We propose a vectorial optical field generation system based on two-dimensional blazed grating to high-efficiently generate structured optical fields with prescribed amplitude, phase, and polarization. In this system, an optimized blazed grating hologram is written on a spatial light modulator (SLM) and can diffract the majority of the incident light into the first-order diffractions of the x and y directions, which then serve as base vectors for synthesizing desired vector beams. Compared with the conventional cosine grating used in the previous work, the proposed two-dimensional, blazed grating has a much higher efficiency. Both computer simulation and optical experiment validate that a conversion efficiency up to 5 times that of the former work is achieved. Our method can facilitate applications of the optical field manipulation.

We ab initio investigate the interaction between the hydrogen atom and the inhomogeneous field which is induced by resonant plasmons within a metal nanostructure. Same as normal laser pulse (homogeneous field), only odd-harmonic generation occurs when the bow-tie nanostructure is utilized. For the single nanotip case, the even-harmonic generation can be distinctly found in the harmonic emission spectrum. By investigating the symmetry and trajectories of different inhomogeneous fields, we demonstrate that the breaking symmetry of system can enable even high harmonic generations.

The time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) is usually treated in the real space in the textbook. However, it makes the numerical simulations of strong-field processes difficult due to the wide dispersion and fast oscillation of the electron wave packets under the interaction of intense laser fields. Here we demonstrate that the TDSE can be efficiently solved in the momentum space. The high-order harmonic generation and above-threshold ionization spectra obtained by numerical solutions of TDSE in momentum space agree well with previous studies in real space, but significantly reducing the computation cost.

As the combination of surface plasmon polariton and femtosecond laser pulse, femtosecond surface plasmon polariton has both nanoscale spatial resolution and femtosecond temporal resolution, and thus provides promising methods for light field manipulation and light-matter interaction in extreme small spatiotemporal scales. Nowadays, the research on femtosecond surface plasmon polariton is mainly concentrated on two aspects: one is investigation and characterization of excitation, propagation, and dispersion properties of femtosecond surface plasmon polariton in different structures or materials; the other one is developing new applications based on its unique properties in the fields of nonlinear enhancement, pulse shaping, spatiotemporal super-resolved imaging, and others. Here, we introduce the research progress of properties and applications of femtosecond surface plasmon polariton, and prospect its future research trends. With the further development of femtosecond surface plasmon polariton research, it will have a profound impact on nano-optoelectronics, molecular dynamics, biomedicine and other fields.

Recently, physical fields with topological configurations are evoking increasing attention due to their fascinating structures both in fundamental researches and practical applications. Therein, topological light fields, because of their unique opportunity of combining experimental and analytical studies, are attracting more interest. Here, based on the Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase, we report the creation of Hopf linked and Trefoil knotted optical vortices by using phase-only encoded liquid crystal (LC) holographic plates. Utilizing scanning measurement and the digital holographic interference method, we accurately locate the vortex singularities and map these topological nodal lines in three-dimensions. Compared with the common methods realized by the spatial light modulator (SLM), the phase-only LC plate is more efficient. Meanwhile, the smaller pixel size of the LC element reduces the imperfection induced by optical misalignment and pixellation. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the incident beam size on the topological configuration.

We derive theoretically and verify experimentally a concise general expression for the normalized intensity correlations (IC) of partially coherent light in a weak atmospheric turbulence in the fast detector measurement regime. The derived relation reveals that the medium turbulence acts, in general, as an additional noise source enhancing the IC of partially coherent beams. The maximum of the beam IC is, in general, enhanced, causing the fields to exhibit super-Gaussian statistics. On the other hand, the relation indicates that turbulence-induced noise is negligible for sufficiently low coherence light, which reveals the condition for the turbulence-free correlation imaging.

Based on angular amplitude modulation of orthogonal base vectors in common-path interference method, we propose an interesting type of hybrid vector beams with unprecedented azimuthal polarization gradient and demonstrate in experiment. Geometrically, the configured azimuthal polarization gradient is indicated by intriguing mapping tracks of angular polarization states on Poincaré sphere, more than just conventional circles for previously reported vector beams. Moreover, via tailoring relevant parameters, more special polarization mapping tracks can be handily achieved. More noteworthily, the designed azimuthal polarization gradients are found to be able to induce azimuthally non-uniform orbital angular momentum density, while generally uniform for circle-track cases, immersing in homogenous intensity background whatever base states are. These peculiar features may open alternative routes for new optical effects and applications.

We demonstrate visible-light all-fiber vortex lasers by incorporating the home-made mode selective couplers (MSCs). The MSC at green or red wavebands is fabricated by specially designing and fusing a single-mode fiber (SMF) and a few-mode fiber (FMF). The MSCs inserted into visible fiber cavities act as power splitters and mode converters from the LP₀₁ to LP₁₁ mode at green and red wavelengths, respectively. The red-light all-fiber vortex laser is formed by a 10-cm Pr³⁺/Yb³⁺:ZBLAN fiber, a fiber Bragg grating, a fiber end-facet mirror and the MSC at 635 nm, which generates vortex beams with OAM_±1 at 634.4 nm and an output power of 13 mW. The green-light all-fiber vortex laser consists of a 12-cm Ho³⁺:ZBLAN fiber, two fiber pigtail mirrors, and the MSC at 550 nm, which generates vortex beams with OAM_±1 at 548.9 nm and an output power of 3 mW.

A distant-neighbor quantum-mechanical method is used to study the nonlinear optical wave mixing in graphene nanoflakes (GNFs), including sum-and difference-frequency generation, as well as four-wave mixing. Our analysis shows that molecular-scale GNFs support quantum plasmons in the visible spectrum region, and significant enhancement of nonlinear optical wave mixing is achieved. Specifically, the second-and third-order wave-mixing polarizabilities of GNFs are dramatically enhanced, provided that one (or more) of the input or output frequencies coincide with a quantum plasmon resonance. Moreover, by embedding a cavity into hexagonal GNFs, we show that one can break the structural inversion symmetry and enable otherwise forbidden second-order wave mixing, which is found to be enhanced by the quantum plasmon resonance too. This study reveals that the molecular-sized graphene could be used in the quantum regime for nanoscale nonlinear optical devices and ultrasensitive molecular sensors.

Bound states can be supported on the surface of a periodically corrugated perfect conductor known as spoof surface plasmon polaritons with their dispersion curves reside below the light line. Here we show that bound states in the continuum (BICs) can also be achieved in such systems. Two types of grating structures are proposed to suppress the radiation leakage and hence generate bound states. The first one is a simple grating with broad grooves in which multiple cavity modes are accommodated. Due to the symmetry incompatibility and the destructive interaction mainly from the TM₀ and TM₁ modes, BICs at the Γ point and at off-Γ points are both realized. The second one is a dimerized grating with two grooves in each unit cell. The destructive interaction between the modes in the two grooves can suppresses the radiation and BICs at the Γ point are observed. The Q factors of the whole bands can be further tuned by the dimerization strength effectively. This work may offer new opportunity for the applications of metallic grating in the low frequency bands.

Owing to the unique feature that the signal and reference waves of self-interference digital holography (SIDH) contain the same spatial information from the same point of object, compared with conventional digital holography, the SIDH has the special spatial coherence properties. We present a statistical optics approach to analyzing the formation of cross-correlation image in SIDH. Our study reveals that the spatial coherence of illumination light can greatly influence the imaging characteristics of SIDH, and the impact extent of the spatial coherence depends substantially on the recording distance of hologram. The theoretical conclusions are supported well by numerical simulation and optical experiments.

Due to the large exciton binding energy, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) provide an ideal platform for studying excitonic states and related photonics and optoelectronics. Polarization states lead to distinct light-matter interactions which are of great importance for device applications. In this work, we study polarized photoluminescence spectra from intralayer exciton and indirect exciton in WS₂ and WSe₂ atomic layers, and interlayer exciton in WS₂/WSe₂ heterostructures by radially and azimuthally polarized cylindrical vector laser beams. We demonstrated the same in-plane and out-of-plane polarization behavior from the intralayer and indirect exciton. Moreover, with these two laser modes, we obtained interlayer exciton in WS₂/WSe₂ heterostructures with stronger out-of-plane polarization, due to the formation of vertical electric dipole moment.

Layered ReS₂ with direct bandgap and strong in-plane anisotropy shows great potential to develop high-performance angle-resolved photodetectors and optoelectronic devices. However, systematic characterizations of the angle-dependent photoresponse of ReS₂ are still very limited. Here, we studied the anisotropic photoresponse of layered ReS₂ phototransistors in depth. Angel-resolved Raman spectrum and field-effect mobility are tested to confirm the inconsistency between its electrical and optical anisotropies, which are along 120° and 90°, respectively. We further measured the angle-resolved photoresponse of a ReS₂ transistor with 6 diagonally paired electrodes. The maximum photoresponsivity exceeds 0.515 A·W^-1 along b-axis, which is around 3.8 times larger than that along the direction perpendicular to b axis, which is consistent with the optical anisotropic directions. The incident wavelength- and power-dependent photoresponse measurement along two anisotropic axes further demonstrates that b axis has stronger light-ReS₂ interaction, which explains the anisotropic photoresponse. We also observed angle-dependent photoresistive switching behavior of the ReS₂ transistor, which leads to the formation of angle-resolved phototransistor memory. It has simplified structure to create dynamic optoelectronic resistive random access memory controlled spatially through polarized light. This capability has great potential for real-time pattern recognition and photoconfiguration of artificial neural networks (ANN) in a wide spectral range of sensitivity provided by polarized light.

Chirality is ubiquitous in natural world. Although with similar physical and chemical properties, chiral enantiomers could play different roles in biochemical processes. Discrimination of chiral enantiomers is extremely important in biochemical, analytical chemistry, and pharmaceutical industries. Conventional chiroptical spectroscopic methods are disadvantageous at a limited detection sensitivity because of the weak signals of natural chiral molecules. Recently, superchiral fields were proposed to effectively enhance the interaction between light and molecules, allowing for ultrasensitive chiral detection. Intensive theoretical and experimental works have been devoted to generation of superchiral fields based on artificial nanostructures and their application in ultrasensitive chiral sensing. In this review, we present a survey on these works. We begin with the introduction of chiral properties of electromagnetic fields. Then, the optical chirality enhancement and ultrasensitive chiral detection based on chiral and achiral nanostructures are discussed respectively. Finally, we give a short summary and a perspective for the future ultrasensitive chiral sensing.

Photonic-plasmonic hybrid microcavities, which possess a higher figure of merit Q/V (the ratio of quality factor to mode volume) than that of pure photonic microcavities or pure plasmonic nano-antennas, play key roles in enhancing light-matter interaction. In this review, we summarize the typical photonic-plasmonic hybrid microcavities, such as photonic crystal microcavities combined with plasmonic nano-antenna, whispering gallery mode microcavities combined with plasmonic nano-antenna, and Fabry-Perot microcavities with plasmonic nano-antenna. The physics and applications of each hybrid photonic-plasmonic system are illustrated. The recent developments of topological photonic crystal microcavities and topological hybrid nano-cavities are also introduced, which demonstrates that topological microcavities can provide a robust platform for the realization of nanophotonic devices. This review can bring comprehensive physical insights of the hybrid system, and reveal that the hybrid system is a good platform for realizing strong light-matter interaction.

We experimentally investigated the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from aligned O₂ and N₂ molecules in a linearly polarized laser field, and presented the dependence of the harmonic spectrum on the driving laser intensity and molecular alignment angle. The minimum position of HHG of O₂ varies with changing the laser intensity, which is caused by multi-orbital interference. However, the location of the observed minimum structure in N₂ harmonic spectrum remained unchanged upon changing the laser intensity. The mechanism of the spectral minimum for N₂ case is regarded as a Cooper-like minimum in HHG associated with the molecular electronic structure. This work indicates that harmonic spectroscopy can effectively uncover information about molecular structure and electron dynamics.

A theory of multiphoton photoemission is derived to explain the experimentally observed monotonic decrease with the wavelength in the electron yield of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) by as large as four orders of magnitude. It is found that the fitting parameter corresponds to the energy position of Ti3d e_g and t_2g states, and the derived theory is a novel diagnostic of excited states in the conduction band, very importantly, applicable to individual NPs. The difference between four-photon slope NPs and three-photon slope NPs is attributed to the difference in defect density. The success of the theory in solving the puzzling result shows that thermal emission from high-lying levels may dominate over direct multiphoton ionization in solids when the photon number larger than four is required.

A surrounding electromagnetic environment can engineer spontaneous emissions from quantum emitters through the Purcell effect. For instance, a plasmonic antenna can efficiently confine an electromagnetic field and enhance the fluorescent process. In this study, we demonstrate that a photonic microcavity can modulate plasmon-enhanced fluorescence by engineering the local electromagnetic environment. Consequently, we constructed a plasmon-enhanced emitter (PE-emitter), which comprised a nanorod and a nanodiamond, using the nanomanipulation technique. Furthermore, we controlled a polystyrene sphere approaching the PE-emitter and investigated in situ the associated fluorescent spectrum and lifetime. The emission of PE-emitter can be enhanced resonantly at the photonic modes as compared to that within the free spectral range. The spectral shape modulated by photonic modes is independent of the separation between the PS sphere and PE-emitter. The band integral of the fluorescence decay rate can be enhanced or suppressed after the PS sphere couples to the PE-emitters, depending on the coupling strength between the plasmonic antenna and the photonic cavity. These findings can be utilized in sensing and imaging applications.

The semiclassical method based on Feynman's path-integral is in favor of uncovering the quantum tunneling effect, the classical trajectory description of the electron, and the quantum phase information, which can present an intuitive and transparent physical image of electron's propagation in comparison with the ab initio time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In this review, we introduce the basic theoretical concepts and development of several semiclassical methods as well as some of their applications in strong-field physics. Special emphasis is placed on extracting time delay on attosecond scale by the combination of the semiclassical method with phase of phase method. Hundreds of millions of trajectories are generally adopted to obtain a relatively high-resolution photoelectron spectrum, which would take a large amount of time. Here we also introduce several optimization approaches of the semiclassical method to overcome the time-consuming problem of violence calculation.

To measure and control the electron motion in atoms and molecules by the strong laser field on the attosecond time scale is one of the research frontiers of atomic and molecular photophysics. It involves many new phenomena and processes and raises a series of questions of concepts, theories, and methods. Recent studies show that the Coulomb potential can cause the ionization time lag (about 100 attoseconds) between instants of the field maximum and the ionization-rate maximum. This lag can be understood as the response time of the electronic wave function to the strong-field-induced ionization event. It has a profound influence on the subsequent ultrafast dynamics of the ionized electron and can significantly change the time—frequency properties of electron trajectory (an important theoretical tool for attosecond measurement). Here, the research progress of response time and its implications on attosecond measurement are briefly introduced.