Liquid crystal (LC) photonic devices have attracted intensive attention in recent decades, due to the merits of tunability, cost-effectiveness, and high efficiency. However, the precise and efficient simulation of large-scale three-dimensional electrically stimulated LC photonic devices remains challenging and resource consuming. Here we report a straightforward nonuniform finite difference method (NFDM) for efficiently simulating large-scale LC photonic devices by employing a spatially nonuniform mesh grid. We show that the NFDM can be further accelerated by approximately 504 times by using the improved successive over-relaxation method (by 12 times), the symmetric boundary (by 4 times), the momentum gradient descent algorithm (by 3.5 times), and the multigrid (by 3 times). We experimentally fabricated the large-scale electrically stimulated LC photonic device, and the measured results demonstrate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed NFDM. The NFDM allocates more grids to the core area with steep electric field gradient, thus reducing the distortion of electric field and the truncation error of calculation, rendering it more precise than the finite element method and traditional finite difference method with similar computing resources. This study demonstrates an efficient and highly reliable method to simulate the large-scale electrically stimulated LC photonic device, and paves the way for customizing a large-scale LC photonic device with designable functionalities.

Electric anapoles, arising from the destructive interference of primitive and toroidal electric dipole moments, have recently emerged as a fundamental class of non-scattering sources. On the other hand, super-scattering states represent the opposite regime wherein the scattering cross-section of a subwavelength particle exceeds the single-channel limit, leading to a strong scattering behavior. Here, we demonstrate that the interplay between the topology of light and the subwavelength scatterer can lead to these two opposite responses within an isolated all-dielectric meta-atom. In particular, we present the emergence of a new non-scattering state, referred to as hybrid anapole, which surpasses conventional electric dipole anapoles by achieving a remarkable 23-fold enhancement in the suppression of far-field radiation and almost threefold enhancement in the confinement of electromagnetic energy inside the meta-atom. We also explore the role of particle orientation and its inversion symmetry in the scattering response and predict the possibility of switching between non-scattering and super-scattering states within the same platform. The presented study elucidates the role of light and matter topologies in the scattering response of subwavelength meta-atoms, uncovering two opposite regimes of light-matter interaction and opening new avenues in applications such as nonlinear optics and spectroscopy.

Indefinite metacavities (IMCs) made of hyperbolic metamaterials show great advantages in terms of extremely small mode volume due to large wave vectors endowed by the unique hyperbolic dispersion. However, quality (Q) factors of IMCs are limited by Ohmic loss of metals and radiative loss of leaked waves. Despite the fact that Ohmic loss of metals is inevitable in IMCs, the radiative loss can be further suppressed by leakage engineering. Here we propose a mirror coupled IMC structure which is able to operate at Fabry–Pérot bound states in the continuum (BICs) while the hyperbolic nature of IMCs is retained. At the BIC point, the radiative loss of magnetic dipolar cavity modes in IMCs is completely absent, resulting in a considerably increased Q factor (>90). Deviating from the BIC point, perfect absorption bands (>0.99) along with a strong near-field intensity enhancement (>1.8×104) appear when the condition of critical coupling is almost fulfilled. The proposed BICs are robust to the geometry and material composition of IMCs and anomalous scaling law of resonance is verified during the tuning of optical responses. We also demonstrate that the Purcell effect of the structure can be significantly improved under BIC and quasi-BIC regimes due to the further enhanced Q factor to mode volume ratio. Our results provide a new train of thought to design ultra-small optical nanocavities that may find many applications benefitting from strong light–matter interactions.

Exceptional points, as degenerate points of non-Hermitian parity-time symmetric systems, have many unique physical properties. Due to its flexible control of electromagnetic waves, a metasurface is frequently used in the field of nanophotonics. In this work, we developed a parity-time symmetric metasurface and implemented the 2π topological phase surrounding an exceptional point. Compared with Pancharatnam-Berry phase, the topological phase around an exceptional point can achieve independent regulation of several circular polarization beams. We combined the Pancharatnam-Berry phase with the exceptional topological phase and proposed a composite coding metasurface to achieve reflection decoupling of different circular polarizations. This work provides a design idea for polarimetric coding metasurfaces in the future.

We propose and experimentally realize a class of quasi-one-dimensional topological lattices whose unit cells are constructed by coupled multiple identical resonators, with uniform hopping and inversion symmetry. In the presence of coupling-path-induced effective zero hopping within the unit cells, the systems are characterized by complete multimerization with degenerate -1 energy edge states for open boundary condition. Su–Schrieffer–Heeger subspaces with fully dimerized limits corresponding to pairs of nontrivial flat bands are derived from the Hilbert spaces. In particular, topological bound states in the continuum (BICs) are inherently present in even multimer chains, manifested by embedding the topological bound states into a continuous band assured by bulk-boundary correspondence. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate the degenerate topological edge states and topological BICs in radio-frequency circuits.

Based on the transverse-longitudinal mapping of Bessel beams, we propose a simple method to construct a self-similar Bessel-like beam whose transverse profile maintains a stretched form during propagation. Specifically, the propagating-variant width of this beam can be flexibly predesigned. We experimentally demonstrate three types of self-similar Bessel-like beams whose width variations are linear, piecewise, and period functions of propagation distance, respectively. The experimental results match well with the theoretical predictions. We also demonstrate that our approach enables the generation of self-similar higher-order vortex Bessel-like beams.

Metasurfaces with spin-selective transmission play an increasingly critical role in realizing optical chiral responses, especially for strong intrinsic chirality, which is limited to complex three-dimensional geometry. In this paper, we propose a planar metasurface capable of generating maximal intrinsic chirality and achieving dual-band spin-selective transmission utilizing dual quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BICs) caused by the structural symmetry breaking. Interestingly, the value of circular dichroism (CD) and the transmittance of two kinds of circular polarization states can be arbitrarily controlled by tuning the asymmetry parameter. Remarkable CD approaching unity with the maximum transmittance up to 0.95 is experimentally achieved in the dual band. Furthermore, assisted by chiral BICs, the application in polarization multiplexed near-field image display is also exhibited. Our work provides a new avenue to flexibly control intrinsic chirality in planar structure and offers an alternative strategy to develop chiral sensing, multiband spin-selective transmission, and high-performance circularly polarized wave detection. The basic principle and design method of our experiments in the microwave regime can be extended to other bands, such as the terahertz and infrared wavelengths.

Overcoming the diffraction limit is crucial for obtaining high-resolution images and observing fine microstructures. With this conventional difficulty still puzzling us and the prosperous development of wave dynamics of light interacting with gravitational fields in recent years, how spatial curvature affects the diffraction limit is an attractive and important question. Here we investigate the issue of the diffraction limit and optical resolution on two-dimensional curved space—surfaces of revolution (SORs) with constant or variable spatial curvature. We show that the diffraction limit decreases and the resolution is improved on SORs with positive Gaussian curvature, opening a new avenue to super-resolution. The diffraction limit is also influenced by the propagation direction, as well as the propagation distance in curved space with variable spatial curvature. These results provide a possible method to control the optical resolution in curved space or equivalent waveguides with varying refractive index distribution and may allow one to detect the presence of the nonuniform strong gravitational effect by probing locally the optical resolution.

The interaction between electrons and matter is an effective means of light emission, through mechanisms including Cherenkov radiation and Smith–Purcell radiation (SPR). In this study, we show that the superlight inverse Doppler effects can be realized in reverse Smith–Purcell radiation excited by a free electron beam with a homogeneous substrate. In particular, we find that two types of anomalous SPR exist in the homogenous substrate: special SPR and reverse SPR. Our results reveal that the electron velocity can be tuned to simultaneously excite different combinations of normal SPR, special SPR, and reverse SPR. The proposed manifold light radiation mechanism can offer greater versatility in controlling and shaping SPR.

Fractional vortex beams exhibit a higher degree of modulation dimensions than conventional vortices, thus inheriting superior anti-turbulent transmission properties through the incorporation of additional coherence modulation. However, aliasing the mixed modes induced by coherence degradation makes the quantitative measurement of the topological charge in fractional vortex beams challenging. In this study, a coherence phase spectrum was introduced, and experimental demonstrations to quantitatively determine the fractional topological charge of partially coherent fractional vortex beams were performed. By leveraging the four-dimensional measurement of a partially coherent light field, the source coherence function was inversely reconstructed, and fractional topological charges were determined with high precision by extracting the phase spectrum of the coherence function. Laguerre–Gaussian, elliptical Gaussian, and plane-wave-fraction vortex beams with various degrees of coherence were used to demonstrate measurement precision. The proposed method is applicable to X-rays and electron vortices. It has potential applications in optical encryption, high-capacity optical communication, and quantum entanglement.