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1. Modeling and observation of mid-infrared nonlocality in effective epsilon-near-zero ultranarrow coaxial apertures

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12038-3  

   Yoo, Daehan ; Vidal-Codina, Ferran ; Ciracì, Cristian ; Nguyen, Ngoc-Cuong ; Smith, David R. ; Peraire, Jaime ; Oh, Sang-Hyun ( October 2019 , Nature Communications)

   With advances in nanofabrication techniques, extreme-scale nanophotonic devices with critical gap dimensions of just 1–2 nm have been realized. Plasmons in such ultranarrow gaps can exhibit nonlocal response, which was previously shown to limit the field enhancement and cause optical properties to deviate from the local description. Using atomic layer lithography, we create mid-infrared-resonant coaxial apertures with gap sizes as small as 1 nm and observe strong evidence of nonlocality, including spectral shifts and boosted transmittance of the cutoff epsilon-near-zero mode. Experiments are supported by full-wave 3-D nonlocal simulations performed with the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method. This numerical method captures atomic-scale variations of the electromagnetic fields while efficiently handling extreme-scale size mismatch. Combining atomic-layer-based fabrication techniques with fast and accurate numerical simulations provides practical routes to design and fabricate highly-efficient large-area mid-infrared sensors, antennas, and metasurfaces.
2. Motion Planning around Obstacles with Convex Optimization

   Tobia Marcucci, Mark Petersen2 ( May 2022 , ArXivorg)

   Trajectory optimization o↵ers mature tools for motion planning in high-dimensional spaces under dynamic constraints. However, when facing complex configuration spaces, cluttered with obstacles, roboticists typically fall back to sampling-based planners that struggle in very high dimensions and with continuous di↵erential constraints. Indeed, obstacles are the source of many textbook examples of problematic nonconvexities in the trajectory-optimization prob- lem. Here we show that convex optimization can, in fact, be used to reliably plan trajectories around obstacles. Specifically, we consider planning problems with collision-avoidance constraints, as well as cost penalties and hard constraints on the shape, the duration, and the velocity of the trajectory. Combining the properties of B ́ezier curves with a recently-proposed framework for finding shortest paths in Graphs of Convex Sets (GCS), we formulate the planning problem as a compact mixed-integer optimization. In stark contrast with existing mixed-integer planners, the convex relaxation of our programs is very tight, and a cheap round- ing of its solution is typically sufficient to design globally-optimal trajectories. This reduces the mixed-integer program back to a simple convex optimization, and automatically provides optimality bounds for the planned trajectories. We name the proposed planner GCS, after its underlying optimization framework. We demonstrate GCS in simulationmore »on a variety of robotic platforms, including a quadrotor flying through buildings and a dual-arm manipulator (with fourteen degrees of freedom) moving in a confined space. Using numerical experiments on a seven-degree-of-freedom manipulator, we show that GCS can outperform widely-used sampling-based planners by finding higher-quality trajectories in less time.« less
3. Site-dependent selection of atoms for homogeneous atom-cavity coupling

   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2104.01201  

   Wu, B. ; Greve, G. P. ; Luo, C. ; Thompson, J.K. ( October 2022 , ArXivorg)

   We demonstrate a method to obtain homogeneous atom-cavity coupling by selecting and keeping 87Rb atoms that are near maximally coupled to the cavity's standing-wave mode. We select atoms by imposing an AC Stark shift on the ground state hyperfine microwave transition frequency with light injected into the cavity. We then induce a spin flip with microwaves that are resonant for atoms that are near maximally coupled to the cavity mode of interest, after which, we use radiation pressure forces to remove from the cavity all the atoms in the initial spin state. Achieving greater homogeneity in the atom-cavity coupling will potentially enhance entanglement generation, intracavity driving of atomic transitions, cavity-optomechanics, and quantum simulations. This approach can easily be extended to other atomic species with microwave or optical transitions.
4. Multifunctional on-chip storage at telecommunication wavelength for quantum networks

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.412211  

   Craiciu, Ioana ; Lei, Mi ; Rochman, Jake ; Bartholomew, John G. ; Faraon, Andrei ( January 2021 , Optica)

   Quantum networks will enable a variety of applications, from secure communication and precision measurements to distributed quantum computing. Storing photonic qubits and controlling their frequency, bandwidth, and retrieval time are important functionalities in future optical quantum networks. Here we demonstrate these functions using an ensemble of erbium ions in yttrium orthosilicate coupled to a silicon photonic resonator and controlled via on-chip electrodes. Light in the telecommunication C-band is stored, manipulated, and retrieved using a dynamic atomic frequency comb protocol controlled by linear DC Stark shifts of the ion ensemble’s transition frequencies. We demonstrate memory time control in a digital fashion in increments of 50 ns, frequency shifting by more than a pulse width ($\pm <\#comment/>39\mathrm{M}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}$), and a bandwidth increase by a factor of 3, from 6 to 18 MHz. Using on-chip electrodes, electric fields as high as 3 kV/cm were achieved with a low applied bias of 5 V, making this an appealing platform for rare-earth ions, which experience Stark shifts of the order of 10 kHz/(V/cm).
5. Experimental band flip and band closure in guided-mode resonant optical lattices

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.463350  

   Razmjooei, Nasrin ; Magnusson, Robert ( June 2022 , Optics Letters)

   We demonstrate band flip in one-dimensional dielectric photonic lattices presenting numerical and experimental results. In periodic optical lattices supporting leaky Bloch modes, there exists a second stop band where one band edge experiences radiation loss resulting in guided-mode resonance (GMR), while the other band edge becomes a nonleaky bound state in the continuum (BIC). To illustrate the band flip, band structures for two different lattices are provided by calculating zero-order reflectance with respect to wavelength and incident angle. We then provide three photonic lattices, each with a different fill factor, consisting of photoresist gratings on Si₃N₄sublayers with glass substrates. The designs are fabricated using laser interferometric lithography. The lattice parameters are characterized and verified with an atomic force microscope. The band transition under fill-factor variation is accomplished experimentally. The measured data are compared to simulation results and show good agreement.