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    Decoupled-Subspace-Induced Flat Bands in a Photonic Superlattice

    Guoxia Yang1, Jiayi Zhang1, Siyan Jiang1, Anwen Jiang1, Chenying Huang1, Yihe Li1, Haojie Li2, Xiaoran Zhang1, Dahe Liu1 et al.

    Jinwei Shi1,*

    • 1Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Metamaterial Structures and Functional Technologies, and Key Laboratory of Multiscale Spin Physics, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    • 2School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China

    • *Contact author: shijinwei@bnu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 026902 – Published 8 July, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9hkk-chws

    Abstract

    Flat bands in photonic systems enable strong light confinement and enhanced light-matter interactions, yet realizing flat dispersion across an entire Brillouin zone (BZ) remains nontrivial. Here, we propose a practical mechanism for generating BZ-spanning flat bands through the coupling between M propagating modes and N localized resonances. When N>M, the finite-channel model necessarily supports exact flat bands that originate from an effectively decoupled subspace. As a representative example, we implement this mechanism in a plasmonic superlattice, where multiple localized resonances hybridize with surface plasmon polaritons. Angle-resolved reflection measurements directly reveal a quasi-flat band extending across the BZ, in excellent agreement with full-wave simulations. The suppressed group velocity further enlarges the momentum-space separation of quasi-bound-state-in-the-continuum-induced exceptional-point pairs, enabling their experimental observation in a plasmonic platform. Our results establish a practical design strategy for engineering flat bands and non-Hermitian degeneracies, which can be extended to dielectric and hybrid systems across a wide spectral range under appropriate conditions, opening new opportunities for compact photonic devices with enhanced functionality.

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