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Quasi-parametric amplification (QPA) is a nonlinear interaction in which the idler wave is depleted through some loss mechanism. QPA plays an important role in signal amplification in ultrafast photonics and quantum light generation. The QPA process has a number of features characterized by the non-Hermitian parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry. In this report, we explore new interaction regimes and uncover multiple $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transitions in such QPA process where transitions are particularly sensitive to external parameters. In particular, we demonstrate the feasibility of detection of $10^{-11}$ inhomogeneities of the doped absorber, which is order of magnitude more sensitive than similar measurements performed in a linear absorption regime. In doing so, we reveal a family of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transitions appearing in the QPA process and provide a novel nonlinear optical sensing mechanism for precise optical measurements., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

Spatiotemporal modulation offers a variety of opportunities for light manipulations. In this paper, we propose a way towards arbitrary transformation for pulses sequentially propagating within one waveguide in space via temporal waveguide coupling. The temporal waveguide coupling operation is achieved by spatiotemporally modulating the refractive index of the spatial waveguide with a traveling wave through segmented electrodes. We derive the temporal coupled-mode equations and discuss how systematic parameters affect the temporal coupling coefficients. We further demonstrated a temporal Mach-Zehnder interferometer and universal multiport interferometer, which enables arbitrary unitary transformation for pulses. We showcase a universal approach for transforming pulses among coupled temporal waveguides, which requires only one spatial waveguide under spatiotemporal modulation, and hence provide a flexible, compact, and highly compatible method for optical signal processing in time domain.

The study of dissipative systems has attracted great attention, as dissipation engineering has become an important candidate towards manipulating light in classical and quantum ways. Here,we investigate the behavior of a topological system with purely dissipative couplings in a synthetic time-frequency space. An imaginary bandstructure is shown, where eigen-modes experience different eigen-dissipation rates during the evolution of the system, resulting in mode competition between edge states and bulk modes. We show that distributions associated with edge states can dominate over bulk modes with stable amplification once the pump and saturation mechanisms are taken into consideration, which therefore points to a laser-like behavior for edge states robust against disorders. This work provides a scheme for manipulating multiple degrees of freedom of light by dissipation engineering, and also proposes a great candidate for topological lasers with dissipative photonics.

Online path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (multi-UAV) systems is considered a challenging task. It needs to ensure collision-free path planning in real-time, especially when the multi-UAV systems can become very crowded on certain occasions. In this paper, we presented a vision-based decentralized collision-avoidance policy for multi-UAV systems, which takes depth images and inertial measurements as sensory inputs and outputs UAV's steering commands. The policy is trained together with the latent representation of depth images using a policy gradient-based reinforcement learning algorithm and autoencoder in the multi-UAV threedimensional workspaces. Each UAV follows the same trained policy and acts independently to reach the goal without colliding or communicating with other UAVs. We validate our policy in various simulated scenarios. The experimental results show that our learned policy can guarantee fully autonomous collision-free navigation for multi-UAV in the three-dimensional workspaces with good robustness and scalability., Comment: Submitted to IEEERSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022

Through either elements intercalation or application of pressure, transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TiSe2 exhibits superconductivity in proximity to a charge density wave (CDW) quantum critical point (QCP), thus providing an ideal avenue to study the correlation between the two symmetry-breaking exotic quantum electronic states. We report herein that, in addition to the well-known superconducting dome that emerges within the low pressure range of 2 - 4 GPa and peaks with the maximal Tc of about 1.8 K, the pressure induces another separate superconducting transition starting around 15 GPa with a substantially higher Tc that reaches 5.6 K at about 21.5 GPa. The high-pressure X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy measurements unveil that the superconductivity reentrant is caused by a first-order structural phase transition (from P-3m1 space group to Pnma space group), which is also supported by the density functional theory calculation. A comparative theoretical calculation also reveals that the conventional phonon-mediated mechanism can account for the superconductivity of 1T-TiSe2 under low pressure, while the electron-phonon coupling of 4O-TiSe2 under high pressure is too weak to induce the superconductivity with a Tc as high as 5.6 K. This implies that the emergent superconductivity in the 4O-TiSe2 may have an unconventional origin. Our finding would open a new window toward the discovery of more exotic quantum states in transition metal dichalcogenides via high pressure., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

The rich nontrivial topological phases rooted in the interplay between magnetism and topology in the layered antiferromagnet EuCd2As2 have captured vast attention, especially the ideal Weyl semimetal state realized in the spin-polarized ferromagnetic (FM) structure driven by a moderate external magnetic field. In this work, combining high-pressure magnetotransport measurements, structure chracterizations and first principles calculations, we find that application of pressure can also realize the ideal Weyl state in EuCd2As2 through driving the in-plane antiferromagnetic state across an intermediate in-plane FM state then into the out-of-plane FM state. Our high-pressure angle dispersive X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy measurements excluded structure transition and/or change of Eu2+ valence state as the sources for the magnetic phase transitions. Alternatively, the apparently reduced axial ratio (c/a) and compressed Eu-layer space distance should play important roles. Our result provides an alternative way to realize the ideal Weyl semimetal state in EuCd2As2 and would be instructive for the exploration of exotic topological properties in such layered magnetic topological phase with strongly competing magnetic exchanges by using high pressure., Comment: main text 16 pages,4 figures and SI 8 pages, 4 figures