Riccardo Sapienza

Xingchen Ji, Felippe A. S. Barbosa, Samantha P. Roberts, Avik Dutt, Jaime Cardenas, Yoshitomo Okawachi, Alex Bryant, Alexander L. Gaeta, Michal Lipson
On-chip optical resonators have the promise of revolutionizing numerous fields, including metrology and sensing; however, their optical losses have always lagged behind those of their larger discrete resonator counterparts based on crystalline materials and silica microtoroids. Silicon nitride ... [Optica 4, 619-624 (2017)]

Author(s): Yifan Zhu, Xudong Fan, Bin Liang, Jianchun Cheng, and Yun Jing

Sound diffusers are widely used to improve acoustics in a space, but the size of traditional diffusers limits their usefulness at low- to mid-range frequencies. New experiments show that a prototype diffuser based on acoustic metasurfaces performs on par with conventional designs despite being roughly 1 order of magnitude thinner.

[Phys. Rev. X 7, 021034] Published Mon Jun 05, 2017

Author(s): Filippo Alpeggiani, Nikhil Parappurath, Ewold Verhagen, and L. Kuipers

Scattering matrices are a key mathematical tool used by physicists to understand how the output and input of many types of systems relate to one another. A new analysis shows how a scattering matrix can be determined solely based on quasinormal modes, providing an effective and powerful tool for gaining insight into complex physical systems.

[Phys. Rev. X 7, 021035] Published Mon Jun 05, 2017

Photonic crystal cavities enable the realization of high Q-factor and low mode-volume resonators, with typical architectures consisting of a thin suspended periodically-patterned layer to maximize confinement of light by strong index guiding. We investigate a heterostructure-based approach comprising a high refractive index core and lower refractive index cladding layers. Whilst confinement typically decreases with decreasing index contrast between the core and cladding layers, we show that, counter-intuitively, due to the confinement provided by the photonic band structure in the cladding layers, it becomes possible to achieve Q-factors $>10^4$ with only a small refractive index contrast. This opens up new opportunities for implementing high Q-factor cavities in conventional semiconductor heterostructures, with direct applications to the design of electrically-pumped nano-cavity lasers using conventional fabrication approaches.

Qitian Ru, Nathaniel Lee, Xuan Chen, Kai Zhong, Georgiy Tsoy, Mike Mirov, Sergey Vasilyev, Sergey B. Mirov, Konstantin L. Vodopyanov
We demonstrate an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on random phase matching in polycrystalline ZnSe. The OPO was pumped by Cr:ZnS laser pulses (2.35 μm, 62 fs, 79 MHz), had a pump threshold of 90 mW, and produced an ultrabroadband spectrum spanning ... [Optica 4, 617-618 (2017)]

Author(s): Hyeongrak Choi, Mikkel Heuck, and Dirk Englund

A carefully shaped air gap in a silicon block would concentrate laser light enough to produce photons that interact with one another, even using a weak laser beam, according to theory.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 223605] Published Tue May 30, 2017

Author(s): M. K. Bhaskar, D. D. Sukachev, A. Sipahigil, R. E. Evans, M. J. Burek, C. T. Nguyen, L. J. Rogers, P. Siyushev, M. H. Metsch, H. Park, F. Jelezko, M. Lončar, and M. D. Lukin

A diamond color center with a germanium defect has superior optical coherence properties over other color centers, with implications for application.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 223603] Published Wed May 31, 2017

Spectral correlations in a random distributed feedback fibre laser

Nature Communications, Published online: 18 May 2017; doi:10.1038/ncomms15514

The feedback mechanism in random fibre lasers has been insofar deemed incoherent. To reveal the dynamic evolution of the random fibre laser spectra, Sugavanam et al. use a real-time spectral measurement technique and observe long-lived narrowband components in the random fibre laser’s spectrum.

Author(s): Dibyendu Roy, C. M. Wilson, and Ofer Firstenberg

Photons, the particles of light, are in most conditions very weakly interacting. Nevertheless, it is possible to make them interact by altering environmental conditions, for instance, in the interior of certain materials or by squeezing them in confined geometries. In this Colloquium the topic of photons interacting strongly when confined to a one-dimensional geometry is discussed from experimental and theoretical perspectives.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 021001] Published Wed May 10, 2017

Author(s): Yi Zhang and Eun-Ah Kim

A new machine-learning algorithm based on a neural network can tell a topological phase of matter from a conventional one.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 216401] Published Mon May 22, 2017

Oliver Kahl, Simone Ferrari, Vadim Kovalyuk, Andreas Vetter, Georgia Lewes-Malandrakis, Christoph Nebel, Alexander Korneev, Gregory Goltsman, Wolfram Pernice
The detection of individual photons by superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors is an inherently binary mechanism, revealing either their absence or presence while concealing their spectral information. For multicolor imaging techniques, such as single-photon spectroscopy, fluorescence ... [Optica 4, 557-562 (2017)]

S. K. Ruddell, K. E. Webb, I. Herrera, A. S. Parkins, M. D. Hoogerland
Large-scale quantum networks could allow a wide variety of applications in quantum computing and simulation. Here we demonstrate the operation of a single node for use in such a network. We employ a ring geometry all-fiber cavity system for cavity quantum electrodynamics with an ensemble of cold ... [Optica 4, 576-579 (2017)]

Title: Scaling Theory of the Anderson Transition in Random Graphs: Ergodicity and Universality
Author(s): Garcia-Mata, I.; Giraud, O.; Georgeot, B.; et al.
Source: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 118 (16): APR 17 2017
Document Type: Article

Photonic crystals (PCs) have emerged as one of the most widely used platforms for controlling light–matter interaction in solid-state systems. They rely on Bragg scattering from wavelength-sized periodic modulation in the dielectric environment for manipulating the electromagnetic field. A complementary approach to manipulate light–matter interaction is offered by artificial media...

Moiré lenses are cool: two patterned diffractive optical elements are rotated relative to each other to vary the power of the “lens”. Just watch the video (below).

Demonstration of focus-tunable diffractive Moiré-lenses
Stefan Bernet, Walter Harm, and Monika Ritsch-Marte
Vol. 21, Issue 6, pp. 6955-6966 (2013) •https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.006955

And their 2008 theoretical work.

     

Author(s): Philipp M. Holl and Friedemann Reinhard

The Wi-Fi signals that provide internet access can also produce images of the transmitter’s 3D surroundings, even through walls.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 183901] Published Fri May 05, 2017

Miles J. Padgett
Twenty-five years ago Allen, Beijersbergen, Spreeuw, and Woerdman published their seminal paper establishing that light beams with helical phase-fronts carried an orbital angular momentum. Previously orbital angular momentum had been associated only with high-order atomic/molecular transitions and ... [Opt. Express 25, 11265-11274 (2017)]

Roxana Rezvani Naraghi, Luiz Gustavo Cançado, Félix Salazar-Bloise, Aristide Dogariu
The ability to control the light-matter interaction in the deep subwavelength regime has fascinating consequences for material sciences and a range of photonics technologies. The statistical properties of emerging fields strongly depend on both the source of radiation and specific characteristics ... [Optica 4, 527-531 (2017)]