Full polarization control of photons with evanescent wave coupling in the ultra subwavelength gap of photonic molecules

Rui Zhu; Chenjiang Qian; Shan Xiao; Jingnan Yang; Sai Yan; Hanqing Liu; Deyan Dai; Hancong Li; Longlong Yang; Xiqing Chen; Yu Yuan; Danjie Dai; Zhanchun Zuo; Haiqiao Ni; Zhichuan Niu; Can Wang; Kuijuan Jin; Qihuang Gong; Xiulai Xu

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01794-1

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Full polarization control of photons with evanescent wave coupling in the ultra subwavelength gap of photonic molecules

Original Articles

- Full polarization control of photons with evanescent wave coupling in the ultra subwavelength gap of photonic molecules
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 4, Pages: 1116-1124(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  2.School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  3.State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
  4.State Key Laboratory of Superlattices and Microstructures, Institute of Semiconductors Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  5.Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong, Jiangsu, China
  6.Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
- Author bio：
  
  Zhanchun Zuo (zczuo@iphy.ac.cn)
  Can Wang (canwang@iphy.ac.cn)
  Xiulai Xu (xlxu@pku.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01794-1
  CLC：
- Received：05 October 2024，
  
  Revised：07 January 2025，
  
  Accepted：2025-02-18，
  
  Published Online：05 March 2025，
  
  Published：30 April 2025
- Accepted：
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Zhu, R. et al. Full polarization control of photons with evanescent wave coupling in the ultra subwavelength gap of photonic molecules. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1116-1124 (2025).
DOI：

Zhu, R. et al. Full polarization control of photons with evanescent wave coupling in the ultra subwavelength gap of photonic molecules. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1116-1124 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01794-1.

摘要

Abstract

Polarization of photons plays a key role in quantum optics and light-matter interactions

however

it is difficult to control in nanosystems since the eigenstate of a nanophotonic cavity is usually fixed and linearly polarized. Here

we reveal the polarization control of photons using photonic molecules (PMs) that host supermodes of two coupled nanobeam cavities. In contrast to conventional PMs in a 2D photonic crystal slab

for the two 1D photonic crystal nanobeam cavities the shift and gap between them can be tuned continuously. With an ultra subwavelength gap

the coupling between the two cavities is dominated by the evanescent wave coupling in the surrounding environment

rather not the emission wave coupling for conventional PMs. As such

the non-Hermiticity of the system becomes pronounced

and the supermodes consist of a non-trivial phase difference between bare eigenstates that supports elliptical polarization. We observe that both the polarization degree and polarization angle of the antisymmetric mode strongly depend on the shift and gap between the two cavities

exhibiting polarization states from linear to circular. This full polarization control indicates the great potential of PMs in quantum optical devices and spin-resolved cavity quantum electrodynamics.

关键词

Keywords

references

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