arXiv subjects

Hong-Bo Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Hong-Bo Sun.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

$1/N^2$ Precision Interferometry with Collectively Enhanced Atomic Mirror

Quantum metrology exploits quantum resources to enhance measurement precision beyond the classical limit. Conventional protocols normally rely on the preparation of delicate quantum states to acquire these resources, posing a major challenge for scaling and robustness. Here we introduce a paradigm that circumvents this requirement with a collectively enhanced quantum mirror (CEAM), i.e., a mesoscopic array of $N$ atoms coupled to a semi-infinite waveguide. When injecting single photons into the waveguide and estimating the CEAM-boundary distance from the reflection phase, a $1/N^2$ precision scaling can be obtained, which surpasses the Heisenberg limit. In this protocol, the quantum resource stems from the cooperative optical response, requiring no entangled state preparation. Our scheme is robust against positional and coupling disorder, offering a practical route to ultra-sensitive quantum metrology in integrated photonic systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Mie-lithography: self-guiding nonlinear laser printing for deep ultraviolet to near-infrared nano dispersion devices

Nanoscale control of optical dispersion is essential for applications ranging from miniaturized spectrometers to color printing, all of which demand broadband spectral tunability. However, the Kramers-Kronig relations impose a fundamental trade-off between dispersion and loss, strictly limiting the design ability of single-material devices across the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to near-infrared (NIR) regimes. Consequently, the fabrication of miniaturized dispersion devices heavily relies on costly nanofabrication or heterogeneous integration. Here we overcome these limitations by shifting the light-matter interaction from solid structure into air-filled voids. We introduce a fabrication strategy termed "Mie-lithography", in which laser printed seed nanocavities excite Mie resonances in air and the resulting localized field enhancement drives the self-assembly of three-dimensionally tunable void-type optical resonators. Because the resonant modes are primarily confined within air voids, this architecture effectively circumvents material-imposed dispersion-loss constraints, allowing on-demand customization of the broadband spectral response. This approach enables single-step, high-throughput (>= 10^6 pixels/s) printing of dispersion units with a resolution of 63,500 DPI. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate a DUV-NIR nano spectrometer integrated in a single material covering an unprecedented range from 200 nm to 800 nm. Our approach can be extended into a platform for ultra-broadband nano devices fabrication and design, opening avenues for high-pixel-density displays and miniaturized spectrometers.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Chip-Scale Rydberg Atomic Electrometer

An ideal electrometer should measure electric fields accurately while causing minimal disturbance to the field itself. Rydberg atomic electrometers are promising candidates for ideal electrometry due to their SI traceability and non-invasive nature. However, in practice, the atomic vapor cell shell can distort the electric field, limiting the device's performance. In this work, we overcome this challenge by fabricating a chip-scale vapor cell using a novel combination of femtosecond laser writing and optical contact. This method enables the development of a non-invasive atomic electrometer with a radar cross-section (RCS) 20 dB lower than that of commercial atomic cell-based electrometers. Furthermore, we observe a new sub-Doppler spectral narrowing phenomenon in these chip-scale cells. The effect originates from an incoherent, collision-driven mechanism--hereafter referred to as incoherent Dicke narrowing (ICDN). This advancement supports future revisions to the international system of units and broadens applications in metrology and quantum measurement.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2025

Sub 10 nm Nanochannels Enable Directional Quasi Ballistic Exciton Transport over 5 {\mu}m at Room Temperature

Nanoscale potential wells provide a powerful means to engineer energy landscapes in low dimensional materials, enabling control over quantum states, carrier dynamics, and optoelectronic responses. Such confinement governs phenomena including charge localization, transport anisotropy, band structure modulation, and light matter interaction strength. However, realizing clean and well defined nanostructures remains technically challenging, as fabrication techniques such as focused ion beam (FIB) milling and electron beam lithography frequently introduce structural disorder, residual contamination, or detrimental interactions with the underlying substrate. Here, we develop a femtosecond laser direct writing technique to create sub 10 nm wide dielectric nanochannels with smooth, continuous boundaries on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates, without using resists or chemical etchants. As a demonstration, these nanochannels are employed to define programmable dielectric landscapes in monolayer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2), forming excitonic energy funnels that suppress scattering and significantly extend the exciton transport distance. Transport is reshaped from isotropic diffusion with submicron range to directional super diffusion exhibiting quasi ballistic transport exceeding 5 um, more than 20 times longer than in unpatterned systems. The smooth dielectric boundaries further enable precise control over exciton trajectories, allowing for programmable transport pathways. This dry, scalable, and substrate compatible approach offers a robust platform for exciton engineering and integrated quantum photonic devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Reentrant phase transition in quasiperiodic photonic waveguides

Anderson transition in quasiperiodic potentials and the associated mobility edges have been a central focus in quantum simulation across multidisciplinary physical platforms. While these transitions have been experimentally observed in ultracold atoms, acoustic systems, optical waveguides, and superconducting junctions, their interplay between quasiperiodic potential and long-range hopping remains unexplored experimentally. In this work, we report the observation of localization-delocalization transition induced by the hopping between the next-nearest neighboring sites using quasiperiodic photonic waveguides. Our findings demonstrate that increasing the next-nearest hopping strength induces a reentrant phase transition, where the system transitions from an initially extended phase into a localized phase before eventually returning to an extended phase. This remarkable interplay between hopping and quasiperiodic potential in the lattice models provides crucial insights into the mechanism of Anderson transition. Furthermore, our numerical simulation reveals that this phase transition exhibits a critical exponent of $\nu \simeq 1/3$, which is experimentally observable for system sizes $L\sim10^3$ - $10^4$. These results establish a framework for direct observation of the Anderson transition and precise determination of its critical exponents, which can significantly advance our understanding of localization physics in quasiperiodic systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Laser optothermal nanobomb for efficient flattening of nanobubbles in van der Waals materials

Nanobubbles are typical nanodefects commonly existing in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials such as transition metal dioxides, especially after their transfer from growth substrate to target substrates. These nanobubbles, though tiny, may significantly alter the local electric, optoelectronic, thermal, or mechanical properties of 2D materials and therefore are rather detrimental to the constructed devices. However, there is no post-processing method so far that can effectively eliminate nanobubbles in 2D materials after their fabrication and transfer, which has been a major obstacle in the development of 2D material based devices. Here, we propose a principle, called laser optothermal nanobomb (LOTB), that can effectively flatten nanobubbles in 2D materials through a dynamic process of optothermally induced phase transition and stress-pulling effect in nanobubbles. Operation of LOTB on monolayer molybdenum disulfide (1L-MoS2) films shows that the surface roughness can be reduced by more than 70% on a time scale of ~50 ms, without damage to the intrinsic property of 1L-MoS2 as validated by micro-nano photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, a dual-beam cascaded LOTB and a multi-shot LOTB strategies are proposed to increase the flattened area and processing effect, showing the potential of LOTB for fast nanodefect repairing in the mass production of van der Waals materials and devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Suppression of Local Decay in non-Markovian Waveguide QED

Atoms coupled to the same environment interfere with each other to yield super- or sub-radiance. Specifically, atoms in subradiant states are promising candidates for long-lifetime qubits and quantum memory because of the immunity to the common environment. However, subradiant states can still be influenced by local environments, which are incoherent for different atoms and cannot be canceled out through interference. Here we propose to break this limit by preparing a waveguide QED system in the non-Markovian regime, where the ultra-small decay rate arises because of the retarded interaction. We further show that similar effect occurs spontaneously by self-interference and can be stressed by cooperative coupling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Reconfigurable Meta-Radiator Based on Flexible Mechanically Controlled Current Distribution in Three-dimensional Space

In this paper, we provide an experimental proof-of-concept of this dynamic 3D current manipulation through a 3D-printed reconfigurable meta-radiator with periodically slotted current elements. By utilizing the working frequency and the mechanical configuration comprehensively, the radiation pattern can be switched among 12 states. Inspired by maximum likelihood method in digital communications, a robustness-analysis method is proposed to evaluate the potential error ratio between ideal cases and practice. Our work provides a previously unidentified model for next-generation information distribution and terahertz-infrared wireless communications.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2023

Super stealth dicing of transparent solids with nanometric precision

Laser cutting of semiconductor wafers and transparent dielectrics has become a dominant process in manufacturing industries, encompassing a wide range of applications from flat display panels to microelectronic chips. Limited by the diffraction barrier imposed on the beam width and its longitudinal extend of laser focus, a trade-off must be made between cutting accuracy and aspect ratio in conventional laser processing, with accuracy typically approaching a micron and the aspect ratio on the order of $10^2$. Herein, we propose a method to circumvent this limitation. It is based on the laser modification induced by a back-scattering interference crawling mechanism, which creates a positive feedback for homogenizing longitudinal energy deposition and lateral sub-wavelength light confinement during laser-matter interaction. Consequently, cutting width on the scale of tens of nanometers and aspect ratio $10^3 \sim 10^4$ were simultaneously achieved. We refer to this technique as ``super stealth dicing'', which is validated through numerical simulations, ensuring its broad applicability. It can be applied to various transparent functional solids, such as glass, laser crystal, ferroelectric, and semiconductor, and is elevating the precision of future advanced laser dicing, patterning, and drilling into the nanometric era.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Inert gas as electronic impurity in semiconductors: The case for active infrared absorption in silicon

Inert (noble gas) elements are extremely inactive to surrounding chemical environment and are frequently employed as protective gas in various semiconductor fabrication processes. In this work, we surprisingly discover that high doses of argon up to $10^{17}-10^{20} cm^{-3}$ can be measured in silicon exposed by laser pulses even after 1300 days. First-principles calculations and molecular dynamics identify a unique argon-locking-vacancy (ALV) defect atomic model in silicon. The ALV defect is dynamically robust in contrast to the frequently moving pure Si vacancy. While argon is chemically inert, it readily modulates defect states of the occupied vacancy via steric repulsion and rattling motions, leading to significant band splitting within bandgap and thus strong infrared absorptions. Moreover, the repulsion between substitutional argon and dangling bonds results in shallow donors which explains the confusion of enhanced n-type carriers in experiments. The work paves a way of using noble gas element to produce active infrared absorption source for the non-heteroepitaxy photonic detectors directly on silicon wafer at infrared communication wavelength.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Incoherent Optoelectronic Differentiation with Optimized Multilayer Films

Fourier-based optical computing operations, such as spatial differentiation, have recently been realized in compact form factors using flat optics. Experimental demonstrations, however, have been limited to coherent light requiring laser illumination and leading to speckle noise and unwanted interference fringes. Here, we demonstrate the use of optimized multilayer films, combined with dual color image subtraction, to realize differentiation with unpolarized incoherent light. Global optimization is achieved by employing neural networks combined with the reconciled level set method to optimize the optical transfer functions of multilayer films at wavelengths of 532 nm and 633 nm. Spatial differentiation is then achieved by subtracting the normalized incoherent images at these two wavelengths. The optimized multilayer films are experimentally demonstrated to achieve incoherent differentiation with a numerical aperture up to 0.8 and a resolution of 6.2 {\mu}m. The use of multilayer films allows for lithography-free fabrication and is easily combined with existing imaging systems opening the door to applications in microscopy, machine vision and other image processing applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Non-Abelian braiding on photonic chips

Non-Abelian braiding has attracted significant attention because of its pivotal role in describing the exchange behaviors of anyons--a candidate for realizing quantum logics. The input and outcome of non-Abelian braiding are connected by a unitary matrix which can also physically emerge as a geometric-phase matrix in classical systems. Hence it is predicted that non-Abelian braiding should have analogues in photonics, but a feasible platform and the experimental realization remain out of reach. Here, we propose and experimentally realize an on-chip photonic system that achieves the non-Abelian braiding of up to five photonic modes. The braiding is realized by controlling the multi-mode geometric-phase matrix in judiciously designed photonic waveguide arrays. The quintessential effect of braiding--sequence-dependent swapping of photon dwell sites is observed in both classical-light and single-photon experiments. Our photonic chips are a versatile and expandable platform for studying non-Abelian physics, and we expect the results to motivate next-gen non-Abelian photonic devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Polarization-Orthogonal Nondegenerate Plasmonic Higher-Order Topological States

Photonic topological states, providing light-manipulation approaches in robust manners, have attracted intense attention. Connecting photonic topological states with far-field degrees of freedom(DoFs) has given rise to fruitful phenomena. Recently emerged higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs), hosting boundary states two or more dimensions lower than those of bulk, offer new paradigms to localize/transport light topologically in extended dimensionalities. However, photonic HOTIs have not been related to DoFs of radiation fields yet. Here, we report the observation of polarization-orthogonal second-order topological corner states at different frequencies on a designer-plasmonic Kagome metasurface in the far field.Such phenomenon stands on two mechanisms, i.e., projecting the far-field polarizations to the intrinsic parity DoFs of lattice modes and the parity splitting of the plasmonic corner states in spectra. We theoretically and numerically show that the parity splitting originates from the underlying inter-orbital coupling. Both near-field and far-field experiments verify the polarization-orthogonal nondegeneratesecond-order topological corner states. These results promise applications in robust optical single photon emitters and multiplexed photonic devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Reconfigurable Slotted Antenna Inspired by Multidimensional Modulation

Multidimensional modulation was widely studied in the past decades due to the explosive development of modern wireless communication. Here, we propose a spirally reconfigurable slotted antenna inspired by the multidimensional modulation. The amplitude, phase, and frequency-shift modulation are analog by integrating three-dimensional mechanical switching to a spiral slotted antenna. The maximum gain of the reconfigurable antenna can be adjusted in the type of 2 encoding bits at 9.5 GHz. Our work may pave the way to a high-performance reconfigurable antenna for 6G communication.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Dynamically encircling an exceptional point in anti-PT-symmetric systems: asymmetric mode switching for symmetry-broken states

Dynamically encircling an exceptional point (EP) in parity-time (PT) symmetric systems shows an interesting chiral dynamics, leading to asymmetric mode switching in which the output modes are different when the encircling direction is reversed. Here we show that the dynamical encircling of an EP in anti-PT-symmetric systems can also result in chiral dynamics if the starting/end point lies in the PT-broken phase, in contrast to PT-symmetric systems where chiral dynamics emerges if the starting/end point lies in the PT-unbroken phase. For many applications, such as signal processing using waveguides, the asymmetric mode switching of symmetry-broken modes in anti-PT-symmetric systems is more useful since each eigenmode is localized in one waveguide only. We develop an analytic theory for anti-PT-symmetric chiral dynamics and perform experiments using three waveguides to demonstrate the asymmetric mode switching. The new wave-manipulation phenomena observable in anti-PT-symmetric systems may pave the way towards designing on-chip optical systems with novel functionalities.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

High-quality trapped modes in all-dielectric metamaterials

A planar all-dielectric metamaterial made of a double-periodic lattice whose unit cell consists of a single subwavelength dielectric particle having the form of a disk possessing a penetrating hole is considered. The resonant states in the transmitted spectra of the metamaterial are identified considering modes inherent to the individual cylindrical dielectric resonator. A correlation between the asymmetry in particle's geometry, which arises from the off-centered displacement of the hole, and formation of the Mie-type and trapped modes is established. The advantages of using a coaxial-sector notch instead of a round hole for the trapped mode excitation are explained.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2017

Control of single-mode operation in a circular waveguide filled by a longitudinally magnetized gyroelectromagnetic medium

A substantial control of dispersion features of the hybrid EH01 and HE11 modes of a circular waveguide which is completely filled by a longitudinally magnetized composite finely-stratified ferrite-semiconductor structure is discussed. A relation between the resonant conditions of such a composite gyroelectromagnetic filling of the circular waveguide and dispersion features of the supported modes are studied. Three distinct frequency bands with the single-mode operation under normal as well as anomalous dispersion conditions of the EH01 mode are identified by solving an optimization problem with respect to the filling factors of the composite medium. The possibility of achieving isolated propagation of the HE11 mode is revealed.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2017

Crossing and anti-crossing effects of polaritons in a magnetic-semiconductor superlattice influenced by an external magnetic field

Crossing and anti-crossing effects in dispersion characteristics of both bulk and surface polaritons in a magnetic-semiconductor superlattice influenced by an external static magnetic field being in the Faraday geometry are discussed. The bulk polaritons are classified as eigenwaves with right-handed and left-handed elliptically polarized states, whereas the surface polaritons are considered as hybrid modes having a predominant effect of either magnetic or semiconductor subsystem, and distinctions in dispersion characteristics of such polaritons are revealed involving the concept of critical points.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗