experiments. The circuit main building blocks, i.e. cavities, directional couplers, and periodically poled nonlinear waveguides are studied. This work demonstrates that, even when the effect of photorefractivity is weaker than spatial mode hopping, they might compromise the success of on-chip quantum photonics experiments. We describe in detail the characterization methods leading to the identification of this possible issue. We also study to whic…
Cavity nonlinear optics enables intriguing physical phenomena to occur at micro- or nano-scales with modest input powers. While this enhances capabilities in applications such as comb generation, frequency conversion and quantum optics, undesired nonlinear effects including photorefraction and thermal bistability are exacerbated. In this letter, we propose and demonstrate a highly effective method of achieving cavity stabilization using an auxiliary laser for controlling photorefraction in a z-cut periodically poled lithium niobate (LN) microcavity system. Our numerical study accurately models…
Photorefractive tuning seeded by third-harmonic light in a diamond photonic crystal cavity
Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学量子科学与技术研究所）；Department of Physics, University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学物理系）；National Research Council Canada, Quantum and Nanotechnology Research Centre（加拿大国家研究委员会量子与纳米技术研究中心）；nanoFAB Centre, University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学纳米加工中心）
We demonstrate experimentally all-optical beam steering in modulated photonic lattices induced optically by three beam interference in a biased photorefractive crystal. We identify and characterize the key physical parameters governing the beam steering, and show that the spatial resolution can be enhanced by the additional effect of nonlinear beam self-localization.
Continuous and quantized transports are profoundly different. The latter is determined by the global rather than local properties of a system, it exhibits unique topological features, and its ubiquitous nature causes its occurrence in many areas of science. Here we report the first observation of fully-two-dimensional Thouless pumping of light by bulk modes in a purpose-designed tilted moiré lattices imprinted in a photorefractive crystal. Pumping in such unconfined system occurs due to the longitudinal adiabatic and periodic modulation of the refractive index. The topological nature of this p…
We study both theoretically and experimentally the effect of nonlinearity on topologically protected linear interface modes in a photonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) lattice. It is shown that under either focusing or defocusing nonlinearity, this linear topological mode of the SSH lattice turns into a family of topological gap solitons. These solitons are stable. However, they exhibit only a low amplitude and power and are thus weakly nonlinear, even when the bandgap of the SSH lattice is wide. As a consequence, if the initial beam has modest or high power, it will either delocalize, or evolve …
We study tunable refraction of light in one-dimensional periodic lattices induced optically in a photorefractive crystal. We observe experimentally both positive and negative refraction of beams which selectively excite the first or second spectral bands of the periodic lattice, and demonstrate tunability of the output beam position by dynamically adjusting the lattice depth. At higher laser intensities, the beam broadening due to diffraction can be suppressed through nonlinear self-focusing while preserving the general steering properties.
Lithium niobate (LN) exhibits unique material characteristics that have found many important applications. Scaling LN devices down to a nanoscopic scale can dramatically enhance light-matter interaction that would enable nonlinear and quantum photonic functionalities beyond the reach of conventional means. However, developing LN-based nanophotonic devices turns out to be nontrivial. Although significant efforts have been devoted in recent years, LN photonic crystal structures developed to date exhibit fairly low quality. Here we demonstrate LN photonic crystal nanobeam resonators with optical …
The discovery of a new type of solitons occuring in periodic systems without photonic bandgaps is reported. Solitons are nonlinear self-trapped wave packets. They have been extensively studied in many branches of physics. Solitons in periodic systems, which have become the mainstream of soliton research in the past decade, are localized states supported by photonic bandgaps. In this Letter, we report the discovery of a new type of solitons located at the Dirac point beyond photonic bandgaps. The Dirac point is a conical singularity of a photonic band structure where wave motion obeys the famou…
We predict new phenomena, such as soliton steering and soliton fission, in optical lattices that fade away exponentially along the propagation direction. Such lattices, featuring tunable decay rates, arise in photorefractive crystals in the wavelength range 360-400 nm. We show that the predicted phenomena offer different opportunities for soliton control.
We present a new concept for the generation of optical lattice waves. For all four families of nondiffracting beams, we are able to realize corresponding nondiffracting intensity patterns in one single setup. The potential of our approach is shown by demonstrating the optical induction of complex photonic discrete, Bessel, Mathieu, and Weber lattices in a nonlinear photorefractive medium. However, our technique itself is very general and can be transferred to optical lattices in other fields like atom optics or cold gases in order to add such complex optical potentials as a new concept to thes…
We demonstrate a method to experimentally calibrate the refractive index modulation in photorefractive lattices, a task rarely addressed that is crucial for quantitative comparisons of theories with experiments. We consider the linear propagation of a normally incident plane wave through simple lattices and its modulation amplitude at crystal output face. Finding no evidence of longitudinal (Talbot-like) oscillations, we discard an ideal propagation theory and construct a simple effective model that includes longitudinal relaxation. We obtain calibrations of 1D and 2D lattices consistent with …
Novel nonlinear optical phenomena - photonic flame effect (PFE) and stimulated globular scattering (SGS) are discussed.PFE consisted in the appearance of the few seconds duration emission in blue-green spectral range under 20 ns ruby laser pulse excitation and simultaneous excitation of several spatially separated synthetic opal crystalls situated on the Cu plate. SGS was observed both in forward and backward directions. Spectral and energetical SGS characteristics were measured.
Slow light in photonic crystals and other periodic structures is associated with stationary points of the photonic dispersion relation, where the group velocity of light vanishes. We show that in certain cases, the vanishing group velocity is accompanied by the so-called frozen mode regime, when the incident light can be completely converted into the slow mode with huge diverging amplitude. The frozen mode regime is a qualitatively new wave phenomenon -- it does not reduce to any known electromagnetic resonance. Formally, the frozen mode regime is not a resonance, in a sense that it is not par…
In this work, we consider a semi-infinite discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with saturable nonlinearity driven at one edge by a driving force. The equation models the dynamics of coupled photorefractive waveguide arrays. It has been reported that when the frequency of the driving force is in the forbidden band, energy can be transmitted along the lattices provided that the driving amplitude is above a critical value. This nonlinear tunneling is called supratransmission. Here, we explain the source of supratransmission using geometric illustrations. Approximations to the critical amplitud…
The modal cut-off is investigated experimentally in a series of high quality non-linear photonic crystal fibers. We demonstrate a suitable measurement technique to determine the cut-off wavelength and verify it by inspecting the near field of the modes that may be excited below and above the cut-off. We observe a double peak structure in the cut-off spectra, which is attributed to a splitting of the higher order modes. The cut-off is measured for seven different fiber geometries with different pitches and relative hole size, and a very good agreement with recent theoretical work is found.
Exploration of the impact of synthetic material landscapes featuring tunable geometrical properties on physical processes is a research direction that is currently of great interest because of the outstanding phenomena that are continually being uncovered. Twistronics and the properties of wave excitations in moiré lattices are salient examples. Moiré patterns bridge the gap between aperiodic structures and perfect crystals, thus opening the door to the exploration of effects accompanying the transition from commensurate to incommensurate phases. Moiré patterns have revealed profound effects i…
Non-Hermitian photonic systems are known to exhibit unique phenomena, where non-Hermiticity is typically introduced by material loss or gain. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate unidirectional phenomena solely based on radiation. Our design is on the basis of a double-lattice photonic crystal that has a linear dispersion with a single exceptional point, where the magnitudes of Hermitian and non-Hermitian couplings are cancelled out in one direction. Based on this concept, we realize a unidirectional waveguide which shows perfect radiation when light is incident from one side, and s…
Optical bound state in the continuum (BIC) is characterized by infinitely high quality factor resulting in drastic enhancement of light-matter interaction phenomena. We study the optical response of a one-dimensional photonic crystal slab with Kerr focusing nonlinearity in the vicinity of BIC analytically and numerically. We predict a strong nonlinear response including multistable behaviour, self-tuning of BIC to the frequency of incident wave, and breaking of symmetry protected BIC. We show that all of these phenomena can be observed in silicon photonic structure at the pump power of several…
We consider propagation of light pulses detuned from the atomic resonance in a dense two-level medium and photonic structures with it. The large density of the medium is important to decrease spatial scale of such nonlinear effects as pulse compression, though it does not provide any fundamentally new phenomena as compared to dilute media. Frequency detuning decreases the effectivity of such nonlinear phenomena as pulse compression and dispersion spreading compensation as well. We propose simple logic gates based on interaction between two pulses in one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal. …
Orbital Frontiers: Harnessing Higher Modes in Photonic Simulators
Sandia National Laboratories（桑迪亚国家实验室）；Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories（桑迪亚国家实验室集成纳米技术中心）；RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau（凯泽斯劳滕-兰道理工大学）；Emory University（埃默里大学）
Chirality is ubiquitous from microscopic to macroscopic phenomena in physics and biology, such as fermionic interactions and DNA duplication. In photonics, chirality has traditionally represented differentiated optical responses for right and left circular polarizations. This definition of optical chirality in the polarization domain includes handedness-dependent phase velocities or optical absorption inside chiral media, which enable polarimetry for measuring the material concentration and circular dichroism spectroscopy for sensing biological or chemical enantiomers. Recently, the emerging f…
The recent development of topological photonics has revealed a variety of intriguing phenomena such as Weyl degeneracy. However, topologically non-trivial degeneracy with higher dimension has not been reported in photonics. In this Letter, topologically charged photonic surface degeneracy in a helix structure possessing two-fold screw symmetry is demonstrated. Calculated Chern number and photonic Fermi arcs support topological phase of the surface degeneracy. We also show that the photonic system can work in both metamaterial and photonic crystal regime, which have an order of magnitude differ…
Topological phases enable protected transport along the edges of materials, offering immunity against scattering from disorder and imperfections. These phases were suggested and demonstrated not only for electronic systems, but also for electromagnetic waves, cold atoms, acoustics, and even mechanics. Their potential applications range from spintronics and quantum computing to highly efficient lasers. Traditionally, the underlying model of these systems is a spatial lattice in two or three dimensions. However, it recently became clear that many lattice systems can exist also in synthetic dimen…
Topology is central to phenomena that arise in a variety of fields, ranging from quantum field theory to quantum information science to condensed matter physics. Recently, the study of topology has been extended to open systems, leading to a plethora of intriguing effects such as topological lasing, exceptional surfaces, as well as the non-Hermitian bulk-boundary correspondence. Here, we show that resonator networks with dissipative couplings can be governed by matrix-valued modified Wilson lines, leading to non-Abelian effects. This is in contrast to conservative Hamiltonians exhibiting non-d…
Magneto-terahertz phenomena are the main focus of the thesis. This work started as supporting research for the science of an X-ray laser (SwissFEL). X-ray lasers have recently drawn great attention as an unprecedented tool for scientific research on the ultrafast scale..... To answer this fundamental question, we performed original numerical simulations using a coupled Landau- Lifshitz-Gilbert Maxwell model. ... Those requirements were the motivations for the experiments performed in the second part of the thesis. To shape the terahertz pulses, .... Regarding the field intensities, we followed…
Cellular automata are a class of computational models based on simple rules and algorithms that can simulate a wide range of complex phenomena. However, when using conventional computers, these 'simple' rules are only encapsulated at the level of software. This can be taken one step further by simplifying the underlying physical hardware. Here, we propose and implement a simple photonic hardware platform for simulating complex phenomena based on cellular automata. Using this special-purpose computer, we experimentally demonstrate complex phenomena including fractals, chaos, and solitons, which…
To explore resonance phenomena in the nonlinear region, we show by experimental measurements and theoretical analyses that resonance happens in modulation instability (MI) from non-instantaneous nonlinearities in photorefractive crystals. With a temporally periodic modulation in the external bias voltage, corresponding to a modulation in the nonlinear strength, an enhancement in the visibility of MI at resonant frequency is reported through spontaneous optical pattern formations. Modeled by such temporally periodic nonlinear driving force to the system, theoretical curves obtained from a nonli…
The transition from the near to the far field of the fundamental mode radiating out of a photonic crystal fiber is investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is observed that the hexagonal shape of the near field rotates two times by pi/6 when moving into the far field, and eventually six satellites form around a nearly gaussian far-field pattern. A semi-empirical model is proposed, based on describing the near field as a sum of seven gaussian distributions, which qualitatively explains all the observed phenomena and quantitatively predicts the relative intensity of the six satellites i…
Emergent phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and refer to spatial, temporal, or spatiotemporal pattern formation in complex nonlinear systems driven out of equilibrium that is not contained in the microscopic descriptions at the single-particle level. Examples range from novel phases of matter in both quantum and classical many-body systems, to galaxy formation or neural dynamics. Two characteristic phenomena are length scales that exceed the characteristic interaction length and spontaneous symmetry breaking. Recent advances in integrated photonics indicate that the study of emergent phenomena…
Second-harmonic and sum-frequency mixing phenomena associated with 3D-localized photonic modes are studied in InP-based planar photonic crystal microcavities excited by short-pulse radiation near 1550 nm. Three-missing-hole microcavities that support two closely-spaced modes exhibit rich second-order scattering spectra that reflect intra- and inter-mode mixing via the bulk InP chi(2) during ring-down after excitation by the broadband, resonant pulse. Simultaneous excitation with a non-resonant source results in tunable second-order radiation from the microcavity.
We show numerically for the first time that ultra-refractive phenomena do exist in one-dimensional photonic crystals: we exhibit the main features of ultra-refraction, that is the enlargement and the splitting of an incident beam. We give a very simple explanation of these phenomena in terms of the photonic band structure of these media.
We present an accurate methodology for representing the physics of waves, for periodic structures, through effective properties for a replacement bulk medium: This is valid even for media with zero frequency stop-bands and where high frequency phenomena dominate. Since the work of Lord Rayleigh in 1892, low frequency (or quasi-static) behaviour has been neatly encapsulated in effective anisotropic media. However such classical homogenization theories break down in the high-frequency or stop band regime. Higher frequency phenomena are of significant importance in photonics (transverse magnetic …
We have developed an analytical model based on the perturbation theory in order to study the optical propagation of two successive intense solitons in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers filled with Raman-active gases. Based on the time delay between the two solitons, we have found that the trailing soliton dynamics can experience unusual nonlinear phenomena such as spectral and temporal soliton oscillations and transport towards the leading soliton. The overall dynamics can lead to a spatiotemporal modulation of the refractive index with a uniform temporal period and a uniform or chirped spat…
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) directly written with a femtosecond laser have shown great potential in many areas such as quantum information processing (QIP). Many applications, like photon-based quantum computing, demand the up-scaling of PICs and ever-higher optical performance, such as controllable polarisation dependence and lower loss. In order to overcome current limitations in fabrication precision, repeatability and material uniformity, a solution for non-destructive testing of large-scale PICs in a component-wise manner is desired to meet those ever-stricter demands. Here we dem…
Quantum simulation involves engineering devices to implement different Hamiltonians and measuring their quantized spectra to study quantum many-body systems. Recent developments in topological photonics have shown the possibility of studying novel quantum phenomena by controlling the topological properties of such devices. Here, using coupled arrays of upto 16 high Q nano-cavities we experimentally realize quantum photonic baths which are analogs of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We investigate the effect of fabrication induced disorder on these baths by probing individual super-modes and dem…
Recent technological advancements have allowed to implement in solid-state cavity-based devices phenomena of quantum nature such as vacuum Rabi splitting, controllable single photon emission and quantum entanglement. For a sufficiently strong coupling between a quantum emitter and a cavity, large quality factors ($Q$) along with small modal volume ($V_{eff}$) are essential. Here we show that by applying a 5nm Al coating to the sidewalls of a submicrometer-sized Fabry-Pérot microcavity, the cavity $Q$ can be temperature-tuned from few hundreds at room temperatures to 2$\times$10$^5$ below 30~K.…
The six-fold rotational symmetry of photonic crystal fibers has important manifestations in the radiated fields in terms of i) a focusing phenomena at a finite distance from the end-facet and ii) the formation of low-intensity satellite peaks in the asymptotic far field. For our study, we employ a surface equivalence principle which allows us to rigorously calculate radiated fields starting from fully-vectorial simulations of the near field. Our simulations show that the focusing is maximal at a characteristic distance from the end-facet. For large-mode area fibers the typical distance is of t…
The exploration of binary valley degree of freedom in topological photonic systems has inspired many intriguing optical phenomena such as photonic Hall effect, robust delay lines, and perfect out-coupling refraction. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the tunability of light flow in a valley photonic crystal waveguide. By continuously controlling the phase difference of microwave monopolar antenna array, the flow of light can split into different directions according to the charily of phase vortex, and the splitting ratio varies smoothly from 0.9 to 0.1. Topological valley transport o…
Different from the Fermi surface of the type-I Dirac semimetal being a point, that of the type-II Dirac semimetal is a pair of crossing lines because the Dirac cone is tilted with open and hyperbolic isofrequency contours. As an optical analogy, type-II Dirac photonic lattices have been also designed. Here, we report type-II Dirac cones in Lieb-like photonic lattices composed of identical waveguide channels, and the anisotropy of the band structure is due to neither the refractive index change nor the environment, but only the spatial symmetry of the lattice; therefore, the proposal is advanta…
Detailed two dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and numerical calculations of electron density profiles, based on a simplified model, were performed to show for the first time that underdense plasma, induced by two pairs of counterpropagating femtosecond-laser pulses in a gas, could be manipulated by ponderomotive-optical lattices to form periodic structures. These novel phenomena facilitate the localization and enhancement of the generating laser pulse intensities by the self-induced plasma photonic lattices (PPLs) and exhibit unique spatiotemporal dynamics. Variation of the initi…
We experimentally verified the phenomena of photonic jets generated by plane-electromagnetic-wave-illuminated dielectric micro-cylinders with diameter comparable to the corresponding wavelength at microwave frequencies. Using a home-made 2D spatial field mapping system, we carried out a point-by-point measurement of both phase and intensity of spatial electric field distribution inside and around scattering cylinders, providing a clear complete electromagnetic field picture for these phenomena. Correspondingly, the theoretically predicted super-enhancement of the backscattering induced by smal…
Symmetry governs many electronic and photonic phenomena in optics and condensed matter physics. Skyrmions and merons are prominent topological structures in magnetic materials, with the topological features determined by the interplay between anisotropy of a material and its magnetization. Here we theoretically show and experimentally demonstrate that the symmetry of the electromagnetic field determines the spin topological properties of the guided modes via spin-orbit coupling and may only result in either hexagonal spin-skyrmion or square spin-meron lattices. We also show that in the absence…
