Reviews in Physics最新文献

In this paper we will first explain what Light-Fidelity (LiFi) is and argue that it is a 5th Generation (5G) technology. Peak transmission speeds of 8 Gbps from a single light source have been demonstrated, and complete cellular networks based on LiFi have been created. We will discuss numerous misconceptions and illustrate the potential impact this technology can have across a number of existing and emerging industries. We also discuss new applications which LiFi can unlock in the future.

Symmetry fractionalization describes the fascinating phenomena that excitations in a 2D topological system can transform under symmetry in a fractional way. For example in fractional quantum Hall systems, excitations can carry fractional charges while the electrons making up the system have charge one. An important question is to understand what symmetry fractionalization (SF) patterns are possible given different types of topological order and different global symmetries. A lot of progress has been made recently in classifying the SF patterns, providing deep insight into the strongly correlated experimental signatures of systems like spin liquids and topological insulators. We review recent developments on this topic. First, it was shown that the SF patterns need to satisfy some simple consistency conditions. More interestingly, it was realized that some seemingly consistent SF patterns are actually ‘anomalous’, i.e. they cannot be realized in strictly 2D systems. We review various methods that have been developed to detect such anomalies. Applying such an understanding to 2D spin liquid allows one to enumerate all potentially realizable SF patterns and propose numerical and experimental probing methods to distinguish them. On the other hand, the anomalous SF patterns were shown to exist on the surface of 3D systems and reflect the nontrivial order in the 3D bulk. We review examples of this kind where the bulk states are topological insulators, topological superconductors, or have other symmetry protected topological orders.

Computer simulations play an important role in the study of transformation processes of condensed matter, including phase transitions, chemical reactions, and conformational changes of biomolecules. In principle, atomic trajectories, such as those generated using the molecular dynamics approach, contain detailed structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic information about activated processes. In practice, due to free energy barriers, there is often a wide gap between the time scale of the transformation and the time scale accessible with simulations. This review offers a practical guide to the ingenious methods aimed to accelerate the exploration and reconstruction of free energy landscapes of complex systems. The focus is on basic unifying concepts, successful strategies, and pitfalls, illustrated with examples of application to scientific problems from different disciplines. The current challenges in the field consist mainly in the cumbersome identification of optimal reaction coordinates and in the extensive recourse to expert human supervision and fine tuning of the algorithms. The full achievement of wide-spectrum formulations and easy reproducibility of results would constitute the breakthrough necessary to enter the era of routine use of enhanced sampling simulations.

Photon entanglement has a range of applications from secure communication to the tests of quantum mechanics. Utilizing optical nonlinearity for the generation of entangled photons remains the most widely used approach due to its quality and simplicity. The on-chip integration of entangled light sources has enabled the increase of complexity and enhancement of stability compared to bulk optical implementations. Entanglement over different optical paths is uniquely suited for photonic chips, since waveguides are typically optimized for particular wavelength and polarization, making polarization- and frequency-entanglement less practical. In this review we focus on the latest developments in the field of on-chip nonlinear path-entangled photon sources. We provide a review of recent implementations and compare various approaches to tunability, including thermo-optical, electro-optical and all-optical tuning. We also discuss a range of important technical issues, in particular the on-chip separation of the pump and generated entangled photons. Finally, we review different quality control methods, including on-chip quantum tomography and recently discovered classical-quantum analogy that allows to characterize entangled photon sources by performing simple nonlinear measurements in the classical regime.

Plasmonic nanoantennas are a hot and rapidly expanding research field. Here we overview basic operating principles and applications of novel magneto-plasmonic nanoantennas, which are made of ferromagnetic metals and driven not only by light, but also by external magnetic fields. We demonstrate that magneto-plasmonic nanoantennas enhance the magneto-optical effects, which introduces additional degrees of freedom in the control of light at the nano-scale. This property is used in conceptually new devices such as magneto-plasmonic rulers, ultra-sensitive biosensors, one-way subwavelength waveguides and extraordinary optical transmission structures, as well as in novel biomedical imaging modalities. We also point out that in certain cases ‘non-optical’ ferromagnetic nanostructures may operate as magneto-plasmonic nanoantennas. This undesigned extra functionality capitalises on established optical characterisation techniques of magnetic nanomaterials and it may be useful for the integration of nanophotonics and nanomagnetism on a single chip.

Several “anomalies” have been reported from a variety of experiments studying neutrino oscillations over short baselines (less than 1 km) since 1998. Even though not fully compatible with each other, these results could possibly hint at the existence of at least one additional “sterile” neutrino state beyond the Standard Model picture of Particle Physics.

In recent years significant contributions to the search for sterile neutrinos have led to a narrowing of the region of the parameter space where all experimental results can be accommodated. However, the persistence of unexplained tensions together with the groundbreaking impact of the possible discovery of sterile neutrinos call for a conclusive experiment.

Frontier quantum engineering tasks require reliable control over light-matter interaction dynamics, which could be obtained by introducing electromagnetic structuring. Initiated by the Purcell's discovery of spontaneous emission acceleration in a cavity, the concept of electromagnetic modes' design have gained a considerable amount of attention due to development of photonic crystals, micro-resonators, plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials. Those approaches, however, offer qualitatively different strategies for tailoring light-matter interactions and are based on either high quality factor modes shaping, near field control, or both. Remarkably, rigorous quantum mechanical description might address those processes in a different fashion. While traditional cavity quantum electrodynamics tools are commonly based on mode decomposition approach, few challenges rise once dispersive and lossy nanostructures, such as noble metals (plasmonic) antennas or metamaterials, are involved. The primary objective of this review is to introduce key methods and techniques while aiming to obtain comprehensive quantum mechanical description of spontaneous, stimulated and higher order emission and interaction processes, tailored by nanostructured material environment. The main challenge and the complexity here are set by the level of rigorousity, up to which materials should be treated. While relatively big nanostructured features (10 nm and larger) could be addressed by applying fluctuation–dissipation theorem and corresponding Green functions' analysis, smaller objects will require individual approach. Effects of material granularity, spatial dispersion, tunneling over small gaps, material memory and others will be reviewed. Quantum phenomena, inspired and tailored by nanostructured environment, plays a key role in development of quantum information devices and related technologies. Rigorous analysis is required for both examination of experimental observations and prediction of new effects.

In this review we try to capture some of the recent excitement induced by experimental developments, but also by a large volume of theoretical and computational studies addressing multi-component nonlinear Schrödinger models and the localized structures that they support. We focus on some prototypical structures, namely the dark-bright and dark-dark solitons. Although our focus will be on one-dimensional, two-component Hamiltonian models, we also discuss variants, including three (or more)-component models, higher-dimensional states, as well as dissipative settings. We also offer an outlook on interesting possibilities for future work on this theme.