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Zhigang Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Zhigang Chen.

126 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
arXiv2015

Composite multi-vortex diffraction-free beams and van Hove singularities in honeycomb lattices

We find diffraction-free beams for graphene and MoS$_2$-type honeycomb optical lattices. The resulting composite solutions have the form of multi-vortices, with spinor topological charges ($n$, $n\pm1$). Exact solutions for the spinor components are obtained in the Dirac limit. The effects of the valley degree of freedom and the mass are analyzed. Passing through the van-Hove singularity the topological structure of the solutions is modified. Exactly at the singularity the diffraction-free beams take the form of strongly localized one-dimensional stripes.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2014

Unveiling pseudospin and angular momentum in photonic graphene

Pseudospin, an additional degree of freedom inherent in graphene, plays a key role in understanding many fundamental phenomena such as the anomalous quantum Hall effect, electron chirality and Klein paradox. Unlike the electron spin, the pseudospin was traditionally considered as an unmeasurable quantity, immune to Stern-Gerlach-type experiments. Recently, however, it has been suggested that graphene pseudospin is a real angular momentum that might manifest itself as an observable quantity, but so far direct tests of such a momentum remained unfruitful. Here, by selective excitation of two sublattices of an artificial photonic graphene, we demonstrate pseudospin-mediated vortex generation and topological charge flipping in otherwise uniform optical beams with Bloch momentum traversing through the Dirac points. Corroborated by numerical solutions of the linear massless Dirac-Weyl equation, we show that pseudospin can turn into orbital angular momentum completely, thus upholding the belief that pseudospin is not merely for theoretical elegance but rather physically measurable.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2013

Engineered optical nonlinearities and enhanced light transmission in soft-matter systems with tunable polarizabilities

In this work, we demonstrate that the nonlinear response of certain soft-matter systems can be tailored at will by appropriately engineering their optical polarizability. In particular, we deliberately synthesize stable colloidal suspensions with negative polarizabilities, and observe for the first time robust propagation and enhanced transmission of self-trapped light over long distances that would have been otherwise impossible in conventional suspensions with positive polarizabilities. What greatly facilitates this behavior is an induced saturable nonlinear optical response introduced by the thermodynamic properties of these colloidal systems. This in turn leads to a substantial reduction in scattering via self-activated transparency effects. Our results may open up new opportunities in developing soft-matter systems with tunable optical nonlinearities.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2013

Multi-path multi-component self-accelerating beams through spectrum-engineered position mapping

We introduce the concept of spatial spectral phase gradient, and demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, how this concept could be employed for generating single- and multi-path self-accelerating beams. In particular, we show that the trajectories of the accelerating beams are determined a priori by different key spatial frequencies through direct spectrum-to-distance mapping. In the non-paraxial regime, our results clearly illustrate the breakup of Airy beams from a different perspective, and demonstrate how circular, elliptic or hyperbolic accelerating beams can be created by judiciously engineering the spectral phase. Furthermore, we found that the accelerating beams still follow the predicted trajectory also for vectorial wavefronts. Our approach not only generalizes the idea of Fourier-space beam engineering along arbitrary convex trajectories, but also offers new possibilities for beam/pulse manipulation not achievable through standard direct real-space approaches or by way of time-domain phase modulation.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2013

Inversion and tight focusing of Airy pulses under the action of third-order dispersion

By means of direct simulations and theoretical analysis, we study the nonlinear propagation of truncated Airy pulses in an optical fiber exhibiting both anomalous second-order and strong positive third-order dispersions. It is found that the Airy pulse first reaches a finite-size focal area as determined by the relative strength of the two dispersion terms, and then undergoes an inversion transformation such that it continues to travel with an opposite acceleration. The system notably features tight focusing if the third-order dispersion is a dominant factor. These effects are partially reduced by a Kerr nonlinearity.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2012

Nonparaxial Mathieu and Weber accelerating beams

We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally nonparaxial Mathieu and Weber accelerating beams, generalizing the concept of previously found accelerating beams. We show that such beams bend into large angles along circular, elliptical or parabolic trajectories but still retain nondiffracting and self-healing capabilities. The circular nonparaxial accelerating beams can be considered as a special case of the Mathieu accelerating beams, while an Airy beam is only a special case of the Weber beams at the paraxial limit. Not only generalized nonparaxial accelerating beams open up many possibilities of beam engineering for applications, but the fundamental concept developed here can be applied to other linear wave systems in nature, ranging from electromagnetic and elastic waves to matter waves.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2012

Observation of novel edge states in photonic graphene

The intriguing properties of graphene, a two-dimensional material composed of a honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms, have attracted a great deal of interest in recent years. Specifically, the fact that electrons in graphene behave as massless relativistic particles gives rise to unconventional phenomena such as Klein tunneling, the anomalous quantum Hall effect, and strain-induced pseudo-magnetic fields. Graphene edge states play a crucial role in the understanding and use of these electronic properties. However, the coarse or impure nature of the edges hampers the ability to directly probe the edge states and their band structure. Perhaps the best example is the edge states on the bearded edge (also called the Klein edge) that have thus far never been observed - because such an edge is unstable in graphene. Here, we use the optical equivalent of graphene - a photonic honeycomb lattice - to experimentally and theoretically study edge states and their properties. We directly image the edge states on both the zig-zag and bearded edges of this photonic graphene, measure their dispersion properties, and most importantly, find a new type of edge state: one residing on the bearded edge which was unknown and cannot be explained through conventional tight-binding theory. Such a new edge state lies near the van-Hove singularity in the edge band structure and can be classified as a Tamm state lacking any surface defect. Our photonic system offers the opportunity to probe new graphene-related phenomena that are difficult or impossible to access in conventional carbon-based graphene. Edge states in graphene-type structures play the central role in achieving photonic topological insulation, in which light can propagate along the edges of photonic structures without any parasitic scattering whatsoever.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2011

Apologizing Comment on `Quantum Quasi-Cyclic Low-Density Parity-Check codes$\,$"

In our recent paper entitled "Quantum Quasi-Cyclic Low-Density Parity-Check codes" [ICIC 2009. LNCS 5754], it was claimed that some new quantum codes can be constructed via the CSS encoding/decoding approach with various lengths and rates. However, the further investigation shows that the proposed construction may steal some ideas from the paper entitled "Quantum Quasi-Cyclic LDPC codes" [quant-ph/0701020v2]. We feel that the apologizing point of the original protocol is that some results are almost similar to that of construction methods with algebraic combinatorics although we suggest the different approach for improving them. Also, there is a weak point of the original coding approach while considering the application of codes in imperfect channels.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2009

Geometric stabilization of extended S=2 vortices in two-dimensional photonic lattices: theoretical analysis, numerical computation and experimental results

In this work, we focus our studies on the subject of nonlinear discrete self-trapping of S=2 (doubly-charged) vortices in two-dimensional photonic lattices, including theoretical analysis, numerical computation and experimental demonstration. We revisit earlier findings about S=2 vortices with a discrete model, and find that S=2 vortices extended over eight lattice sites can indeed be stable (or only weakly unstable) under certain conditions, not only for the cubic nonlinearity previously used, but also for a saturable nonlinearity more relevant to our experiment with a biased photorefractive nonlinear crystal. We then use the discrete analysis as a guide towards numerically identifying stable (and unstable) vortex solutions in a more realistic continuum model with a periodic potential. Finally, we present our experimental observation of such geometrically extended S=2 vortex solitons in optically induced lattices under both self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearities, and show clearly that the S=2 vortex singularities are preserved during nonlinear propagation.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2007

Two-dimensional defect modes in optically induced photonic lattices

In this article, localized linear defect modes due to bandgap guidance in two-dimensional photonic lattices with localized or non-localized defects are investigated theoretically. First, when the defect is localized and weak, eigenvalues of defect modes bifurcated from edges of Bloch bands are derived analytically. It is shown that in an attractive (repulsive) defect, defect modes bifurcate out from Bloch-band edges with normal (anomalous) diffraction coefficients. Furthermore, distances between defect-mode eigenvalues and Bloch-band edges are exponentially small functions of the defect strength, which is very different from the one-dimensional case where such distances are quadratically small with the defect strength. It is also found that some defect-mode branches bifurcate not from Bloch-band edges, but from quasi-edge points within Bloch bands, which is very unusual. Second, when the defect is localized but strong, defect modes are determined numerically. It is shown that both the repulsive and attractive defects can support various types of defect modes such as fundamental, dipole, quadrupole, and vortex modes. These modes reside in various bandgaps of the photonic lattice. As the defect strength increases, defect modes move from lower bandgaps to higher ones when the defect is repulsive, but remain within each bandgap when the defect is attractive, similar to the one-dimensional case. The same phenomena are observed when the defect is held fixed while the applied dc field (which controls the lattice potential) increases. Lastly, if the defect is non-localized (i.e. it persists at large distances in the lattice), it is shown that defect modes can be embedded inside the continuous spectrum, and they can bifurcate out from edges of the continuous spectrum algebraically rather than exponentially.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2005

MAEC : A Movement-Assisted Energy Conserving Method in Event Driven Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy is one of the most important resources in wireless sensor networks. Recently, the mobility of base station has been exploited to preserve the energy. But in event driven networks, the mobility issue is quite different from the continuous monitoring one because only a small portion of sensor node has data to send at one time. The number of sensor node that forward traffic should be minimized to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, we propose a movement-assisted energy conserving method which tries to reduce the amount of forwarding sensor node by directing the base station to move close to the hotspots. This method achieves good performance especially when applied to a network with a set of cooperative mobile base station. Extensive simulation has been done to verify the effectiveness of the propose schema.

cs.NI↗
arXiv2005

Defect modes in one-dimensional photonic lattices

Linear defect modes in one-dimensional photonic lattices are studied theoretically. For negative (repulsive) defects, various localized defect modes are found. The strongest confinement of the defect modes appear when the lattice intensity at the defect site is {\em non-zero} rather than zero. When launched at small angles into such a defect site of the lattice, a Gaussian beam can be trapped and undergo snake oscillations under appropriate conditions.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2004

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Photonic Lattices: Theory and Experiment

We examine an example of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a double-well waveguide with a symmetric potential. The ground state of the system beyond a critical power becomes asymmetric. The effect is illustrated numerically, and quantitatively analyzed via a Galerkin truncation that clearly shows the bifurcation from a symmetric to an asymmetric steady state. This phenomenon is also demonstrated experimentally when a probe beam is launched appropriately into an optically induced photonic lattice in a photorefractive material.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2004

Observation of discrete vortex solitons in optically-induced photonic lattices

We report on the frst experimental observation of discrete vortex solitons in two-dimensional optically-induced photonic lattices. We demonstrate strong stabilization of an optical vortex by the lattice in a self-focusing nonlinear medium and study the generation of the discrete vortices from a broad class of singular beams.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2004

Soliton stripes in two-dimensional nonlinear photonic lattices

We study experimentally the interaction of a soliton with a nonlinear lattice. We observe the formation of a novel type of composite soliton created by strong coupling of mutually incoherent periodic and localized beam components. By imposing an initial transverse momentum on the soliton stripe, we observe the effect of lattice compression and deformation.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2004

Discrete solitons and soliton-induced dislocations in partially-coherent photonic lattices

We investigate the interaction between a light beam and a two-dimensional photonic lattice that is photo-induced in a photorefractive crystal using partially coherent light. We demonstrate that this interaction process is associated with a host of new phenomena including lattice dislocation, lattice deformation, and creation of structures akin to optical polarons. In addition, two-dimensional discrete solitons are realized in such partially coherent photonic lattices.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv1998

Solitonic Gluons

We describe a physical mechanism for creating multi-soliton bound states where solitons are glued together by attraction between the beams they guide, `solitonic gluons'. We verify the concept of the solitonic gluons experimentally, observing a suppression of the repulsion between dark solitons due to an attractive force between bright guided beams.

patt-sol↗