Programmable nano-optics and photonics
Towards large-scale programmable silicon photonic chip for signal processing
Optical signal processing has been playing a crucial part as powerful engine for various information systems in the practical applications. In particular, achieving large-scale programmable chips for signal processing are highly desirable for high …
Phase change material-based tunable Fano resonant optical coatings and their applications
Thin-film coatings offer a scalable optical platform, as compared to nanopatterned films, for various applications including structural coloring, photovoltaics, and sensing. Recently, Fano resonant optical coatings (FROCs) have gained attention. FROCs consist …
Melting-free integrated photonic memory with layered polymorphs
Chalcogenide-based nonvolatile phase change materials (PCMs) have a long history of usage, from bulk disk memory to all-optic neuromorphic computing circuits. Being able to perform uniform phase transitions over a subwavelength scale makes PCMs particularly …
Chalcogenide phase-change material advances programmable terahertz metamaterials: a non-volatile perspective for reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
Terahertz (THz) waves have gained considerable attention in the rising 6G communication due to their large bandwidth. However, the cost and power consumption become the major constraints for the commercialization of 6G THz systems as the frequency increases. …
Fundamental limits to multi-functional and tunable nanophotonic response
Tunable and multi-functional nanophotonic devices are used for applications from beam steering to sensing. Yet little is understood about fundamental limits to their functionality. The difficulty lies with the fact that it is a single structure that must …
Spatio-spectral control of coherent nanophotonics
Fast modulation of optical signals that carry multidimensional information in the form of wavelength, phase or polarization has fueled an explosion of interest in integrated photonics. This interest however masks a significant challenge which is that …
Nanoantenna induced liquid crystal alignment for high performance tunable metasurface
Liquid crystal (LC) based spatial light modulators (SLMs) are a type of versatile device capable of arbitrarily reconfiguring the wavefront of light. For current commercial LC-SLM devices, the large pixel size limits their application to diffractive optics …
Programmable topological metasurface to modulate spatial and surface waves in real time
We propose a programmable topological metasurface to integrate intelligent modulations of spatial and surface waves. A general design method is presented to design the programmable metasurface elements with PIN diodes. The surface waves can be controlled to …
Programmable flip-metasurface with dynamically tunable reflection and broadband undistorted transmission
We introduce a programmable flip-metasurface that can dynamically control the reflection while leaving the transmitted wavefront undistorted in an ultra-broad spectrum, i.e., the same as that of the incidence. This metasurface is constructed by unique …
High-resolution non-line-of-sight imaging based on liquid crystal planar optical elements
Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging aims at recovering hidden objects located beyond the traditional line of sight, with potential applications in areas such as security monitoring, search and rescue, and autonomous driving. Conventionally, NLOS imaging requires …
Ultrafast Q-boosting in semiconductor metasurfaces
All-optical tunability of semiconductor metasurfaces offers unique opportunities for novel time-varying effects, including frequency conversion and light trapping. However, the all-optical processes often induce optical absorption that fundamentally limits …
Inverse design of compact nonvolatile reconfigurable silicon photonic devices with phase-change materials
In the development of silicon photonics, the continued downsizing of photonic integrated circuits will further increase the integration density, which augments the functionality of photonic chips. Compared with the traditional design method, inverse design …
Integrated multi-operand optical neurons for scalable and hardware-efficient deep learning
Optical neural networks (ONNs) are promising hardware platforms for next-generation neuromorphic computing due to their high parallelism, low latency, and low energy consumption. However, previous integrated photonic tensor cores (PTCs) consume numerous …
Surface plasmon-cavity hybrid state and its graphene modulation at THz frequencies
Fabry–Pérot (F–P) cavity and metal hole array are classic photonic devices. Integrating F–P cavity with holey metal typically enhances interfacial reflection and dampens wave transmission. In this work, a hybrid bound surface state is found within …
Language-controllable programmable metasurface empowered by large language models
Programmable metasurface has become a prominent tool in various areas including control, communication, computing, and so on, due to its unique capability in the electromagnetic (EM) manipulation. However, it is lack of the intelligence in the sense that it …
All optical tunable RF filter using elemental antimony
In the past decade, the proliferation of modern telecommunication technologies, including 5G, and the widespread adoption of the Internet-of-things (IoT) have led to an unprecedented surge in data generation and transmission. This surge has created an …
Reconfigurable application-specific photonic integrated circuit for solving partial differential equations
Solving mathematical equations faster and more efficiently has been a Holy Grail for centuries for scientists and engineers across all disciplines. While electronic digital circuits have revolutionized equation solving in recent decades, it has become …
Optimization of a programmable lambda/2-pitch optical phased array
A challenge in optical phased arrays (OPAs) is to achieve single-lobe emission using densely spaced emitters without incurring inter-waveguide optical crosstalk. Here, we propose to heuristically optimize the amplitude and phase of each grating antenna in an …
Closed-loop electron-beam-induced spectroscopy and nanofabrication around individual quantum emitters
Color centers in diamond play a central role in the development of quantum photonic technologies, and their importance is only expected to grow in the near future. For many quantum applications, high collection efficiency from individual emitters is required, …
High-fidelity and polarization-insensitive universal photonic processors fabricated by femtosecond laser writing
Universal photonic processors (UPPs) are fully programmable photonic integrated circuits that are key components in quantum photonics. With this work, we present a novel platform for the realization of low-loss, low-power, and high-fidelity UPPs based on …
Direct electron beam patterning of electro-optically active PEDOT:PSS
The optical and electronic tunability of the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has enabled emerging applications as diverse as bioelectronics, flexible electronics, and micro- and nano-photonics. …