Optical surface and defect states in light-induced photonic structures

表面状态和缺陷状态存在于各种服从线性和非线性方程的系统中。在这个RUI研究项目中，波沿表面和缺陷传播的新概念和基本问题将从实验和理论两方面进行探索。具体的研究领域将包括缺陷模式，缺陷-孤子相互作用，非线性表面孤子，以及双周期超晶格结构中的Tamm和Shockley-like表面态。最近有人提出，由倏逝耦合波导的周期阵列引起的小折射率变化可以用于表面和缺陷态的激发，但在二维结构中的实验证明一直受到具有所需表面和缺陷的周期结构的制造的阻碍。本计画将在利用光诱导光子波导结构的可重构周期结构的光学环境中进行。这项研究将对其他科学领域产生直接影响，从固体物理学到光子晶体，从流体力学到原子物理学，如玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚在周期势中。这个项目的主要重点是指导本科生，特别是那些来自不同种族的旧金山湾区的学生。这项工作的一个强大的教育组成部分是，研究项目将被用作教学和发现的一种形式，学生将积极参与学习研究方法，分享发现和解释。因此，这个项目的更广泛的影响在于通过在一个根本性和技术上重要的领域培训学生，将研究和教育结合起来。

Surface and defect states exist in a variety of systems that obey linear and nonlinear equations. In this RUI research project, new concepts and fundamental issues of wave propagation along surfaces and defects will be explored both experimentally and theoretically. The specific areas of investigation will include defect modes, defect-soliton interactions, nonlinear surface solitons, and Tamm- and Shockley-like surface states in biperiodic superlattice structures. Recently it has been suggested that the small refractive index variation induced as periodic arrays of evanescently coupled waveguides can be used for excitation of surface and defect states, but experimental demonstration in a two-dimensional configuration has been hampered by fabrication of such periodic structures with desired surfaces and defects. This project will be carried out in an optical setting of reconfigurable periodic structure using optically-induced photonic waveguide structures. The research will have direct impact on other areas of sciences, ranging from solid state physics to photonic crystals, and from hydrodynamics to atomic physics such as Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in periodic potentials. A major emphasis of this project is placed on mentoring undergraduate students, particularly those from the ethnically diverse San Francisco Bay Area population. A strong educational component of this work is that the research project will be used as a form of teaching as well as discovery, and the students will be actively involved in learning research methods and in sharing discoveries and interpretations. Thus, the broader impacts of this project lie in the integration of research and education through training of students in a fundamentally and technologically important area.