RUI: Novel Phenomena in Photonic Structures Induced with Engineered Coupling

San Francisco State University, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Small refractive-index variations induced as periodic arrays of evanescently coupled 1D and 2D waveguides have served as a platform for exploring many phenomena beyond optics. In this RUI research project, some fundamental issues and novel phenomena in specially-designed photonic structures with engineered coupling are being studied, including light tunneling inhibition and image transmission via coherent destruction of tunneling, negative coupling and associated phenomena, Shockley-like and topologically induced surface states in honey-comb photonic lattices and superlattices, and bandgap phenomena and light transport in disordered lattices. This project is being carried out in an optical setting of reconfigurable periodic structures, especially optically induced 2D lattices with intelligent design of coupling or longitudinal modulation and 3D photonic lattices. Although performed in a simple optical setting, the research are expected to have direct impact on other areas of sciences, ranging from solid state physics to photonic crystals, and from hydrodynamics to atomic physics such as Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in periodic potentials. A major emphasis of this project is placed on mentoring undergraduate students, particularly those from the ethnically diverse San Francisco Bay Area population. A strong educational component of this work is that the research project is being used as a form of teaching as well as discovery, and the students are actively involved in learning research methods and in sharing discoveries and interpretations.