arXiv subjects

Gennady Shvets

Publications and source records attributed to Gennady Shvets.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

WAND-PIC: an accelerated three-dimensional quasi-static particle-in-cell code

We introduce a quasi-static particle-in-cell (PIC) code -- WAND-PIC -- which does not suffer from some of the common limitations of many quasi-static PICs, such as the need for a predictor-corrector method in solving electromagnetic fields. We derive the field equations under quasi-static (QS) approximation and find the explicit form of the "time" derivative of the transverse plasma current. After that, equations for the magnetic fields can be solved exactly without using the predictor-corrector method. Algorithm design and code structure are thus greatly simplified. With the help of explicit quasi-static equations and our adaptive step size, plasma bubbles driven by the large beam charges can be simulated efficiently without suffering from the numerical instabilities associated with the predictor-corrector method. In addition, WAND-PIC is able to simulate the sophisticated interactions between high-frequency laser fields and beam particles through the method of sub-cycling. Comparisons between the WAND-PIC and a first-principle full PIC code (VLPL) are presented. WAND-PIC is open-source, fully three-dimensional, and parallelized with the in-house multigrid solver. Scalability, time complexity, and parallelization efficiency up to thousands of cores are also discussed in this work.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Mode-selective Single-dipole Excitation and Controlled Routing of Guided Waves in a Multi-mode Topological Waveguide

Topology-linked binary degrees of freedom of guided waves have been used to expand the channel capacity of and to ensure robust transmission through photonic waveguides. However, selectively exciting optical modes associated with the desired degree of freedom is challenging and typically requires spatially extended sources or filters. Both approaches are incompatible with the ultimate objective of developing compact mode-selective sources powered by single emitters. In addition, the implementation of highly desirable functionalities, such as controllable distribution of guided modes between multiple detectors, becomes challenging in highly-compact devices due to photon loss to reflections. Here, we demonstrate that a linearly-polarized dipole-like source can selectively excite a topologically robust edge mode with the desired valley degree of freedom. Reflection-free routing of valley-polarized edge modes into two spatially-separated detectors with reconfigurable splitting ratios is also presented. An optical implementation of such a source will have the potential to broaden the applications of topological photonic devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Emergent intersubband-plasmon-polaritons of Dirac electrons under one-dimensional superlattices

Artifical superlattice (SL) potentials have been employed extensively for band structure engineering of two-dimensional (2D) Dirac electron gas in graphene. While such engineered electronic band structures can modify optical or plasmonic properties of graphene, an emergent polaritonic behavior beyond weak perturbative effects (e.g. anisotropic Drude weights) has not been reported. Here, we show that an extreme modulation of one-dimensional (1D) SL potentials in monolayer graphene deforms the underlying Dirac band dispersion and introduces ladder-like energy levels near the Fermi surface, which result in emergent intersubband polaritonic responses in optical conductivity. In our proposed system, hBN-encapsulated graphene is placed on top of a 1D periodic metagate. In addition, a backgate placed beneath the metagate is used as the second gate, further modulating carrier density on regions in graphene that are not directly screened by the metagate. With a strong carrier density modulation, graphene electrons experience an array of deep potential wells, and at large enough momenta perpendicular to the modulation direction, Dirac electrons are waveguided via total internal reflections. These waveguided modes appear as flat subbands with nearly equispaced energy levels. As a result, there arise hybrid intersubband-polaritons with ultra-strong coupling in plasmonic dispersions. Our study opens up an avenue for exploring emergent polaritons in two-dimensional materials with gate-tunable electronic band structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Evolution and reflection of ray-like excitations in hyperbolic dispersion media

Light in hyperbolic dispersion media is known to exhibit an intriguing ray-like character. However, detailed understanding of ray-like excitations in hyperbolic media is surprisingly limited, mostly based on numerical simulations. In our work, we analytically describe the formation of multimodal ray-like excitations in a planar slab of hyperbolic media. We demonstrate that these rays have an approximately Lorentzian profile and that they propagate in a zig-zagged manner. These rays acquire phase in a discrete fashion at every internal reflection inside the slab and broaden at a rate which is proportional to the rate of optical absorption. Moreover, based on this description, we reveal a unique reflection mechnanism where destructive interefernce between the different modes composing the ray can improve the strength of reflection at an interface between a dielectric and a metalic substrate. This reflection mechanism is highly asymmetric, occuring only when the ray is incident from the side of the dielectric substrate to the side of the metallic substrate, and the strength of reflection is shown to be directly related to the width of the ray.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Positron Acceleration in an Elongated Bubble Regime

A new concept is proposed for accelerating positrons in a nonlinear plasma wakefield accelerator. By loading the wakefield (back of the plasma bubble) with a short electron bunch, an extended area of excessive plasma electron accumulation is created after the first bubble, resulting in a favorable region with simultaneous focusing and accelerating fields for positrons. Scaling laws for optimized loading parameters are obtained through extensive parameters scans. Owing to the good quality of the focusing field, positron acceleration with emittance preservation can be achieved in this new regime and it has been demonstrated in the three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Fermi acceleration in relativistic collisionless plasma shocks correlates with anisotropic energy gains

Collisionless shocks generated by two colliding relativistic electron-positron plasma shells are studied using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Shocks are mediated by the Weibel instability (WI), and the kinetic energy of the fastest accelerated particles is found to be anisotropically modified by WI-induced electric fields. Specifically, we show that all particles interacting with the shock bifurcate into two groups based on their final relativistic Lorentz factor $γ$: slow ($γ< γ_{bf}$) and fast ($γ> γ_{bf}$), where $γ_{bf}$ is the bifurcation Lorentz factor that was found to be approximately twice the initial (upstream) Lorentz factor $γ_0$. We have found that the energies of the slow particles are equally affected by the longitudinal and transverse components of the shock electric field, whereas the fast particles are primarily accelerated by the transverse field component.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

The Structure and Dispersion of Exciton-Trion-Polaritons in Two-Dimensional Materials: Experiments and Theory

The nature of trions and their interaction with light has remained a puzzle. The composition and dispersion of polaritons involving trions provide insights into this puzzle. Trions and excitons in doped two-dimensional (2D) materials are not independent excitations but are strongly coupled as a result of Coulomb interactions. When excitons in doped 2D materials are also strongly coupled with light inside an optical waveguide, the resulting polariton states are coherent superpositions of exciton, trion, and photon states. We realize these exciton-trion-polaritons by coupling an electron-doped monolayer of two-dimensional material MoSe2 to the optical mode in a photonic crystal waveguide. Our theoretical model, based on a many-body description of these polaritons, reproduces the measured polariton energy band dispersion and Rabi splittings with excellent accuracy. Our work sheds light on the structure of trion states in 2D matrials and also on the indirect mechanism by which they interact with light.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Spin-Polarized Fractional Corner Charges and Their Photonic Realization

We demonstrate that a spin degree of freedom can introduce additional texture to higher order topological insulators (HOTIs), manifesting itself in novel topological invariants, phases, and phase transitions. Spin-polarized mid-gap corner states of various multiplicities are predicted for different HOTI phases, and novel bulk-boundary correspondence principles are defined based on quantized bulk invariants such as total and spin corner charge. Those are shown to be robust with respect to symmetry-preserving spin-flipping perturbations. Photonic realizations of spin-linked topological phases are demonstrated in engineered systems with synthetically emulated spin degree of freedom.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Sub-femtosecond wakefield injector and accelerator based on an undulating plasma bubble controlled by a laser phase

We demonstrate that a long-propagating plasma bubble executing undulatory motion can be produced in the wake of two co-propagating laser pulses: a near-single-cycle injector and a multi-cycle driver. When the undulation amplitude exceeds the analytically derived threshold, highly-localized injections of plasma electrons into the bubble are followed by their long-distance acceleration. While the locations of the injection regions are controlled by the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the injector pulse, the mono-energetic spectrum of the accelerated sub-femtosecond high-charge electron bunches is shown to be nearly CEP-independent

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Exact Higher-order Bulk-boundary Correspondence of Corner-localized States

We demonstrate that the presence of a localized state at the corner of an insulating domain is not always a predictor of a certain non-trivial higher-order topological invariant, even though they appear to co-exist in the same Hamiltonian parameter space. Our analysis of $C^n$-symmetric crystalline insulators and their multi-layer stacks reveals that topological corner states are not necessarily correlated with other well-established higher-order boundary observables, such as fractional corner charge or filling anomaly. In a $C^3$-symmetric breathing Kagome lattice, for example, we show that the bulk polarization, which successfully predicts the fractional corner anomaly, fails to be the relevant topological invariant for zero-energy corner states; instead, these corner states can be exactly explained by the decoration of topological edges. Also, while the zero-energy corner states in $C^4$-symmetric topological crystalline insulators have long been conjectured to be the result of the bulk polarization at quarter-filling, we correct this misconception by introducing a proper bulk invariant at half-filling and establishing a precise bulk-corner correspondence. By refining several bulk-corner correspondences in two-dimensional topological crystalline insulators, our work motivates further development of rigorous theoretical grounds for associating the existence of corner states with higher-order topology of host materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Electrically actuated varifocal lens based on liquid-crystal-embedded dielectric metasurfaces

Compact varifocal lenses are essential to various imaging and vision technologies. However, existing varifocal elements typically rely on mechanically-actuated systems with limited tuning speeds and scalability. Here, an ultrathin electrically controlled varifocal lens based on a liquid crystal (LC) encapsulated semiconductor metasurface is demonstrated. Enabled by the field-dependent LC anisotropy, applying a voltage bias across the LC cell modifies the local phase response of the silicon meta-atoms, in turn modifying the focal length of the metalens. In a numerical implementation, a voltage-actuated metalens with continuous zoom and up to 20% total focal shift is demonstrated. The concept of LC-based metalens is experimentally verified through the design and fabrication of a bifocal metalens that facilitates high-contrast switching between two discrete focal lengths upon application of a 3.2 V$_{\rm pp}$ voltage bias. Owing to their ultrathin thickness and adaptable design, LC-driven semiconductor metasurfaces open new opportunities for compact varifocal lensing in a diversity of modern imaging applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Many-body theory of radiative lifetimes of exciton-trion superposition states in doped two-dimensional materials

Optical absorption and emission spectra of doped two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit sharp peaks that are often identified with pure excitons and pure trions (or charged excitons), but both peaks have been recently attributed to superpositions of 2-body exciton and 4-body trion states and correspond to the approximate energy eigenstates in doped 2D materials. In this paper, we present the radiative lifetimes of these exciton-trion superposition energy eigenstates using a many-body formalism that is appropriate given the many-body nature of the strongly coupled exciton and trion states in doped 2D materials. Whereas the exciton component of these superposition eigenstates are optically coupled to the material ground state, and can emit a photon and decay into the material ground state provided the momentum of the eigenstate is within the light cone, the trion component is optically coupled only to the excited states of the material and can emit a photon even when the momentum of the eigenstate is outside the light cone. In an electron-doped 2D material, when a 4-body trion state with momentum outside the light cone recombines radiatively, and a photon is emitted with a momentum inside the light cone, the excess momentum is taken by an electron-hole pair left behind in the conduction band. The radiative lifetimes of the exciton-trion superposition states, with momenta inside the light cone, are found to be in the few hundred femtoseconds to a few picoseconds range and are strong functions of the doping density. The radiative lifetimes of exciton-trion superposition states, with momenta outside the light cone, are in the few hundred picoseconds to a few nanoseconds range and are again strongly dependent on the doping density.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Externally driven nonlinear time-variant metasurfaces

Resonant photonic nanostructures exhibiting enhanced nonlinear responses and efficient frequency conversion are an emergent platform in nonlinear optics. High-index semiconductor metasurfaces with rapidly tuned high-Q resonances enable a novel class of time-variant metasurfaces, which expands the toolbox of color management at the nanoscale. Here, we report on the dynamic control of the nonlinear optical response in time-variant semiconductor metasurfaces supporting high-quality factor resonances in the near-infrared spectral range. Pump-probe measurements of germanium metasurfaces at negative pump-probe time delays reveals frequency conversion in the fundamental beam and a blue-shift of 10~nm (3.05$ω$) and 40% broadening in the third harmonic signal due to the photoinduced time-variant refractive index. A time-dependent coupled-mode theory, in excellent agreement with the experimental data, validated the time-variant nature of the system. Our findings expand the scope of time-variant metasurfaces and may serve as base for the next generation of nanoscale pulse shapers, optical switches and light sources.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Exciton-Trion-Polaritons in Two-Dimensional Materials

We present a many-body theory for exciton-trion-polaritons in doped two-dimensional materials. Exciton-trion-polaritons are robust coherent hybrid excitations involving excitons, trions, and photons. Signatures of these polaritons have been recently seen in experiments. In these polaritons, the 2-body exciton states are coupled to the material ground state via exciton-photon interaction and the 4-body trion states are coupled to the exciton states via Coulomb interaction. The trion states are not directly optically coupled to the material ground state. The energy-momentum dispersion of these polaritons exhibit three bands. We calculate the energy band dispersions and the compositions of polaritons at different doping densities using Green's functions. The energy splittings between the polariton bands, as well as the spectral weights of the polariton bands, depend on the strength of the Coulomb coupling between the excitons and the trions and which in turn depends on the doping density. The excitons are Coulomb coupled to both bound and unbound trion states. The latter are exciton-electron scattering states and their inclusion is necessary to capture the spectral weight transfer among the polariton bands as a function of the doping density.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Application of Jordan Decomposition to Non-Hermitian Lattice Models with Spectrally-Isolated Lower Dimensional States

When analyzing non-Hermitian lattice systems, the standard eigenmode decomposition utilized for the analysis of Hermitian systems must be replaced by Jordan decomposition. This approach enables us to identify the correct number of the left and right eigenstates of a large finite-sized lattice system, and to form a complete basis for calculating the resonant excitation of the system. Specifically, we derive the procedure for applying Jordan decomposition to a system with spectrally-isolated states. We use a non-Hermitian quadrupole insulator with zero-energy corner states as an example of a large system whose dimensionality can be drastically reduced to derive a low-dimensional "defective" Hamiltonian describing such localized states. Counter-intuitive and non-local properties of the resonant response of the system near zero energy are explained using the Jordan decomposition approach. Depending on the excitation properties of the corner states, we classify our non-Hermitian quadrupolar insulator into three categories: trivial, near-Hermitian, and non-local.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Laser-Ion Lens and Accelerator

Generation of highly collimated monoenergetic relativistic ion beams is one of the most challenging and promising areas in ultra-intense laser-matter interactions because of the numerous scientific and technological applications that require such beams. We address this challenge by introducing the concept of laser-ion lensing and acceleration (LILA). Using a simple analogy with a gradient-index lens, we demonstrate that simultaneous focusing and acceleration of ions is accomplished by illuminating a shaped solid-density target by an intense laser pulse at ~10^22 W/cm^2 intensity, and using radiation pressure of the laser to deform/focus the target into a cubic micron spot. We show that the LILA process can be approximated using a simple deformable mirror model, and then validate it using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of a two-species plasma target comprised of electrons and ions. Extensive scans of the laser and target parameters identify the stable propagation regime where the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT)-like instability is suppressed. Stable focusing are found at different laser powers (from few- to multi-petawatt). Focused ion beams with the focused density of order 10^23 cm^-3, energies in access of 750MeV, and energy density up to 2*10^13 J/cm^3 at the focal point are predicted for future multi-petawatt laser systems.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Laser-Pulse and Electron-Bunch Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

Propagation distances of intense laser pulses and high-charge electron beams through the plasma are, respectively, limited by diffraction and self-deceleration. This imposes severe constraints on the performance of the two major advanced accelerator concepts: laser and plasma wakefield accelerators. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that when the two beams co-propagate in the plasma, they can interact synergistically and extend each other's travel distances. The key interactions responsible for the synergy are found to be laser channeling by the electron bunch, and direct laser acceleration of the bunch electrons by the laser pulse. Remarkably, the amount of energy transferred from the laser pulse to the plasma can be increased by several times by the guiding electron bunch despite its small energy content. Implications of such synergistic interactions for the high-gradient acceleration of externally injected witness charges are discussed, and a new concept of a Laser-pulse and Electron-bunch Plasma Accelerator (LEPA) is formulated.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Generation of even and odd high harmonics in resonant metasurfaces using single and multiple ultra-intense laser pulses

High harmonic generation (HHG) opens a window on the fundamental science of strong-field light-mater interaction and serves as a key building block for attosecond optics and metrology. Resonantly enhanced HHG from hot spots in nanostructures is an attractive route to overcoming the well-known limitations of gases and bulk solids. We demonstrate a nanoscale platform for highly efficient HHG driven by strong mid-infrared laser pulses: an ultra-thin resonant gallium phosphide (GaP) metasurface. The wide bandgap and the lack of inversion symmetry of the GaP crystal enable the generation of even and odd harmonics covering a wide range of photon energies between 1.3 and 3 eV with minimal reabsorption. The resonantly enhanced conversion efficiency facilitates single-shot measurements that avoid material damage and pave the way to controllable transition between perturbative and non-perturbative regimes of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.

physics.optics↗