We demonstrate that metamaterial devices requiring anisotropic dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability may be emulated by specially designed tapered waveguides. This approach leads to low-loss, broadband performance. Based on this technique, we demonstrate broadband electromagnetic cloaking in the visible frequency range on a scale $\sim 100$ times larger than the wavelength.

We demonstrate control of the carrier-envelope phase of ultrashort periodic waveforms that are synthesized from a Raman-generated optical frequency comb. We generated the comb by adiabatically driving a molecular vibrational coherence with a beam at a fundamental frequency plus its second harmonic. Heterodyne measurements show that full interpulse phase locking of the comb components is realized. The results set the stage for the synthesis of periodic arbitrary waveforms in the femtosecond and subfemtosecond regimes with full control.

We present the first observations of zero-$\overline{n}$ band gaps in photonic crystal superlattices consisting of alternating stacks of negative-index photonic crystals and positive-index dielectric materials in the near-infrared range. Guided by ab initio three-dimensional numerical simulations, the fabricated nanostructured superlattices demonstrate the presence of zeroth-order gaps in remarkable agreement with theoretical predictions across a range of different superlattice periods and unit cell variations. These volume-averaged zero-index superlattice structures present a new type of photonic band gap, with the potential for complete wave front control for arbitrary phase delay lines and open cavity resonances.

We create air bubbles at the tip of a “bathtub vortex” which reaches to a finite depth. The bathtub vortex is formed by letting water drain through a small hole at the bottom of a rotating cylindrical container. The tip of the needlelike surface dip is unstable at high rotation rates and releases bubbles which are carried down by the flow. Using high-speed imaging we find that the minimal neck radius of the unstable tip decreases in time as a power law with an exponent close to $1/3$. This exponent was found by Gordillo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 194501 (2005)] to govern gas flow driven pinch-off, and indeed we find that the volume oscillations of the tip creates a considerable air flow through the neck. We argue that the Bernoulli pressure reduction caused by this air flow can become sufficient to overcome the centrifugal forces and cause the final pinch-off.

We introduce a new form of stable spatiotemporal self-trapped optical packets stemming from the interplay of local and nonlocal nonlinearities. Pulsed self-trapped light beams in media with both electronic and molecular nonlinear responses are addressed to prove that spatial and temporal effects can be decoupled, allowing for independent tuning. We numerically demonstrate that $(3+1)D$ light bullets and antibullets, i.e., bright and dark temporal solitons embedded in stable $(2+1)D$ nonlocal spatial solitons, can be generated in reorientational media under experimentally feasible conditions.

We show with both experiment and calculation that highly confined surface plasmon polaritons can be efficiently excited on metallic nanowires through the process of mode transformation. One specific mode in a metallic waveguide is identified that adiabatically transforms to the confined nanowire mode as the waveguide width is reduced. Phase- and polarization-sensitive near-field investigation reveals the characteristic antisymmetric polarization nature of the mode and explains the coupling mechanism.

A precursor luminescence pulse consisting of atomic line emission is observed as much as 150 nanoseconds prior to the collapse point of laser-created bubbles in alkali-metal solutions. The timing of the emission from neutral Na, Li, and K atoms is strongly dependent on the salt concentration, which appears to result from resonant radiation trapping by the alkali atoms in the bubble. The alkali emission ends at the onset of the blackbody luminescence pulse at the bubble collapse point, and the duration of the blackbody pulse is found to be reduced by up to 30% as the alkali-salt concentration is increased.

In a unified approach, we study the transport properties of periodic-on-average bilayered photonic crystals, metamaterials, and semiconductor superlattices. Our consideration is based on the analytical expression for the localization length derived for the case of weakly fluctuating widths of layers and takes into account possible correlations in disorder. We analyze how the correlations lead to anomalous properties of transport. In particular, we show that for quarter stack layered media specific correlations can result in a ${\omega }^2$ dependence of the Lyapunov exponent in all spectral bands.

We demonstrate a fiber-optical switch that is activated at tiny energies corresponding to a few hundred optical photons per pulse. This is achieved by simultaneously confining both photons and a small laser-cooled ensemble of atoms inside the microscopic hollow core of a single-mode photonic-crystal fiber and using quantum optical techniques for generating slow light propagation and large nonlinear interaction between light beams.

We report the first experimental observation of multistable states in a single-longitudinal mode semiconductor ring laser. We show how the operation of the device can be steered to either monostable, bistable, or multistable dynamical regimes in a controlled way. We observe that the dynamical regimes are organized in well-reproducible sequences that match the bifurcation diagrams of a two-dimensional model. By analyzing the phase space in this model, we predict how the stochastic transitions between multistable states take place and confirm it experimentally.

We present the first experimental demonstration of focusing ultrasound waves through a flat acoustic metamaterial lens composed of a planar network of subwavelength Helmholtz resonators. We observed a tight focus of half-wavelength in width at 60.5 kHz by imaging a point source. This result is in excellent agreement with the numerical simulation by transmission line model in which we derived the effective mass density and compressibility. This metamaterial lens also displays variable focal length at different frequencies. Our experiment shows the promise of designing compact and lightweight ultrasound imaging elements.

Liquid films flowing over rough substrates are influenced by asperities whose sizes are comparable to the film thickness. We investigate flows driven by jet impact on a regular array of micron-size posts. We show that the topography modifies the size and the shape of the observed hydraulic jumps: in addition to circular jumps, we obtain a variety of stable polygonal shapes. We rationalize our results by considering a leakage flow through the texture and the free-surface flow above it, coupled by an effective slip boundary condition accounting for the symmetry of the texture. This model is in good agreement with our experiments and allows us to account for the interplay between flow properties and roughness parameters, which has applicability in many other thin-film configurations.

We study the motion of a drop lying on a plate simultaneously submitted to horizontal and vertical harmonic vibrations. The two driving vibrations are adjusted to the same frequency, and, according to their relative amplitude and phase difference $\Delta \Phi$, the drop experiences a controlled directed motion with a tunable velocity. We present a simple model putting in evidence the underlying mechanism leading to this ratchetlike motion of the drop. Our model includes the particular case $\Delta \Phi =\pi$ corresponding to the climbing of a drop on a vertically vibrated inclined substrate, as recently observed by Brunet et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 144501 (2007)]. This study gives insights in the fundamental issue of wetting dynamics and offers new possibilities of controlled motion in droplet microfluidics applications.

We demonstrate self-seeded generation of a broadband comb in a highly nonlinear fiber resonator. When pumped with a cw laser, the fiber cavity generates a comb with two characteristic spacings. Hyperparametric modes spaced by $\sim 2\mathrm{THz}$ create the base structure of the comb, while commensurate Brillouin modes spaced by $\sim 10\mathrm{GHz}$ populate the intermediate frequency gaps. The frequency modes are coherent, and the repetition rate of the comb has been locked to a microwave standard.

A prism of glass separates white light into its spectral components in such a manner that colors associated with shorter wavelengths are more refracted than the colors associated with longer wavelengths. Here, we demonstrate that this property is not universal, and that a lossless metamaterial prism with a suitable microstructure may enable a broadband regime of anomalous dispersion, where the spectral components of light are separated in an unconventional way, so that “violet light” is less refracted than “red light.” This phenomenon is fundamentally different from conventional anomalous dispersion effects, which are invariably accompanied by significant loss and are typically very narrow band.

Unusual subharmonic cluster patterns are observed during the oscillatory electro-oxidation of $n$-Si(111) under illumination. 2D in situ imaging of the electrode by means of an ellipsometric setup allows local variations in the oxide layer thickness to be monitored. The local oscillators exhibit an irregular distribution of the amplitude with the extrema locked to the constant base frequency of the total current. In addition, Ising 2-phase clustering occurs at half the base frequency. This intrinsic dynamics is described by means of a modified complex Ginzburg-Landau equation.

We formulate a phase-reduction method for a general class of noisy limit cycle oscillators and find that the phase equation is parametrized by the ratio between time scales of the noise correlation and amplitude relaxation of the limit cycle. The equation naturally includes previously proposed and mutually exclusive phase equations as special cases. The validity of the theory is numerically confirmed. Using the method, we reveal how noise and its correlation time affect limit cycle oscillations.

We present the experimental realization of spatial quantum correlations of photons that are induced by multiple scattering of squeezed light. The quantum correlation relates photons propagating along two different light paths through the random medium and is infinite in range. Both positive and negative spatial quantum correlations are observed when varying the quantum state incident to the multiple scattering medium, and the strength of the correlations is controlled by the number of photons. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with recent theoretical proposals by implementing the full quantum model of multiple scattering.

By studying the repartition of monodisperse droplets at a simple $\mathsf{T}$ junction, we show that the traffic of discrete fluid systems in microfluidic networks results from two competing mechanisms, whose significance is driven by confinement. Traffic is dominated by collisions occurring at the junction for small droplets and by collective hydrodynamic feedback for large ones. For each mechanism, we present simple models in terms of the pertinent dimensionless parameters of the problem.

One particularly efficient approach to making emulsions having monosized droplets is to push a fluid through an orifice into a transverse flow of a second immiscible fluid. We find that, at an intermediate particle Reynolds number, the final droplet size can be readily computed using a simple force balance. Remarkably like the well-known dripping faucet, this system displays both dripping and jetting behavior, controlled by the capillary, Weber and Ohnesorge numbers of the relevant fluids, and interesting nonlinear behavior such as period doubling near the transition between these two regimes.