Broadband and efficient second harmonic generation in LiNbO3-LiTaO3 composite ridge waveguides at telecom-band

Broadband nonlinear frequency conversions of optical waves are widely employed in multiple areas of optics and photonics. However, the broadening of conversion bandwidth is often at a cost of reduction in efficiency, which may induce a limitation on practical applications. Here we theoretically propose a novel design of LiNbO₃ ridge waveguides on LiTaO₃ substrates which can be used for efficient and broadband second harmonic generation. Through group velocity engineering of the ridge waveguides, acceptance bandwidth over 20 nm with a high conversion efficiency of > 25%W^-1·cm^-2 is achieved at telecom-band.     

Dynamic mechanical relaxation and thermal creep of high-entropy La30Ce30Ni10Al20Co10 bulk metallic glass

Spatial frequency shift(SFS) microscopy with evanescent wave illumination shows intriguing advantages, including large field of view(FOV), high speed, and good modularity. However, a missing band in the spatial frequency domain hampers the SFS superresolution microscopy from achieving resolution better than 3 folds of the Abbe diffraction limit. Here, we propose a novel tunable large-SFS microscopy, making the resolution improvement of a linear system no longer restricted by the detection numerical aperture(NA). The complete wide-range detection in the spatial frequency domain is realized by tuning the illumination spatial frequency actively and broadly through an angle modulation between the azimuthal propagating directions of two evanescent waves. The vertical spatial frequency is tuned via a sectional saturation effect, and the reconstructed depth information can be added to the lateral superresolution mask for 3D imaging. A lateral resolution of λ/9, and a vertical localization precision of ~λ/200(detection objective NA = 0.9) are realized with a gallium phosphide(GaP) waveguide. Its unlimited resolution enhancing capability is demonstrated by introducing a designed metamaterial chip with an unusual large refractive index. Besides the great resolution enhancement, this method shows better anti-noise capability than classical structured illumination microscopy without SFS tunability. This method is chip-compatible and can potentially provide a massproducible illumination chip module achieving the fast, large-FOV, and deep-subwavelength 3D nanoscopy.     

Optical Trapping with Focused Surface Waves

Near-field optical trapping can be realized with focused evanescent waves that are excited at the water–glass interface due to the total internal reflection, or with focused plasmonic waves excited on the water–gold interface. Herein, the performance of these two kinds of near-field optical trapping techniques is compared using the same optical microscope configuration. Experimental results show that only a single-micron polystyrene bead can be trapped by the focused evanescent waves, whereas many beads are simultaneously attracted to the center of the excited region by focused plasmonic waves. This difference in trapping behavior is analyzed from the electric field intensity distributions of these two kinds of focused surface waves and the difference in trapping behavior is attributed to photothermal effects due to the light absorption by the gold film.     

A second-order accurate three sub-step composite algorithm for structural dynamics

In this paper, a novel three sub-step composite algorithm with desired numerical properties is developed. The proposed method is a self-starting, unconditionally stable and second-order accurate implicit algorithm without overshoot. Particularly, the second-order accuracy in time is achieved in its final form, but it is not required in each sub-step. Its unique algorithmic parameter is analyzed to achieve the unconditional stability and it shares the identical effective stiffness matrix inside three sub-steps to save the computational cost in linear analyses. The same as the Bathe algorithm, the proposed algorithm is always L-stable, meaning that the spurious high-frequency modes can be effectively eliminated. Three numerical examples are simulated to illustrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over some existing implicit algorithms. The first numerical simulation, solving a linear single-degree-of-freedom system, shows less period elongation errors and the second-order accuracy of the present scheme. The second one, a clamped-free bar excited by the end load, shows the ability of effectively damping out the unexpected high-frequency modes. The last example solves the nonlinear mass-spring system with variable degree-of-freedoms and illustrates that the composite sub-step algorithm can save more computational cost than the traditional implicit algorithm when the integration step size is selected appropriately.     

On solitary wave diffraction by multiple,in-line vertical cylinders

The interaction of solitary waves with multiple, in-line vertical cylinders is investigated. The fixed cylinders are of constant circular cross section and extend from the seafloor to the free surface. In general, there are N of them lined in a row parallel to the incoming wave direction. Both the nonlinear, generalized Boussinesq and the Green–Naghdi shallow-water wave equations are used. A boundary-fitted curvilinear coordinate system is employed to facilitate the use of the finite-difference method on curved boundaries. The governing equations and boundary conditions are transformed from the physical plane onto the computational plane. These equations are then solved in time on the computational plane that contains a uniform grid and by use of the successive over-relaxation method and a second-order finite-difference method to determine the horizontal force and overturning moment on the cylinders. Resulting solitary wave forces from the nonlinear Green–Naghdi and the Boussinesq equations are presented, and the forces are compared with the experimental data when available.     

Robust pulses for high fidelity non-adiabatic geometric gate operations in an off-resonant three-level system

We propose a method to design pulses in a resonant three-level system to enhance the robustness of non-adiabatic geometric gate operations. By optimizing the shape of the pulse envelope, we show that the gate operations are more robust against frequency detuning than they are with Gaussian and square pulses. Our method provides a way to design pulses that can be employed in a system where robustness against frequency variations or inhomogeneous broadening is required, and may be extended to ensure robustness against other physical imperfections such as intensity fluctuations and random noises.     

Optical reflection properties for the interface associated with Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial

Based on the topological nature of Chern insulator and magnetoelectric coupling of chiral metamaterial, we investigate the electrodynamics for the interface associated with the two media. The Fresnel coefficients of the interface between Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial, as well as the corresponding polarization rotation angles, are derived. The reflection characteristics of the linearly polarized incident wave at the interface, such as complete polarization conversion and change of polarization state, are discussed. Under the combined influence of Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial, the partial polarization conversion may be enhanced to the complete polarization conversion, and the chiral metamaterial may compensate for the suppression effect of longitudinal conductivity of Chern insulator on the polarization conversion.     

Influence of packing on the vibrations of homogeneous bundles of C60 peapods

The non-resonant Raman spectra of homogeneous bundles of C₆₀ peapods (C₆₀ inserted in single-walled carbon nanotubes) are calculated in the framework of spectral moment method, together with a bond-polarizability model. The evolutions of the low wavenumber range of the Raman spectrum of homogeneous bundles of C₆₀ peapods as a function of the nanotube diameter and the size of bundles are discussed. The effect of the C₆₀ filling factor is investigated in detail. The results are compared to experimental Raman data measured on various samples of C₆₀ peapods.