Related papers: Bistable defect structures in blue phase devices
We report that guiding light beams, ranging from continuous beams to femtosecond pulses, along liquid crystal defect lines can transform them into vector beams with various polarization profiles. Using Finite Difference Time Domain…
Birefringent materials or nanostructures that introduce phase differences between two linear polarizations underpin the operation of wave plates for polarization control of light. Here we develop metasurfaces realizing a distinct class of…
Topological insulators are a class of band insulators with non-trivial topology, a result of band inversion due to the strong spin-orbit coupling. The transition between topological and normal insulator can be realized by tuning the…
Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) are optical fibres that guide light using a modulated dielectric medium. They provide an exceptionally versatile platform for various applications, thanks to the flexibility with which light-guiding can be…
By exploring the extraordinary property of exceptional points (EPs) in non-Hermitian systems, we here demonstrate that losses can play constructive roles in controlling bistable states. We experimentally realize the EP in a non-Hermitian…
The phase ordering dynamics of coupled chaotic bistable maps on lattices with defects is investigated. The statistical properties of the system are characterized by means of the average normalized size of spatial domains of equivalent spin…
Interstitials and vacancies in the Abrikosov phase of clean Type II superconductors are line imperfections, which cannot extend across macroscopic equilibrated samples at low temperatures. We argue that the entropy associated with line…
Realising photonic analogues of the robust, unidirectional edge states of electronic topological insulators would improve our control of light on the nanoscale and revolutionise the performance of photonic devices. Here we show that new…
We study avenues to shape multistability and shape-morphing in flexible crystalline membranes of cylindrical topology, enabled by glide mobility of dislocations. Using computational modeling, we obtain states of mechanical equilibrium…
Multistability is an inseparable feature of many physical, chemical and biological systems which are driven far from equilibrium. In these nonequilibrium systems, stochastic dynamics often induces switching between distinct states on…
We show that new silicon crystalline phases, observed in the experiment with the laser-induced microexplosions inside silicon crystals (Rapp et al. // Nat. Commun. 6, 7555 (2015)), are all superstructures of a disordered high-symmetry phase…
Structure of the intermediate state in type-I superconducting lead (Pb) is shown to be very sensitive to the ramp rate of an applied magnetic field. The configurations of resulting static patterns depend sensitively on the shape of the…
We investigate optical bistability in a multilayer one-dimensional photonic crystal where the central layer is doped with $\Lambda$-type three level atoms. We take into account the influence of spontaneously generated coherence when the…
Electromagnetic topological insulators have been explored extensively due to the robust edge states they support. In this work, we propose a topological electromagnetic system based on a line defect in topologically nontrivial photonic…
Crystallization of the amorphous phases into metastable crystals plays a fundamental role in the formation of new matter, from geological to biological processes in nature to synthesis and development of new materials in the laboratory.…
Recent experiments have found that a mechanically distorted blue phase can exhibit a primary linear electro-optic (Pockels) effect [F. Castles \textit{et al}. Nature Mater. \textbf{13}, 817 (2014)]. Here it is shown that flexoelectricity…
Topological crystalline phases in electronic structures can be generally classified using the spatial symmetry characters of the valence bands and mapping them onto appropriate symmetry indicators. These mappings have been recently applied…
We have studied spectral properties of a cholesteric liquid crystal with a combined defect consisting of a nanocomposite layer and a twist. The nanocomposite layer is made of metallic nanoballs dispersed in a transparent matrix and…
Nematic liquid-crystal devices are a powerful tool to structure light in different degrees of freedom, both in classical and quantum regimes. Most of these devices exploit either the possibility of introducing a position-dependent phase…
The order parameter of the smectic liquid crystal phase is the same as that of a superfluid or superconductor, namely a complex scalar field. We show that the essential difference in boundary conditions between these systems leads to a…