Pump-induced exceptional points in lasers

We demonstrate that the above-threshold behavior of a laser can be strongly affected by exceptional points which are induced by pumping the laser nonuniformly. At these singularities, the eigenstates of the non-Hermitian operator which describes the lasing modes coalesce. In their vicinity, the laser may turn off even when the overall pump power deposited in the system is increased. Such signatures of a pump-induced exceptional point can be experimentally probed with coupled ridge or microdisk lasers.     

Topological confinement in bilayer graphene

We study a new type of one-dimensional chiral states that can be created in bilayer graphene (BLG) by electrostatic lateral confinement. These states appear on the domain walls separating insulating regions experiencing the opposite gating polarity. While the states are similar to conventional solitonic zero modes, their properties are defined by the unusual chiral BLG quasiparticles, from which they derive. The number of zero mode branches is fixed by the topological vacuum charge of the insulating BLG state. We discuss how these chiral states can manifest experimentally and emphasize their relevance for valleytronics.     

Many-body exceptional points in colliding condensates

ABSTRACT

Exceptional points describe the coalescence of the eigenmodes of a non-Hermitian matrix. When an exceptional point occurs in the unitary evolution of a many-body system, it generically leads to a dynamical instability with a finite wavevector [N. Bernier et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 065303 (2014)]. Here, we study exceptional points in the context of the counterflow instability of colliding Bose–Einstein condensates. We show that the instability of this system is due to an exceptional point in the Bogoliubov spectrum. We further clarify the connection of this effect to the Landau criterion of superfluidity and to the scattering of classical particles. We propose an experimental set-up to directly probe this exceptional point, and demonstrate its feasibility with the aid of numerical calculations. Our work fosters the observation of exceptional points in nonequilibrium many-body quantum systems.     

Strong absorption near exceptional points in plasmonic waveguide arrays

We investigate the exceptional points (EPs) in plasmonic waveguide arrays, including metallic waveguide arrays (MWAs) and graphene sheet arrays (GSAs). The EPs emerge at the boundary of strong and weak coupling ranges in both systems. The cross conversion of Bloch modes and variation of geometric phase can be observed by encircling an EP in the parametric space. We also show the Bloch modes exhibit strong absorption in the vicinity of EPs in GSAs, which originates from the enhanced longitude electric field along the propagation direction. The abnormal absorption and field enhancement also arise in ultrathin MWAs and disappear when the thickness of metal film increases. Our results may find applications in optical switches and sensors at the nanoscale.     

Properties of exceptional points in some many body models

The Lipkin model is a popular toy model, first used in nuclear physics, to understand quantum phase transitions including symmetry breaking. However, the thermodynamic limit, that is the limit of large particle numbers, appears rather elusive. The pattern of the exceptional points of the model, in particular their behavior with increasing particle numbers, is presented. They may give a clue as to the properties of the Lipkin Hamiltonian in the thermodynamic limit. Presented at the 3rd International Workshop “Pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics”, Istanbul, Turkey, June 20–22, 2005.     

New electromagnetic mode in graphene

A new, weakly damped, transverse electromagnetic mode is predicted in graphene. The mode frequency omega lies in the window 1.667<[see text]omega/micro < 2, where micro is the chemical potential, and can be tuned from radio waves to the infrared by changing the density of charge carriers through a gate voltage.     

Topological vortices in chiral gauge theory of graphene

Generation mechanism of energy gaps between conductance and valence bands is at the centre of the study of graphene material. Recently, Chamon, Jackiw et al. proposed a mechanism of using a Kekulé distortion background field φ and its induced gauge potential A_i to generate energy gaps. In this paper, various vortex structures inhering in this model are studied. Regarding φ as a generic background field rather than a fixed Nielson-Oleson type distribution, we have found two new types of vortices on the graphene surface—the velocity field vortices and the monopole-motion induced vortices—from the inner structure of the potential A_i. These vortex structures naturally arise from the motion of the Dirac fermions instead of from the background distortion field.     

Supercurrent switching effect in zigzag graphene nanoribbons

The lattice dynamics in the CuIr₂S₄ system have been investigated through Raman spectroscopy and the induced-pressure effect. Four Raman active modes are observed experimentally. Upon cooling, these Raman spectra undergo changes due to the Peierls-like phase transition. In addition, the substitution of Ag for Cu affects the amplitude of the Raman spectra while keeping their wave number unchanged. Furthermore, the positive and negative pressure effects are induced by shrinking and expanding the lattice. It is suggested that the pressure effect is an effective proof of the orbital-induced Peierls state mechanism.     

Photoresistivity and optical switching of graphene with DNA lattices

We present the photon induced conductivity of 2D DNA lattices with and without graphene and demonstrate the switching current responses controlled by light irradiation. The conductivity in the DNA lattices with protein streptavidin controlled by blue and white lights shows significant enhancement with the addition of graphene. An optical pulse response of a graphene immobilized DNA lattice is encouraging and may lead to various bio-sensing applications such as immunological assays, DNA forensics, and toxin detection.     

Ultrafast mode switching based on a micro-ring laser

Injection locking and multi-mode switching characteristics of a semiconductor ring laser with the radius of 10 μm are investigated based on a nonlinear time domain multimode rate-equation model. The stable injection locking regions for different target modes are studied as the function of detuning frequency and injection power ratio. The results show that ultra-wide detuning range of ∼100 GHz wide at 5 dB injection power ratio and ultra-low switching power ratio of −27 dB can be realized for this micro-ring laser device. Optimal detuning value and high injection power lead to the minimal switching time. An ultrafast response time of 10 ps indicates that a 10 μm-radius SRL can be utilized for ultrafast all-optical scenarios and high-speed tunable lasers.     

Charge response function and a novel plasmon mode in graphene

Polarizability of noninteracting 2D Dirac electrons has a 1/square root(qv-omega) singularity at the boundary of electron-hole excitations. The screening of this singularity by long-range electron-electron interactions is usually treated within the random phase approximation. The latter is exact only in the limit of N-->infinity, where N is the "color" degeneracy. We find that the ladder-type vertex corrections become crucial close to the threshold as the ratio of the nth order ladder term to the same order random phase approximation contribution is ln(n)|qv-omega|/N(n). We perform an analytical summation of the infinite series of ladder diagrams which describe the excitonic effect. Beyond the threshold, qv>omega, the real part of the polarization operator is found to be positive leading to the appearance of a strong and narrow plasmon resonance.     

Survival of the Dirac points in rippled graphene

We study the effects of the rippling of a graphene sheet on quasiparticle dispersion. This is achieved using a generalization to the honeycomb lattice of the momentum average approximation, which is accurate for all coupling strengths and at all energies. We show that even though the position of the Dirac points may move and the Fermi speed can be renormalized significantly, quasiparticles with very long lifetimes survive near the Dirac points even for very strong couplings.     

Topological quantization of disclination points in three—dimensional liquid crystals

Using the φ-mapping method and topological current theory, we study the inner structure of disclination points in three-dimensional liquid crystals. By introducing the strength density and the topological current of many disclination points, it is pointed out that the disclination points are determined by the singularities of the general director field and they are topologically quantized by the Hopf indices and Brouwer degrees.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking during the switching of a buckled graphene membrane

Switching between the states of a buckled graphene membrane for non-volatile memory applications has been studied. The structure of a zigzag graphene strip bent by a force applied to the central region has been investigated by means of the density functional theory with the use of a B3LYP/6-31G approximation. The initial state of the buckled graphene membrane has the geometry of a segment of a half of a (20,0) carbon nanotube with a length of 5 hexagons. The force has been simulated by sequential displacement of the central atoms of the strip toward the fixed edges of the structure. The dependences of the deformation energy and internal forces on the positions of central atoms have been found. Spontaneous breaking of the membrane symmetry decreasing the energy threshold between the states has been discovered.     

Tunable dual-band terahertz graphene absorber with guided mode resonances

A tunable dual-band terahertz absorber is designed and investigated. The unit cell of the proposed absorber consists of a graphene monolayer on a guided-mode resonant filter. The graphene absorber presents > 40% absorption at two resonance frequencies, which is attributed to the guided mode resonances with different mode numbers. The electric field intensity distribution is analyzed to disclose the physical mechanism of such a dual-band absorption effect. Furthermore,the influence of optical properties of graphene, including Fermi level and relaxation time, on the absorption spectra are investigated. Finally, the influence of geometric parameters on the absorption spectrum is studied, which will provide useful guidance for the fabrication of this absorber. We believe that the results may be useful for developing the next-generation graphene-based optoelectronic devices.     

A new exceptional points method with application to cell-centered Lagrangian schemes and curved meshes

The aim of this paper is the numerical simulation of compressible hydrodynamic strong implosions, which take place for instance in Inertial Confinement Fusion. It focuses in particular on two crucial issues, for such calculations: very low CFL number at the implosion center and approximation error on the initial geometry. Thus, we propose an exceptional points method, which is translation invariant and suitable to curved meshes. This method is designed for cell-centered Lagrangian schemes (GLACE [8], [13], [14], EUCCLHYD [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]). Several numerical examples on significant test cases are presented to show the relevance of our approach.