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Parity‐time (PT) and anti‐parity‐time (anti‐PT) symmetries have provided important guiding principles in the research of non‐Hermitian physics. However, realizations of anti‐PT symmetry in photonic systems usually rely on optical nonlinearities and indirect‐coupling approaches. Here, they apply the channel interference principle mediated by synthetic gauge‐flux biasing in open‐cavity systems to construct anti‐PT symmetries. It is shown that a specific π‐flux biasing into a looped‐resonator array can force a frequency degeneracy between pairwise Bloch modes therein. By further coupling the array into two external waveguides with tailored positions of ports, the system near the degeneracy point can be described by an anti‐PT‐symmetric Hamiltonian. When a real gauge‐flux detuning is introduced, the system undergoes a spontaneous transition between anti‐PT and anti‐PT‐broken phases, through which the two extreme cases of complete channel‐drop tunneling and complete tunneling suppression can be switched. Finally, by superimposing a PT‐symmetric term onto the anti‐PT‐symmetric Hamiltonian via applying an imaginary gauge‐flux biasing, extreme channel‐drop amplifying effects can be further realized by exciting the "lasing" mode under the critical‐coupling condition. The work bridges the physical connection between synthetic gauge field and anti‐PT symmetry. This paradigm may also find many applications from optical routing, and switching to buffering and amplifying on a chip–scale platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method is proposed to directly characterize the exciton‐plasmon coupling in a photosensitive nanoparticle‐on‐mirror (NPoM) nanocavity. Under the illumination of UV light, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks of the nanocavity can be continuously tuned over a wide range (≈65 nm), enabling precise determination of the energy dispersion relationship of plexcitons in the nanocavity. The results indicate that the energy of Rabi splitting can be actively tuned from 65 meV (weak coupling) to 170 meV (strong coupling) by adjusting the LSPR peak of a specific nanocavity (particle size L≈55‐92 nm) to the exciton wavelength (the zero detuning). In addition, the criterion of strong coupling is optimized by introducing single‐particle absorption spectroscopy. The work offers an intuitive method for the strong coupling characterization in nanocavity, paving the way for the real‐time tuning of coupling strength over a wide range (100 meV) from weak to strong coupling regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic localization (DL) refers to a wavefunction confinement effect of electrons in periodic lattices under an ac electric field driving. Recent studies have transplanted DLs from electronic to photonic systems using periodically curved waveguide lattices, where the ac electric field is mimicked by the waveguide's bending curvature. However, due to the severe limitations of bending losses and poor tunability for highly curved, arbitrarily shaped waveguides, present studies mainly focus on DL under the simplest sinusoidal‐wave driving; its extension to an arbitrary‐wave driving remains challenging. Here, by constructing a synthetic temporal lattice with a coupled fiber‐loop circuit, the limitations of spatially curved waveguides are circumvented and generalized DLs are experimentally demonstrated under arbitrary‐wave driving. First, by applying band‐collapse criteria, the general conditions for the driving field's symmetry to achieve DLs are revealed. Then, two representative even‐function driving fields of square‐ and triangle‐waveforms are chosen, and wave‐packet revivals are observed as signatures of DLs. As a counter‐example, the breakdown of DL is also verified using odd‐function driving field of sawtooth‐waveform. The work reveals the conditions for realizing generalized DLs and experimentally verifies them using synthetic lattice schemes. This paradigm may find potential applications in versatile temporal‐waveform reshaping, pulse manipulations for optical communications, and signal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron response of nanoplasmon and nanoplasma in the laser field is greatly important for improving the functionality and efficiency of many potential applications. However, how and under what conditions the nanoplasmon‐nanoplasma transition works remains poorly understood due to radiation damage and charge buildup. Utilizing the combined aerodynamic lens and velocity map imaging spectrometer, this transition mediated by different mechanisms are demonstrated, as verified by the distinct photoelectron momentum distributions from Cu nanoparticles. Initially the polarization‐dependent distributions emphasize the domination of surface emission driven by the plasmonic field. Subsequently the transition starts and the competition of volume‐multiphoton and thermionic emission plays the intermediate state dominating the transition process. Finally, a complete plasma is generated with the leading role of thermionic emission, which is confirmed by first observing the correlated electronic decay in metal nanoparticles. These findings bridge the gap between electron emission in nanoplasmonic and nanoplasma states and identify the mechanism‐specific contributions, which will offer general principles for designing nanostructure and laser fields to control electron excitation and emission in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The laser‐irradiated aerosolized nanostructures with complex geometries offer unique opportunities to steer orientation‐dependent photoion emission for multiple applications of directional ion sources and photocatalysis. The orientation‐dependent photoion emission is characterized by measuring the distribution and probability on differently oriented nanostructures. This unique capability is achieved by introducing momentum‐to‐space orientation discrimination in the single‐shot velocity map imaging technique with the aerodynamic lens. The effect of geometry, polarization, and concentration to control the photoion emission from differently oriented nanostructures is introduced for optimizing the potential applications of photoion emission including directional tunable nanoanode and optical sensors. The mechanism behind controlling the photoion emission is visualized by the variations in the regions of high laser intensity inside the nanostructures responding to the orientation, geometry, and polarization. This work represents an advance in characterizing the photoion emission from the randomly oriented aerosolized nanostructures and facilitates the potential for combining with the pump–probe methods to provide an intuitive understanding of their real‐time ionization dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamically encircling the exceptional point (EP) of an anti‐parity‐time (anti‐PT) symmetric system can achieve chiral mode switching between symmetry‐broken eigenmodes, which is especially important for developing nanophotonic devices. However, the realization of anti‐PT‐symmetric systems on a chip still remains significantly challenging as precisely controlling the parameters of nanophotonic structures is difficult. Herein, a novel anti‐PT‐symmetric system is designed and constructed on a silicon‐on‐insulator chip by taking advantage of subwavelength gratings to help engineer nanophotonic structures. Consequently, on‐chip chiral switching between symmetry‐broken eigenmodes is experimentally realized by dynamically encircling the EP in parametric space of the proposed anti‐PT‐symmetric system. Moreover, the achieved chiral mode switching exhibits high output power ratios (≥ 6.4 dB) at 1550 nm, wide‐band response that covers C‐band completely, and great thermal stability up to 90 °C, which indicate desirable performance features for practical applications in optical communication. This study paves an avenue for realizing on‐chip chiral switching between symmetry‐broken modes, which shows great promise for developing nanophotonic devices, such as optical switching, logic gates, and isolators, in optical telecommunication bands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear metasurfaces provide a promising platform for integrated nonlinear photonic devices owing to their unprecedented capability of nonlinear wavefront manipulation. However, the previously reported second‐harmonic (SH) metasurfaces are mainly based on the nonlinear Pancharatnam–Berry phase modulation. While this method is quite convenient and robust, it shows limitations of modulation efficiency and the difficulty in extending to multidimensional combined modulations. Here, the resonant nonlinear synthetic metasurface is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for independent phase and amplitude modulations of the SH beam. A high SH modulation efficiency of 75% (with a theoretical limit of 90%) is achieved in the polarization‐dependent SH metalens. Moreover, SH holographic imaging with phase and amplitude (at 2 and 4 levels) combined modulation is realized experimentally. Compared with the pure‐phase modulation, the signal‐to‐noise ratios are increased by 2 and 3 times when 2‐ and 4‐level amplitude controls are introduced. This is not only an important step in the improvement and innovation of holographic display technology, but also paves a distinct avenue toward multifunctional, higher efficiency, and ultracompact nonlinear optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to produce circularly polarized attosecond pulses with tunable helicity from CO molecule by using an unidirectionally rotating laser field is proposed. It is found that broadband harmonic supercontinuum with circular polarization can be generated from the oriented CO molecule. This enables the production sub‐100 attosecond isolated pulse with the ellipticity as high as 0.9 at the macroscopic level. Moreover, the helicity of the generated high‐order harmonics and the attosecond pulse can be tuned by adjusting the orientation of the CO molecule. This method will be beneficial for the studies on chiral‐specific dynamics and magnetic circular dichroism on an attosecond time scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2D organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites are promising materials for next‐generation optoelectronic devices. Nevertheless, 2D perovskites still suffer from performance‐limiting trap states and possess fundamental photophysical effects that remain poorly understood. Herein, a photoinduced trap passivation for enhanced photoluminescence (PL) in 2D hybrid perovskites is reported. Under two‐photon excitation, the PL emission of the 2D hybrid perovskites exhibits a gradual increase in intensity and lifetime, due to the photoinduced trap passivation by interacting with oxygen in ambient environment. Interestingly, the PL increase shows distinct features at the surface and in the bulk of the 2D perovskites, which can be well revealed by a photoinduced oxygen‐diffused trap‐passivation model. Moreover, the PL increase and relaxation can recycle for several times, which suggests an excellent repeatability of the photoinduced trap passivation. The photoinduced trap passivation is critical for fundamental study of light–matter interaction in 2D perovskites, and shows great promise for improving the optoelectronic responses for functional devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The near‐field features of graphene plasmons (GPs) using a recently developed photo‐induced force microscopy (PiFM) technique are characterized here. The GPs are excited by a mid‐infrared laser beam obliquely incident on graphene suspended over a metallic grating with a dielectric spacer. The PiFM records the optical force yielded by the interaction between the electric field of GPs in the normal direction and dipoles in a metallic tip. The magnitude of the optical force is proportional to the field intensity of the GPs. By detecting the interference pattern of GPs on the grating trenches, the wavelength and propagation distance of GPs can be obtained. The PiFM technique demonstrated here provides a powerful tool to precisely characterize GPs in a deeply subwavelength scale and aid in the design of nanoscale optical devices based on graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The driving forces for the phase transitions of ABX3 hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have been limited to the octahedral tilting, order–disorder, and displacement. Now, a complex structural phase transition has been explored in a HOIP, [CH3NH3][Mn(N3)3], based on structural characterizations and ab initio lattice dynamics calculations. This unusual first‐order phase transition between two ordered phases at about 265 K is primarily driven by changes in the collective atomic vibrations of the whole lattice, along with concurrent molecular displacements and an unusual octahedral tilting. A significant entropy difference (4.35 J K−1 mol−1) is observed between the low‐ and high‐temperature structures induced by such atomic vibrations, which plays a main role in driving the transition. This finding offers an alternative pathway for designing new ferroic phase transitions and related physical properties in HOIPs and other hybrid crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The driving forces for the phase transitions of ABX3 hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have been limited to the octahedral tilting, order–disorder, and displacement. Now, a complex structural phase transition has been explored in a HOIP, [CH3NH3][Mn(N3)3], based on structural characterizations and ab initio lattice dynamics calculations. This unusual first‐order phase transition between two ordered phases at about 265 K is primarily driven by changes in the collective atomic vibrations of the whole lattice, along with concurrent molecular displacements and an unusual octahedral tilting. A significant entropy difference (4.35 J K−1 mol−1) is observed between the low‐ and high‐temperature structures induced by such atomic vibrations, which plays a main role in driving the transition. This finding offers an alternative pathway for designing new ferroic phase transitions and related physical properties in HOIPs and other hybrid crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two‐photon‐absorption‐induced photoluminescence (TPL) from nanostructures is generally inefficient since it is a typical third‐order nonlinear optical process. Herein, a hybrid dielectric structure composed of dielectric microspheres (approximately micrometers in diameter) covering a 2D perovskite flake is reported, which provides a straightforward strategy for enhancing the TPL emission. The microspheres in the hybrid dielectric structure not only concentrate the pumping laser but also effectively increase the detection efficiency of the emitted TPL signal. The internal quantum efficiency of the 2D perovskite is also increased in the hybrid dielectric structure due to a reduced nonradiative rate. These effects cooperatively increase the TPL emission by two orders of magnitude in the hybrid dielectric structure. Moreover, the hybrid dielectric structure is proven to be useful for TPL‐based superresolution imaging at a relatively low excitation power of 0.05 mW. This work demonstrates great promise for developing low‐cost, high‐performance nonlinear nanodevices based on hybrid dielectric structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report on the hybrid nanostructures where a single ZnS nanobelt was half-covered with an aluminum (Al) film, which is an ideal platform for studying the second-harmonic generation (SHG) enhancement effects of the Al coating. It was fabricated by the lift-off process and allowed for the accurate comparison of the SHG intensity between the Al-covered and the same bare ZnS nanobelt under consistent test conditions. The results indicate that the Al coating in the hybrid nanostructures not only confines the pumping laser in the ZnS effectively, but also concentrates the emitted SHG signal greatly, increasing the signal collection efficiency. By the combination of these two effects, ∼60 times enhancement of the SHG intensity is achieved at the optimized geometry size (width and thickness) of the ZnS nanobelts. The Al-based hybrid nanostructures open up new possibilities for low-cost, highly efficient and directional coherent nanolight sources at short wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a 20‐fold enhancement of the optical second harmonic generation (SHG) from WS2 monolayers by cooperating with SiO2 dielectric microspheres (MSs) is reported. Detailed experiment and simulation studies indicate that the SHG enhancement is dominantly originated by the enhanced excitation intensity and enlarged collection efficiency produced by the SiO2 MSs. The size effect of the SiO2 MS on the SHG enhancement is also systematically investigated. Moreover, the SHG enhancement is found to be very sensitive to the surrounding refractive index of the SiO2 MS, which advocates great promise for the photonic sensing applications. This work provides a low‐cost and efficient approach to enhancing the SHG emission, and demonstrates great potential for functional nanodevices based on hybrid dielectric structures. A 20‐fold enhancement of the optical second harmonic generation (SHG) from WS2 monolayers by cooperating with SiO2 dielectric microspheres (MSs) is reported. The SHG enhancement is attributed to the increased excitation intensity and enlarged collection efficiency produced by the SiO2 MSs. Moreover, a proof‐of‐concept photonic sensing application based on SHG is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two‐photon‐absorption‐induced photoluminescence (TPL) from nanostructures is generally inefficient since it is a typical third‐order nonlinear optical process. Herein, a hybrid dielectric structure composed of dielectric microspheres (approximately micrometers in diameter) covering a 2D perovskite flake is reported, which provides a straightforward strategy for enhancing the TPL emission. The microspheres in the hybrid dielectric structure not only concentrate the pumping laser but also effectively increase the detection efficiency of the emitted TPL signal. The internal quantum efficiency of the 2D perovskite is also increased in the hybrid dielectric structure due to a reduced nonradiative rate. These effects cooperatively increase the TPL emission by two orders of magnitude in the hybrid dielectric structure. Moreover, the hybrid dielectric structure is proven to be useful for TPL‐based superresolution imaging at a relatively low excitation power of 0.05 mW. This work demonstrates great promise for developing low‐cost, high‐performance nonlinear nanodevices based on hybrid dielectric structures. A hybrid dielectric structure composed of a 2D perovskite flake and dielectric microspheres is used to cooperatively increase two‐photon‐absorption‐induced photoluminescence (TPL) from the 2D perovskite by two orders of magnitude. The hybrid dielectric structure can be utilized for TPL‐based superresolution imaging, requiring significantly less excitation power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]