Several chalcogenide alloys exhibit a pronounced contrast between the optical absorption in the metastable rocksalt and in the amorphous phase. This phenomenon is the basis for their application in optical data storage. Here we present ab initio calculations of the optical properties of GeTe and Ge1Sb2Te4 in the two phases. The analysis of our computations and experimental data reveal the corre...

We investigate the interaction of visible light with the solid matters of semiconducting oxide nanorods (NRs) of zinc oxide (ZnO), indium tin oxide (ITO), and zinc tin oxide (ZTO) at the single nanomaterial level. We subsequently identify an intriguing, material-dependent phenomenon of optical rotation in the electric field oscillation direction of the scattered light by systematically controll...

Optical switches are among the essential building blocks in optical networks due to their unique role in routing data. In this Letter, for the first time to our knowledge, we have exploited a high-quality factor (Q) optical microresonator combined with the well-known irreversible dielectric breakdown phenomenon to introduce a simple field-programmable on/off optical switch. This simple unit can...

The subject of this PhD thesis is the study of the impact of the nonlinearity in the performance of an optical telecom system. In particular the FWM phenomenon which is detrimental in WDM systems is analyzed theoretically and numerically, while various methods are proposed for its compensation. Finally the stability of nonlinear soliton pulses in CROWs is proposed in order to realize compact op...

We report that the classical phenomenon of optical activity, which is traditionally associated with chirality (helicity) of organic molecules, proteins, and inorganic structures, can be observed in artificial planar media which exhibit neither 3D nor 2D chirality. We observe the effect in the microwave and optical parts of the spectrum at oblique incidence to regular arrays of nonchiral subwave...

In this Letter we show that the extraordinary optical transmission phenomenon found before in 2D hole arrays is already present in a linear chain of subwavelength holes, which can be considered as the basic geometrical unit showing this property. In order to study this problem, we have developed a new theoretical framework, able to analyze the optical properties of finite collections of subwave...

It is shown that the extended Hubbard Hamiltonian describing atoms confined in an optical lattice always contains commonly neglected terms which can significantly change the dynamical properties of the system. Particularly for bosonic systems, they can be exploited for creating orbital states on demand via the parametric resonance phenomenon. This indicates an additional application for optical...

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate coherence phenomena in optical parametric amplification inside a cavity. The mode splitting in the transmission spectra of a phase-sensitive optical parametric amplifier is observed. Especially, we show that a very narrow dip and peak, which are the shape of a delta function, appear in the transmission profile. The origin of the coherence phenomen...

An elegant method is proposed and demonstrated for tracking the location and movement of nanoparticles in an optical microscope using the optical phenomenon of caustics. A simple and reversible adjustment to the microscope generates caustics several orders of magnitude larger than the particles. The method offers a simple and relatively inexpensive method for visualizing such phenomena as the f...

We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wave-front helicity controlled by the input polarization. This phenomenon requires the interaction of light with matter that is both optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic. ...