RUI: Robust Exceptional Points and their Application in Harmonic Generation

每年都有许多电子和光学设备被送回工厂进行可能的维修或更换，这是由于不可避免的制造错误或随后发生的可能损坏造成的故障行为。这将产生额外的成本，材料和能源的大量浪费，因此找到解决这个问题的方法是极其重要的。该项目将为设计光学器件提供新的科学见解和新的方法，这些光学器件不受在恶劣条件下可能发生的制造错误或器件中的小损坏的影响。该项目的主要重点将是开发新的设计，用于激光器中的鲁棒高频产生。来自少数群体服务机构的学生将直接参与这一项目。他们将学习光学结构的数学建模和为光子学应用设计不同的几何形状。因此，他们成为准备进入未来的劳动力在工业或学术界在这些或相关领域。例外点是一类光谱奇点与已知的应用在传感。然而，它们对参数空间的敏感性使得它们难以制造。这个项目的重点是开发一类新的特殊点的非厄米光子系统，具有拓扑鲁棒性。 该小组将在两个不同的系统中设计和实现鲁棒的例外点：i）静止光学系统和ii）时空调制晶格。在固定光学系统中，他们将设计具有鲁棒例外点的一维光学晶格，并将其应用于鲁棒传感，而在时空调制晶格中，他们提出了例外点在鲁棒光学设备中的新应用，该设备能够在存在无序的情况下产生更高的谐波。该项目的最终目标是在一个框架中理解非互易性、非厄米性和拓扑结构背后的基本物理学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Every year many electronics and optical devices are sent back to the factories for possible repair or replacement due to the malfunctioning behavior originating from unavoidable fabrication errors or possible damages that occurred later. This would create additional costs, a large waste of materials and energy, and thus it would be extremely important to find a solution to this problem. This project will provide new scientific insight and a novel approach for designing optical devices that are immune to the possible fabrication errors or small damages in the devices that can occur under severe conditions. The main focus of this project will be on developing new designs for robust higher frequency generation which has applications in lasers. Students from a minority-serving institution will be involved directly in this project. They will learn about the mathematical modeling of optical structures and designing different geometries for photonics applications. Therefore they become prepared to enter the future workforce in industrial or academic communities in these or related fields.Exceptional points are a class of spectral singularities with a known application in sensing. However, their sensitivity to parameter space makes them difficult to fabricate. The focus of this project is on developing a new class of exceptional points in non-Hermitian photonic systems that have topological robustness. The group will design and implement robust exceptional points in two distinct systems: i) stationary optical systems and ii) spatiotemporally modulated lattices. In stationary optical systems, they will design one-dimensional optical lattices with robust exceptional points with application in robust sensing while in spatiotemporally modulated lattices they propose a new application of exceptional points in robust optical devices capable of generating higher harmonics in the presence of disorder. The ultimate goal of this project will be the understanding of the fundamental physics behind non-reciprocity, non-Hermiticity, and topology in one framework.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.