Uniaxially Strained Graphene: Structural Characteristics and G-Mode Splitting

The potential use of graphene in various strain engineering applications requires an accurate characterization of its properties when the material is under different mechanical loads. In this work, we present the strain dependence of the geometrical characteristics at the atomic level and the Raman active G-band evolution in a uniaxially strained graphene monolayer, using density functional theory methods as well as molecular dynamics atomistic simulations for strains that extend up to the structural failure. The bond length and bond angle variations with strain, applied either along the zigzag or along the armchair direction, are discussed and analytical relations describing this dependence are provided. The G-mode splitting with strain, as obtained by first principles’ methods, is also presented. While for small strains, up to around 1%, the G-band splitting is symmetrical in the two perpendicular directions of tension considered here, this is no longer the case for larger values of strains where the splitting appears to be larger for strains along the zigzag direction. Further, a crossing is observed between the lower frequency split G-mode component and the out-of-plane optical mode at the Γ point for large uniaxial strains (>20%) along the zigzag direction.

Anti-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Kerr gyroscope

Non-Hermitian systems can exhibit unconventional spectral singularities called exceptional points (EPs). Various EP sensors have been fabricated in recent years, showing strong spectral responses to external signals. Here we propose how to achieve a nonlinear anti-parity-time ($\mathcal{APT}$) gyroscope by spinning an optical resonator. We show that, in the absence of any nonlinearity, the sensitivity or optical mode splitting of the linear device can be magnified up to 3 orders than that of the conventional device without EPs. Remarkably, the $\mathcal{APT}$ symmetry can be broken when including the Kerr nonlinearity of the materials and, as the result, the detection threshold can be significantly lowered, i.e., much weaker rotations which are well beyond the ability of a linear gyroscope can now be detected with the nonlinear device. Our work shows the powerful ability of $\mathcal{APT}$ gyroscopes in practice to achieve ultrasensitive rotation measurement.

Integrated silicon photonic filters based on nanowire cascaded Sagnac loop resonators

We demonstrate advanced integrated photonic filters in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowires implemented by cascaded Sagnac loop reflector (CSLR) resonators. We investigate mode splitting in these standing-wave (SW) resonators and demonstrate its use for engineering the spectral profile of on-chip photonic filters. By changing the reflectivity of the Sagnac loop reflectors (SLRs) and the phase shifts along the connecting waveguides, we tailor mode splitting in the CSLR resonators to achieve a wide range of filter shapes for diverse applications including enhanced light trapping, flat-top filtering, Q factor enhancement, and signal reshaping. We present the theoretical designs and compare the CSLR resonators with three, four, and eight SLRs fabricated in SOI. We achieve versatile filter shapes in the measured transmission spectra via diverse mode splitting that agree well with theory. This work confirms the effectiveness of using CSLR resonators as integrated multi-functional SW filters for flexible spectral engineering.

Spectral Shaping with Integrated Self-Coupled Sagnac Loop Reflectors

We propose and theoretically investigate integrated photonic filters based on coupled Sagnac loop reflectors (SLRs) formed by a self-coupled wire waveguide. By tailoring coherent mode interference in the device, three different filter functions are achieved, including Fano-like resonances, wavelength interleaving, and varied resonance mode splitting. For each function, the impact of device structural parameters is analyzed to facilitate optimized performance. Our results theoretically verify the proposed device as a compact multi-functional integrated photonic filter for flexible spectral shaping.