Exceptional points and non-Hermitian photonics at the nanoscale

Aodong Li; Heng Wei; Michele Cotrufo; Weijin Chen; Sander Mann; Xiang Ni; Bingcong Xu; Jianfeng Chen; Jian Wang; Shanhui Fan; Cheng-Wei Qiu; Andrea Alù; Lin Chen

doi:10.1038/s41565-023-01408-0

Exceptional points and non-Hermitian photonics at the nanoscale

Nat Nanotechnol. 2023 Jul;18(7):706-720. doi: 10.1038/s41565-023-01408-0. Epub 2023 Jun 29.

Authors

Aodong Li^#¹, Heng Wei^#², Michele Cotrufo^#³, Weijin Chen², Sander Mann³, Xiang Ni³, Bingcong Xu¹, Jianfeng Chen², Jian Wang¹, Shanhui Fan^{4

5}, Cheng-Wei Qiu⁶, Andrea Alù^{7

8}, Lin Chen^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
³ Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Electrical Engineering, Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. chengwei.qiu@nus.edu.sg.
⁷ Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA. aalu@gc.cuny.edu.
⁸ Physics Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA. aalu@gc.cuny.edu.
⁹ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. chen.lin@mail.hust.edu.cn.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China. chen.lin@mail.hust.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37386141
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01408-0

Abstract

Exceptional points (EPs) arising in non-Hermitian systems have led to a variety of intriguing wave phenomena, and have been attracting increased interest in various physical platforms. In this Review, we highlight the latest fundamental advances in the context of EPs in various nanoscale systems, and overview the theoretical progress related to EPs, including higher-order EPs, bulk Fermi arcs and Weyl exceptional rings. We peek into EP-associated emerging technologies, in particular focusing on the influence of noise for sensing near EPs, improving the efficiency in asymmetric transmission based on EPs, optical isolators in nonlinear EP systems and novel concepts to implement EPs in topological photonics. We also discuss the constraints and limitations of the applications relying on EPs, and offer parting thoughts about promising ways to tackle them for advanced nanophotonic applications.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

Grant Nos. 12074137/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)