Related papers: Natural optical activity and its control by electr…
Tightly focused optical dipole traps induce vector light shifts ("fictitious magnetic fields") which complicate their use for single-atom trapping and manipulation. The problem can be mitigated by adding a larger, real magnetic field, but…
Active fluids are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium systems due to the internal energy injection of the active constituents. We show here that a transition from a motion-less isotropic state towards a flowing polar one can be possibly driven…
Ultra-cold atoms in specifically designed optical lattices can be used to mimic the many-particle Hamiltonian describing electrons and positrons in an external electric field. This facilitates the experimental simulation of (so far…
Arrays of optically trapped nanoparticles have emerged as a promising platform for the study of complex non-equilibrium phenomena. Analogous to atomic many-body systems, one of the crucial ingredients is the ability to precisely control the…
Vortices are topologically distinctive objects appearing as phase twists in coherent fields of optical beams and Bose-Einstein condensates. Structured networks and artificial lattices of coupled vortices could offer a powerful platform to…
We experimentally demonstrate the emergence of directional rotation in thermally active-passive colloidal structures under optical confinement. The observed handedness of rotation of the structure can be controlled by changing the relative…
Electric fields have played a key role in discovering and controlling exotic electronic states of condensed matter. However, electric fields usually do not work in metals as free carriers tend to screen electrostatic fields. While a…
Exotic phenomenon can be achieved in quantum materials by confining electronic states into two dimensions. For example, relativistic fermions are realised in a single layer of carbon atoms, the quantized Hall effect can result from…
To manipulate orbital angular momentum (OAM) carried by light beams, there is a great interest in designing various optical elements from the deep-ultraviolet to the microwave. Normally, the OAM variation introduced by optical elements can…
Understanding the momentum of light when propagating through optical media is not only fundamental for studies as varied as classical electrodynamics and polaritonics in condensed matter physics, but also for important applications such as…
A purely artificial mechanism for optical nonlinearity is proposed based on a metamaterial route. The mechanism is derived from classical electromagnetic interaction in a meta-molecule consisting of a cut-wire meta-atom nested within a…
Materials with optical activity can rotate the polarization plane of transmitted light. The most typical example is the natural optical activity, which has the symmetry property of changing sign after space inversion but being invariant to…
Light-matter interactions are frequently perceived as predominantly influenced by the electric optical field, with the magnetic component of light often overlooked. Nonetheless, the magnetic aspect plays a pivotal role in various optical…
Plasmonic metamaterials provide a flexible platform for light manipulation and polarisation management, thanks to their engineered optical properties with exotic dispersion regimes. Here, we exploit the enhanced spin-orbit coupling induced…
We present the theoretical prediction of spontaneous rotating vortex rings in a parametrically driven quantum fluid of polaritons -- coherent superpositions of coupled quantum well excitons and microcavity photons. These rings arise not…
One of the most striking predictions of quantum electrodynamics is that vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field can lead to spontaneous emission of atoms as well as photon-mediated interactions among them. Since these processes…
Materials of which the optical response is determined by their structure are of much interest both for their fundamental properties and applications. Examples range from simple gratings to photonic crystals. Obtaining control over the…
Materials made from active, living, or robotic components can display emergent properties arising from local sensing and computation. Here, we realize a freestanding active metabeam with piezoelectric elements and electronic feed-forward…
It is shown that fermionic polar molecules or atoms in a bilayer optical lattice can undergo the transition to a state with circulating currents, which spontaneously breaks the time reversal symmetry. Estimates of relevant temperature…
We investigate the inherent influence of light polarization on the intensity distribution in anisotropic media undergoing a local inhomogeneous rotation of the principal axes. Whereas in general such configuration implies a complicated…