Collaborative Research: Investigation of Rotation-Time and Inversion-Time Symmetries in Photonic Materials

非技术描述：该合作研究项目的目标是战略性地利用光学损耗来展示具有非常规光学特性的新型光子材料。这项研究可能为新一代具有独特和高度可调光学特性的复杂光子器件奠定坚实的基础，并更好地了解它们与量子力学，数学物理和材料科学的联系。从实践的角度来看，最先进的光子学技术中所展示的新颖光学功能可以显著影响光通信和计算的快速增长领域，包括激光器，放大器，调制器和探测器。该研究与两所院校的教育活动结合得很好，例如为本科生和研究生提供尖端科学和技术研究经验，以及促进K-12学生和代表性不足群体的兴趣和参与的教育推广活动。技术描述：该研究项目的主要重点是研究量子机制启发的方法，以实现新颖的非厄米光子材料采用了各种对称范式，包括旋转时间，反转时间，宇称时间对称性以及它们的组合。具体来说，这个合作研究项目是探索更高维光子材料中的旋转时间和反转时间对称性，这完成了涉及时间反转和点群（例如，旋转和反转）。该项目利用主要研究人员在光学理论和先进纳米纤维方面的互补专业知识，设计和制造不同对称性的新型芯片级集成光子材料。研究了相应的反射、透射和散射光学性质，以表征不同的量子相位和相关的相变。研究了一个统一的群论来描述整个非厄米特对称族。本研究中的新型光子材料有望在控制光传输和光学谐振模式方面提供独特的光学功能，从而实现新一代光子器件。

Non-Technical Description: The objective of this collaborative research project is to strategically utilize optical losses to demonstrate novel photonic materials with unconventional optical properties. The study may lay a solid foundation for a new generation of sophisticated photonic devices with unique and highly tunable optical properties, as well as provide a better understanding of their connection to quantum mechanics, mathematical physics, and materials science. From the practical point-of-view, the demonstrated novel optical functionalities in the state-of-the-art photonics technology can significantly impact the fast-growing areas of optical communications and computing, including lasers, amplifiers, modulators and detectors. The research is well integrated with the educational activities at both institutions, such as cutting-edge science and technology research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, and educational outreach activities to promote the interests and participations of K-12 students and underrepresented groups.Technical Description: The primary focus of this research project is to investigate a quantum-mechanism inspired approach to realize novel non-Hermitian photonic materials by employing a variety of symmetry paradigms, including rotation-time, inversion-time, and parity-time symmetries as well as their combinations. Specifically, this collaborative research project is to explore rotation-time and inversion-time symmetries in higher dimensional photonic materials, which completes the anti-linear symmetry families that involve time reversal and a point group (e.g., rotation and inversion). The project utilizes the principal investigators' complementary expertise in optics theory and advanced nanofabrication to design and fabricate novel chip-scale integrated photonic materials of different symmetries. The corresponding optical properties in reflection, transmission and scattering are investigated to characterize different quantum phases and the associated phase transition. A unified group theory is studied to describe the entire non-Hermitian symmetry families. The novel photonic materials in this study are expected to offer unique optical functionalities in the control of light transport and optical resonant modes, thus enabling a new generation of photonic devices.