Related papers: Fundamental limits on the losses of phase and ampl…

At visible and infrared frequencies, metals show tantalizing promise for strong subwavelength resonances, but material loss typically dampens the response. We derive fundamental limits to the optical response of absorptive systems, bounding…

Fundamental phase-shift detection properties of optical multimode interferometers are analyzed. Limits on perfectly distinguishable phase shifts are derived for general quantum states of a given average energy. In contrast to earlier work,…

Using sum rules and a new dipole-free sum-over-states expression, we calculate the fundamental limits of the dispersion of the real and imaginary parts of all electronic nonlinear-optical susceptibilities. As such, these general results can…

A fundamental trade-off relation between the cross sectional confinement and propagation length of an arbitrary mode of a general waveguide is presented. This limit is a generalization of the well-known diffraction limit for guided modes.…

Device figures of merit are commonly employed to assess bulk material properties for a particular device class, yet these properties ultimately originate in the linear and nonlinear susceptibilities of the material which are not independent…

Guided-wave plasmonic circuits are promising platforms for sensing, interconnection, and quantum applications in the sub-diffraction regime. Nonetheless, the loss-confinement trade-off remains a collective bottleneck for plasmonic-enhanced…

Focusing light through highly scattering materials by modifying the phase profile of the illuminating beam has attracted a great deal of attention in the past decade paving the way towards novel applications. Here we discovered a tradeoff…

Optical force and torque provide unprecedented control on the spatial motion of small particles. A valid scientific question, that has many practical implications, concerns the existence of fundamental upper bounds for the achievable force…

We derive fundamental lower bounds on the performance of optical metrology and communication systems in a Bayesian framework. The derivation uses classical rate-distortion theory in conjunction with bounds on the capacity to transmit…

Tunable and multi-functional nanophotonic devices are used for applications from beam steering to sensing. Yet little is understood about fundamental limits to their functionality. The difficulty lies with the fact that it is a single…

Optical microcavities are open billiards for light in which electromagnetic waves can, however, be confined by total internal reflection at dielectric boundaries. These resonators enrich the class of model systems in the field of quantum…

A crucial challenge to the scaling up of linear optical interferometers is the presence of defective optical components resulting from inevitable imperfections in fabrication and packaging. This work presents a method for circumventing such…

Photonic devices play an increasingly important role in advancing physics and engineering, and while improvements in nanofabrication and computational methods have driven dramatic progress in expanding the range of achievable optical…

We apply the variational method to obtain the universal and analytical lower bounds for parameter precision in some noisy systems. We first derive a lower bound for phase precision in lossy optical interferometry at non-zero temperature.…

A fundamental parameter to determine how electromagnetic waves interfere is their relative phase. Therefore, achieving a fine control over it enables a wide range of interferometric applications. Existing phase control methods rely on…

Long-distance fiber communication stands as a cornerstone of modern technology. One of the underlying principles, preventing signal levels from diminishing below the detectability threshold, is optical amplification. In particular,…

A major goal in optomechanics is to observe and control quantum behavior in a system consisting of a mechanical resonator coupled to an optical cavity. Work towards this goal has focused on increasing the strength of the coupling between…

Metamaterials are beginning to transform optics and microwave technology thanks to their versatile properties that, in many cases, can be tailored according to practical needs and desires. Although metamaterials are surely not the answer to…

The finite gain-bandwidth product is a fundamental figure of merit that restricts the operation of standard optical amplifiers. In microcavity setups, this becomes a serious problem due to the narrow bandwidth of the device. Here we…

Living cells deploy many resources to sense their environments, including receptors, downstream signaling molecules, time and fuel. However, it is not known which resources fundamentally limit the precision of sensing, like weak links in a…