10,101 research outputs found
Observation of topologically protected helical edge modes in Kagome elastic plates
The investigation of topologically protected waves in classical media has
opened unique opportunities to achieve exotic properties like one-way phonon
transport, protection from backscattering and immunity to imperfections.
Contrary to acoustic and electromagnetic domains, their observation in elastic
solids has so far been elusive due to the presence of both shear and
longitudinal modes and their modal conversion at interfaces and free surfaces.
Here we report the experimental observation of topologically protected
helical edge waves in elastic media. The considered structure consists of an
elastic plate patterned according to a Kagome architecture with an accidental
degeneracy of two Dirac cones induced by drilling through holes. The careful
breaking of symmetries couples the corresponding elastic modes which
effectively emulates spin orbital coupling in the quantum spin Hall effect.
The results shed light on the topological properties of the proposed plate
waveguide and opens avenues for the practical realization of compact, passive
and cost-effective elastic topological waveguides
Two-dimensional structures of ferroelectric domain inversion in LiNbO3 by direct electron beam lithography
We report on the fabrication of domain-reversed structures in LiNbO3 by means
of direct electron beam lithography at room temperature without any static
bias. The LiNbO3 crystals were chemically etched after the exposure of electron
beam and then, the patterns of domain inversion were characterized by atomic
force microscopy (AFM). In our experiment, an interesting phenomenon occurred
when the electron beam wrote a one-dimensional (1-D) grating on the negative
c-face: a two-dimensional (2-D) dotted array was observed on the positive c-
face, which is significant for its potential to produce 2-D and
three-dimensional photonic crystals. Furthermore, we also obtained 2-D
ferroelectric domain inversion in the whole LiNbO3 crystal by writing the 2-D
square pattern on the negative c-face. Such a structure may be utilized to
fabricate 2-D nonlinear photonic crystal. AFM demonstrates that a 2-D
domain-reversed structure has been achieved not only on the negative c-face of
the crystal, but also across the whole thickness of the crystal.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
Ultrafast Acousto-Plasmonics in Gold Nanoparticles Superlattice
We report the investigation of the generation and detection of GHz coherent
acoustic phonons in plasmonic gold nanoparticles superlattices (NPS). The
experiments have been performed from an optical femtosecond pump-probe scheme
across the optical plasmon resonance of the superlattice. Our experiments allow
to estimate the collective elastic response (sound velocity) of the NPS as well
as an estimate of the nano-contact elastic stiffness. It appears that the
light-induced coherent acoustic phonon pulse has a typical in-depth spatial
extension of about 45 nm which is roughly 4 times the optical skin depth in
gold. The modeling of the transient optical reflectivity indicates that the
mechanism of phonon generation is achieved through ultrafast heating of the NPS
assisted by light excitation of the volume plasmon. These results demonstrate
how it is possible to map the photon-electron-phonon interaction in
subwavelength nanostructures
Two-dimensional domain structures in Lithium Niobate via domain inversion with ultrafast light
Periodic inversion of ferroelectric domains is realized in a lithium niobate crystal by focused femtosecond near-infrared laser beam. One and two-dimensional domain patterns are fabricated. Quasi-phase matched frequency doubling of 815nm light is demonstrated in a channel waveguide with an inscribed periodic domain pattern with conversion efficiency as high as 17.45%.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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