arXiv subjects

James A. Hutchison

Publications and source records attributed to James A. Hutchison.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A subsurface array of photonic crystal slabs produces green stripes in a scarab beetle

Vivid colours in nature often arise from photonic nanostructures that have inspired diverse technologies. Yet most known examples fall within a limited set of structural themes. Here, we describe a biologically and optically novel structure in the bright green, violin-shaped stripes of the fiddler beetle Eupoecila australasiae. The green colour is produced by a composite, hierarchical structure comprising dense arrays of microscopic, fin-like elements located beneath the cuticle. Each vertical fin, patterned with complementary lattices of nanospheres and indentations, can be approximated by two photonic crystal slabs mounted on a solid central core. Optical modelling shows that the fins are strongly iridescent, reflecting light with longer wavelengths near the normal and light with shorter wavelengths at oblique angles. However, disorder in fin orientation and filtering by the overlying cuticle converts the opaline cyan appearance of the fins into the bright diffuse green seen externally. Our work expands the known diversity of biological photonic nanostructures and offers new inspiration for biomimetic designs.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Experimental demonstration of a scalable room-temperature quantum battery

Harnessing quantum phenomena in energy storage systems offers an opportunity to introduce a new generation of batteries with quantum-enhanced performance. Until now, the quantum battery has largely remained a theoretical concept, with little progress towards experimental realisation, due to the challenges in quantum coherent control. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scalable room-temperature quantum battery with a multi-layered organic-microcavity design. We show that it exhibits superextensive charging, metastabilisation of stored energy, and generates superextensive electrical power, the latter an unpredicted phenomenon. The combination of these properties in a single device is the first demonstration of the full cycle of a quantum battery, laying the framework for future designs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Metasurfaces for infrared multi-modal microscopy: phase contrast and bright field

Different imaging modalities are used to extract the diverse information carried in an optical field. Two prominent modalities include bright field and phase contrast microscopy that can visualize the amplitude and phase features of a sample, respectively. However, capturing both of these images on the same camera typically requires interchanging optical components. Metasurfaces are ultra-thin nanostructures that can merge both of these operations into a single miniaturized device. Here, a silicon-based metasurface that supports a Mie resonance is demonstrated to perform near-infrared phase contrast and bright field multi-modal microscopy that can be tuned by changing the polarization of the illumination. We performed experiments using optical fields with phase variations synthesized by a spatial light modulator and introduced by propagation through semi-transparent samples, including C. elegans, unstained human prostate cancer cells and breast tissue. The results demonstrate the potential of metasurfaces for label-free point-of-care testing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

On the importance of experimental details: A Comment on "Non-Polaritonic Effects in Cavity-Modified Photochemistry"

Recently, an article by the Barnes group reported on the experimental study of a photoisomerization reaction inside an optical cavity, claiming to reproduce previous results by Hutchison et al. and making the point that in such setups, changes in the absorption of ultraviolet radiation by the molecules in the cavity can lead to modifications in the photochemical reaction rate. While Hutchison et al. associated such modifications with the emergence of strong light-matter coupling, in their attempt to re-examine these experiments, Barnes et al. did not find any evidence that strong coupling needs to be invoked to explain the observed effects. In response to this publication, we herein highlight the main differences between the two experimental studies, and explain why the results of Barnes et al. are irrelevant to the former study and have no bearing on its conclusions. Specifically, we show that under the experimental conditions used by Hutchison et al. such intensity-modification effects are negligible and can therefore be ruled out.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

Spin-momentum locked polariton transport in the chiral strong coupling regime

We demonstrate room temperature chiral strong coupling of valley excitons in a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer with spin-momentum locked surface plasmons. In this regime, we measure spin-selective excitation of directional flows of polaritons. Operating under strong light-matter coupling, our platform yields robust intervalley contrasts and coherences, enabling us to generate coherent superpositions of chiral polaritons propagating in opposite directions. Our results reveal the rich and easy to implement possibilities offered by our system in the context of chiral optical networks.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Coherent coupling of molecular resonators with a micro-cavity mode

The optical hybridization of the electronic states in strongly coupled molecule-cavity systems have revealed unique properties such as lasing, room temperature polariton condensation, and the modification of excited electronic landscapes involved in molecular isomerization. Here we show that molecular vibrational modes of the electronic ground state can also be coherently coupled with a micro-cavity mode at room temperature, given the low vibrational thermal occupation factors associated with molecular vibrations, and the collective coupling of a large ensemble of molecules immersed within the cavity mode volume. This enables the enhancement of the collective Rabi-exchange rate with respect to the single oscillator coupling strength. The possibility of inducing large shifts in the vibrational frequency of selected molecular bonds should have immediate consequences for chemistry.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Mechanical separation of chiral dipoles by chiral light

We calculate optical forces and torques exerted on a chiral dipole by chiral light fields and reveal genuinely chiral forces in combining the chiral contents of both light field and dipolar matter. Here, the optical chirality is characterized in a general way through the definition of optical chirality density and chirality flow. We show in particular that both terms have mechanical effects associated respectively with reactive and dissipative components of the chiral forces. Remarkably, these chiral force components are directly related to standard observables: optical rotation for the reactive component and circular dichroism for the dissipative one. As a consequence, the resulting forces and torques are dependent on the enantiomeric form of the chiral dipole. This suggests promising strategies for using chiral light forces to mechanically separate chiral objects according to their enantiomeric form.

physics.optics↗