Malleable Light: Programing optical properties via feedback and superoscillations
Abstract
Much current technology relies specifically on the unique properties of light, and this is certain to continue into the future as the next generation of information processing technologies are developed. In previous studies, utilizing the methods of tracking quantum control, our group theoretically established that a tailored pulse of laser can drive any system to emit light as if it were an arbitrary different system, creating a `driven imposter . This realizes an aspect of the alchemistÕs dream to make one element look like another, albeit only for the duration of a laser pulse. We have also discovered the concept of the twinning field Ñ a driving electromagnetic pulse that induces an identical optical response from two distinct materials. The purpose of the current proposal is to study the implications of these overlooked universal flexibilities of optics, in order to open new directions in optical and material sciences, as well as to explore strategies for achieving experimental realizations of these novel concepts in the near future. In particular, our four main tasks are as follows: i) Sublinear optics. An n-th order optical phenomenon produces the optical response that is the n-th power of the driving field, where n is a positive integer. We will systematically study cases where tracking control can be used to design a response which is a fractional power of the input. Such a phenomenon would lie outside the traditional domain of nonlinear optics, and achieving it will both open a new scientific paradigm of optics and enable unique technological advances. Using nonlinear optical response instead of linear has already been demonstrated to improve the accuracy of spectroscopy, but since the polynomial output is very weak its detection requires expensive specialized equipment. The proposed sublinear response will enable a higher yield output with the added benefit of boosted accuracy. ii) Driven broadband ENZ materials. Epsilon-near zero (ENZ) materials are ones whose electrical permittivity is close to zero. This imbues ENZ materials with remarkable properties that have been the subject of intensive research. The condition of the permittivity being zero is equivalent to the condition that the speed of light is infinite in the medium, or more accurately, that the phase velocity is infinitely large in the bulk. This implies that the optical output field has no phase delay with respect to the input. It is important to note that existing ENZ materials can only achieve zero permittivity only at a specific frequency, which is the plasma frequency of the material. In this task, we aim to theoretically analyze using tracking control whether there is an input field that nonlinearly drives a conventional material to exhibit ENZ-like dynamics such that optical output and inputs have no phase delays. iii) All optical feedback to program optical responses of materials. To experimentally realize driven imposters, the optical inputs which drive the identical output from two different systems, are in general required to be broadband pulses. Despite recent significant advances in coherent broadband sources, generating a precisely required pulse shape is a formidable experimental challenge. We propose to overcome this obstacle by reformulating the concept of driven imposters as a problem of all optical feedback-loop design, thereby letting materials calculate their own input pulses. iv) Optical controls with superoscillations. Laser inputs necessary to achieve desired controls typically have a complicated temporal shape that is difficult to implement experimentally. We intend to investigate whether a low-bandwidth optical input can be utilized instead. We will also investigate the possibility of generating attosecond pulses without high harmonic generation, which will open a viable route towards zeptosecond physics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 27, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310288
Entities
People
- Denys I Bondar
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Tulane University of Louisiana
- United States Army