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Physical Review B

  • Letter

Evanescent wave spectral singularities in non-Hermitian photonics

Huan He1,*, Zhaoxian Chen2,*, Huanan Li1,†, Cheng-Hou Tu1, Jingjun Xu1,‡, and Andrea Alù3,4,§

  • 1MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
  • 2College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
  • 3Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA
  • 4Physics Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York 10016, USA

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †hli01@nankai.edu.cn
  • ‡jjxu@nankai.edu.cn
  • §aalu@gc.cuny.edu
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Phys. Rev. B 109, L041405 – Published 16 January, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.L041405

Abstract

Spectral singularities (SSs) emerge at isolated real frequencies when the scattering coefficients of a system diverge, producing scattering anomalies in non-Hermitian systems. Here, based on parity-time symmetry, we introduce SSs for evanescent waves, and explore their exotic features. We show that evanescent wave SSs can realize highly reconfigurable unidirectional lasers and absorbers, and offer the opportunity to observe extreme scattering anomalies associated with SSs in fully passive platforms, decoupling their extreme scattering responses from energy considerations. More broadly, our study opens avenues for non-Hermitian wave engineering, showcasing a link between non-Hermitian physics and structured waves, with implications in nano-optics for extreme wave-matter interactions and functional devices.

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Phys. Rev. B 109, L041405– Published 16 January, 2024
  • Received 7 July 2023
  • Revised 13 November 2023
  • Accepted 17 December 2023
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