Phys.org March 27, 2020
Rather than being an unavoidable nuisance, non-Hermiticity can be precisely controlled and used for sophisticated applications. Researchers in Germany implemented a non-Hermitian photonic mesh lattice by tailoring the anisotropy of the inter-site coupling. The appearance of an interface results in a complete collapse of the entire eigenmode spectrum, leading to an exponential localization of all modes at the interface. Consequently, any light field within the lattice travels toward this interface, irrespective of its shape and input position. Based on this topological phenomenon, they demonstrated a highly efficient funnel for light. The light accumulation achieved by the light funnel could be the basis for improving the sensitivity of optical detectors and thus enabling unprecedented optical applications…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The figure shows how light is caught through the light funnel. Credit: University Rostock / Alexander Szameit