On the Cover: Microcavity exciton polaritons at room temperature
On the Cover: Centimeter scale color printing with grayscale lithography
On the Cover: Spatially engineered nonlinearity in resonant metasurfaces
On the Cover: Metasurfaces enabled dual-wavelength decoupling of near-field and far-field encoding
On the Cover: Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions

This paper aims to review recent theoretical and experimental developments of exciton polaritons operating at room temperature, and includes a comprehensive theoretical background, descriptions of intriguing phenomena observed in various physical systems, as well as accounts of optoelectronic applications.

The image illustrates the design concept of the pixelated Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavities. Structural color comes from the light interactions with sub-wavelength structures. Compared with conventional painting technology using chemical dyes, structural color has a broader range of technological applications. Among various color management technologies, F-P cavity represents an important solution for generating vivid colors. However, the fabrication of pixelated F-P cavities has mainly relied on the slow electron beam lithography process.

Periodic poling of resonant lithium niobate metasurfaces modifies their nonlinearity and enables tailoring the diffraction pattern of second harmonic generated by the metasurface. It adds another degree of freedom for designing nonlinear metasurfaces.

The small size and rich functions of metasurfaces have great potential for the development of new optical devices. The research group theoretically proved that the metasurface can realize the complete decoupling of the near-field and far-field functions of the same polarization at two working wavelengths. While the near-field encodes intensity patterns, the far-field functions can be holographic, focusing, and beam deflecting. The cover image shows that when a metasurface is illuminated by the light at 1064 nm and 1550 nm, the near-field intensity distribution displays the numbers 1064 and 1550, and the holographic pattern shows the emblem of Nanjing University and its landmark building North Building.

The image on the cover for Advanced Photonics Volume 5 Issue 1 illustrates a torus-knot configuration of a toroidal layer in the Hopf fibration and its vectorial properties of a photonic hopfion, which is controllably transported in free space. The image is based on original research presented in the article by Yijie Shen, Bingshi Yu, Haijun Wu, Chunyu Li, Zhihan Zhu, and Anatoly V. Zayats, “Topological transformation and free-space transport of photonic hopfions,” Adv. Photonics 5(1), 015001 (2023), doi: 10.1117/1.AP.5.1.015001.

Community-Publication
Ultrafast beam-steering breakthrough at Sandia Labs
In a major breakthrough in the fields of nanophotonics and ultrafast optics, a Sandia National Laboratories research team has demonstrated the ability to dynamically steer light pulses from conventional, so-called incoherent light sources.
High Power Laser Science and Engineering
  • Mar. 24, 2023
  • Vol. , Issue (2023)
On the Cover
Spatially engineered nonlinearity in resonant metasurfaces
Metasurfaces—structured arrays of nanoresonators—are becoming more and more essential in our every-day life. They are already employed in smartphone cameras, are being developed for LiDAR and 3D sensing, and will constitute even more devices in the near future.
Photonics Research
  • Mar. 24, 2023
  • Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2023)
Editors' Picks
Solutions for high-Q resonances of tight focusing
Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are nonradiative states embedded in the spectra of the radiation continuum. The mechanism of BICs provides efficient ways to engineer the quality factor (Q factor) of resonant modes. Recent demonstrations reveal that metallic metasurfaces can support high-Q plasmonic quasi-BICs offering unprecedented opportunities to achieve giant optical field enhancement. This allows for many applications requiring strong light-matter interaction, such as laser generation, Bose-Einstein condensation, and nonlinear enhancement.
Photonics Research
  • Mar. 16, 2023
  • Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2023)
Community-Publication
Laser-driven creation of high-energy ions boosts next-gen accelerators
A new way to create high-energy ions could speed up their applications in treating cancer and probing the fundamental nature of matter.
High Power Laser Science and Engineering
  • Mar. 14, 2023
  • Vol. , Issue (2023)
HPL Highlights
Forty-five terawatt vortex laser
Light with spiral phases, known as optical vortex, can carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), and is widely applied in microscale matter manipulation, microscopy, optical communication, intense laser interaction with materials, and so on. With the development of ultrashort and ultra-high power lasers, whose vortex versions have drawn significant attention. However, the existing high-energy-flux mode-converter, large size reflective phase-plate installed at the end of the laser, suffers from expensive cost, low spatial resolution, limited damage threshold, and is disturbed by topological charge dispersion which can degrade the vortex quality. Broadband mode-converter, e.g. Q-plate (a half waveplate with the optical axis rotating with azimuth), can realize broadband mode conversion but the energy flux is limited by its small manufacturable size.
High Power Laser Science and Engineering
  • Mar. 14, 2023
  • Vol. 10, Issue 5 (2023)
Newest Articles
Machine learning for optical quantum metrology
  • Mar.24,2023
  • Advanced Photonics,Vol. 5, Issue 2
  • 020501 (2023)
Interpulse stimulation Fourier-transform coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy: publisher’s note
  • Mar.24,2023
  • Photonics Research,Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • 622 (2023)
Highly reconfigurable silicon integrated microwave photonic filter towards next-generation wireless communication

Integrated microwave photonic filters (IMPFs) are capable of offering unparalleled performances in terms of superb spectral fineness, broadband, and more

Integrated microwave photonic filters (IMPFs) are capable of offering unparalleled performances in terms of superb spectral fineness, broadband, and more importantly, the reconfigurability, which encounter the trend of the next-generation wireless communication. However, to achieve high reconfigurability, previous works should adopt complicated system structures and modulation formats, which put great pressure on power consumption and controlment, and, therefore, impede the massive deployment of IMPF. Here, we propose a streamlined architecture for a wideband and highly reconfigurable IMPF on the silicon photonics platform. For various practical filter responses, to avoid complex auxiliary devices and bias drift problems, a phase-modulated flexible sideband cancellation method is employed based on the intensity-consistent single-stage-adjustable cascaded-microring (ICSSA-CM). The IMPF exhibits an operation band extending to millimeter-wave (30 GHz), and other extraordinary performances including high spectral resolution of 220 MHz and large rejection ratio of 60 dB are obtained. Moreover, Gb/s-level RF wireless communications are demonstrated for the first time towards real-world scenarios. The proposed IMPF provides broadband flexible spectrum control capabilities, showing great potential in the next-generation wireless communication.show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Photonics Research,Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • 609 (2023)
On-demand assembly of optically levitated nanoparticle arrays in vacuum

Realizing a large-scale fully controllable quantum system is a challenging task in current physical research and has broad applications. In this work, we

Realizing a large-scale fully controllable quantum system is a challenging task in current physical research and has broad applications. In this work, we create a reconfigurable optically levitated nanoparticle array in vacuum. Our optically levitated nanoparticle array allows full control of individual nanoparticles to form an arbitrary pattern and detect their motion. As a concrete example, we choose two nanoparticles without rotation signals from an array to synthesize a nanodumbbell in situ by merging them into one trap. The nanodumbbell synthesized in situ can rotate beyond 1 GHz. Our work provides a platform for studying macroscopic many-body physics and quantum sensing.show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Photonics Research,Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • 600 (2023)
Advanced Photonics Photonics Insights

In this paper, we propose an encryption technique for underwater visible light communication (UVLC) based on chaotic phase scrambling (PS) and conjugate frequency hopping (CFH). The tec

In this paper, we propose an encryption technique for underwater visible light communication (UVLC) based on chaotic phase scrambling (PS) and conjugate frequency hopping (CFH). The technique is experimentally tested using 8-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-8) and a 1.2-meter underwater link. The security key of the phase scrambling code is generated according to a logistic map, and the frequency hopping is achieved by adding same zero frequency points to the signal spectrum. The maximum transmission rate of 2.1 Gbps is measured with the bit error rate (BER) below 7% the hard decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8×10<sup>-3</sup>. show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Chinese Optics Letters,Vol. 21, Issue 6
  • (2023)

High-order dispersion introduced by Gires-Tournois interferometer mirrors usually causes spectral sidebands in the near-zero dispersion region of mode-locked fiber lasers. Here, we demo

High-order dispersion introduced by Gires-Tournois interferometer mirrors usually causes spectral sidebands in the near-zero dispersion region of mode-locked fiber lasers. Here, we demonstrate a sideband-free Yb-doped mode-locked fiber laser with dispersion-compensating Gires-Tournois interferometer mirrors. Both simulation and experiment demonstrate that the wavelength and energy of the sidebands can be tuned by changing (i) the transmission coefficient of the output mirror, (ii) the pump power, and (iii) the ratio of net cavity dispersion to net third-order dispersion in the cavity. By optimizing these three parameters, the laser can generate a sideband-free, Gaussian-shaped spectrum with a 13.56-nm bandwidth at -0.0232-ps2 net cavity dispersion, which corresponds to a 153-fs pulse duration.show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Chinese Optics Letters,Vol. 21, Issue 6
  • (2023)

A circular-sided square microcavity laser etched a central hole has achieved chaos operation with a bandwidth of 20.8 GHz without external optical feedback or injection, in which intens

A circular-sided square microcavity laser etched a central hole has achieved chaos operation with a bandwidth of 20.8 GHz without external optical feedback or injection, in which intensity probability distribution of chaotic signal with a two-peak pattern was observed. Based on the self-chaotic microlaser, physical random numbers at 400 Gb/s were generated by extracting the four least significant bits without other complex post-processing methods. The solidary chaos laser and minimal post-processing have predicted a simpler and low-cost on-chip random number generator in the future.show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Chinese Optics Letters,Vol. 21, Issue 6
  • (2023)

In the scheme of fast ignition of inertial confinement fusion, the fuel temperature mainly relies on the fast electrons, which acts as an energy carrier and transfers the laser energy t

In the scheme of fast ignition of inertial confinement fusion, the fuel temperature mainly relies on the fast electrons, which acts as an energy carrier and transfers the laser energy to the fuel. Both conversion efficiency from laser to fast electron and the energy spectrum of the fast electron are essentially important to achieve a high effective heating. In this manuscript, a two-dimensional particle in cell simulation is applied to study the generation of fast electrons from solid-density plasmas with different laser waveforms. The results have shown that the slope of the rising edge has a significant effect on the fast electron generation and energy absorption. For the negative skew pulse with a relatively slow rising edge, the J×B mechanism can most effectively accelerate the electrons. The overall absorption efficiency of the laser energy is optimized, and the fast electron yield in the middle and low energy range is also improved.show less

  • Mar.24,2023
  • Chinese Optics Letters,Vol. 21, Issue 6
  • (2023)
This paper aims to review recent theoretical and experimental developments of exciton polaritons operating at room temperature, and includes a comprehensive theoretical background, descriptions of intriguing phenomena observed in various physical systems, as well as accounts of optoelectronic applications.
  • Journal
  • 24th Mar,2023
The image illustrates the design concept of the pixelated Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavities. Structural color comes from the light interactions with sub-wavelength structures. Compared with conventional painting technology using chemical dyes, structural color has a broader range of technological applications. Among various color management technologies, F-P cavity represents an important solution for generating vivid colors. However, the fabrication of pixelated F-P cavities has mainly relied on the slow electron beam lithography process.
  • Journal
  • 24th Mar,2023