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    Symmetry‐Induced Selective Excitation of Topological States in Su–Schrieffer–Heeger Waveguide Arrays
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2023) Tang, Min; Wang, Jiawei; Valligatla, Sreeramulu; Saggau, Christian N.; Dong, Haiyun; Saei Ghareh Naz, Ehsan; Klembt, Sebastian; Lee, Ching Hua; Thomale, Ronny; van den Brink, Jeroen; Fulga, Ion Cosma; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Ma, Libo
    The investigation of topological state transition in carefully designed photonic lattices is of high interest for fundamental research, as well as for applied studies such as manipulating light flow in on-chip photonic systems. Herein, the topological phase transition between symmetric topological zero modes (TZM) and antisymmetric TZMs in Su–Schrieffer–Heeger mirror symmetric waveguides is reported. The transition of TZMs is realized by adjusting the coupling ratio between neighboring waveguide pairs, which is enabled by selective modulation of the refractive index in the waveguide gaps. Bidirectional topological transitions between symmetric and antisymmetric TZMs can be achieved with proposed switching strategy. Selective excitation of topological edge mode is demonstrated owing to the symmetry characteristics of the TZMs. The flexible manipulation of topological states is promising for on-chip light flow control and may spark further investigations on symmetric/antisymmetric TZM transitions in other photonic topological frameworks.
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    Steering Directional Light Emission and Mode Chirality through Postshaping of Cavity Geometry
    (Hoboke, NJ : Wiley, 2020) Wang, Jiawei; Tang, Min; Yang, Yue-De; Yin, Yin; Chen, Yan; Saggau, Christian Niclaas; Zhu, Minshen; Yuan, Xiaobo; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy; Huang, Yong-Zhen; Ma, Libo; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Dielectric optical microcavities have been explored as an excellent platform to manipulate the light flow and investigate non‐Hermitian physics in open optical systems. For whispering gallery mode optical microcavities, modifying the rotational symmetry is highly desirable for intriguing phenomena such as degenerated chiral modes and directional light emission. However, for the state‐of‐the‐art approaches, namely deforming the cavity geometry by precision lithography or introducing local scatterers near the cavity boundary via micromanipulation, there is a lack of flexibility in fine‐adjusting of chiral symmetry and far‐field emission direction. Here, precise engineering of cavity boundary using electron‐beam‐induced deposition is reported based on rolled‐up nanomembrane‐enabled spiral‐shaped microcavities. The deformation of outer boundary results in delicate tailoring of asymmetric backscattering between the outer and inner rolling edges, and hence deterministically strong mode chirality. Besides, the crescent‐shaped high‐index nanocap leads to modified light tunneling channels and inflected far‐field emission angle. It is envisioned that such a localized deposition‐assisted technique for adjusting the structural deformation of 3D optical microcavities will be highly useful for understanding rich insights in non‐Hermitian photonics and unfolding exotic properties on lasing, sensing, and cavity quantum electrodynamics.
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    Nanomaterial-decorated micromotors for enhanced photoacoustic imaging
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2023) Aziz, Azaam; Nauber, Richard; Sánchez Iglesias, Ana; Tang, Min; Ma, Libo; Liz-Marzán, Luis M.; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana
    Micro-and nanorobots have the potential to perform non-invasive drug delivery, sensing, and surgery in living organisms, with the aid of diverse medical imaging techniques. To perform such actions, microrobots require high spatiotemporal resolution tracking with real-time closed-loop feedback. To that end, photoacoustic imaging has appeared as a promising technique for imaging microrobots in deep tissue with higher molecular specificity and contrast. Here, we present different strategies to track magnetically-driven micromotors with improved contrast and specificity using dedicated contrast agents (Au nanorods and nanostars). Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of improving the light absorption properties of the employed nanomaterials considering possible light scattering and coupling to the underlying metal-oxide layers on the micromotor’s surface. For that, 2D COMSOL simulation and experimental results were correlated, confirming that an increased spacing between the Au-nanostructures and the increase of thickness of the underlying oxide layer lead to enhanced light absorption and preservation of the characteristic absorption peak. These characteristics are important when visualizing the micromotors in a complex in vivo environment, to distinguish them from the light absorption properties of the surrounding natural chromophores.