UCSD Ndao Lab

Synergistic integration of metasurfaces and quantum photonics (Applied Physics Reviews)

The convergence of metamaterials and quantum optics heralds a transformative era in photonic technologies, poised to revolutionize applications ranging from information processing and imaging to sensing and beyond. This review explores the synergistic integration of metasurfaces—engineered sub-wavelength planar structures—and quantum optics, which exploits quantum mechanical principles to manipulate light at the most granular level. We outline the design principles...

Observation of robust subwavelength phase singularity in chiral medium (Advanced Photonics)

Photonic devices that exhibit both sensitivity and robustness have long been sought; yet, these characteristics are thought to be mutually exclusive. Sensitivity enables a sensor to respond to external stimuli, whereas robustness embodies the inherent ability of a device to withstand weathering by these same stimuli. This challenge arises from the inherent contradiction between robustness and sensitivity in wave dynamics...

Anti-parallel dipole image coupling induced bi-directional plasmon resonance shifts (Journal of Optics)

This work demonstrates a metal–dielectric–metal nanodisk array that enables both red and blue plasmonic resonance shifts—an elusive goal in tunable nanophotonics. The system exhibits record bidirectional tuning across the near-infrared, including an unprecedented blueshift of 457.82 nm resulting from only a 5–10 nm variation in nanodisk thickness...

Broadband and wide-angle beam deflection enabled by reconfigurable meta-arrays (Optics Letters)

We present a structurally simple yet functionally versatile reflective meta-array composed of phase-change antimony trisulfide (Sb₂S₃) nanorods enabling broadband and wide-angle beam deflection in the near-infrared. The device achieves over 80% deflection efficiency across a 1000 nm passband from the O-band (1260–1360 nm) to the U-band (1565–1625 nm) in the amorphous state. In its crystalline state, efficiency reduces to around 40% with an 800 nm passband over the C-band...

Integrating deep convolutional surrogate solvers and particle swarm optimization for efficient inverse design of plasmonic patch nanoantennas(Nanophotonics)

Plasmonic nanoantennas with suitable far-field characteristics are of huge interest for utilization in optical wireless links, inter-/intrachip communications, LiDARs, and photonic integrated circuits due to their exceptional modal confinement. Despite its success in shaping robust antenna design theories in radio frequency and millimeter-wave regimes, conventional transmission line theory finds...

An end-to-end hybrid deep-learning approach for single-shot wavefront sensing and correction(Nature Communications)

This work demonstrates a single-shot wavefront sensing and correction paradigm that overcomes the limitations of existing approaches. Central to the approach is the integration of a learned optical phase mask that acts as a physical encoder and is jointly optimized with a neural-network decoder. This encoding removes intrinsic phase ambiguities and significantly enhances sensitivity to weak aberrations....

Reversible optical data storage and encryption enabled by phase-change and hydrogel integration(Light: Science & Applications)

This work introduces a hybrid platform that synergistically integrates directly laser-written antimony trisulfide (Sb₂S₃) with a humidity-responsive azido-grafted carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-N₃) hydrogel, enabling the fabrication of a full-color image multiplexing. The Sb₂S₃ medium layer enables non-volatile, rewritable optical data via laser-induced amorphous–crystalline transitions, while the hydrogel introduces ....

Role of photonic angular momentum in all-optical magnetic switching(Physical Review B)

By examining the complex interactions between light and magnetism, this work uncovers the dominant role played by light’s spin angular momentum in magnetic all-optical switching (AOS) using Co/Pt ferromagnetic thin films.

Multi-channel broadband nonvolatile programmable modal switch(Optics Express)

Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) in chip-scale photonics is paramount to sustain data capacity growth and reduce power consumption. However, its scalability hinges on developing efficient and dynamic modal switches. Here, we present, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a novel multiport, broadband, non-volatile..

GPU-Accelerated and Memory-Independent Layout Generation for Arbitrarily Large-Scale Metadevices(Advanced Theory and Simulations)

Metadevices are of paramount interest and importance due to their exotic capabilities in light control and manipulation in the nano-scale regime. Various practical applications, including wearable devices, lasers, optical sensors, high-resolution microscopy, both virtual and augmented reality, and metasails, require large-scale metasurfaces...

Meta-Magnetic All-Optical Helicity Dependent Switching of Ferromagnetic Thin Films (Advanced Optical Materials)

To address the ever-increasing need for higher speed and density of information storage, recent developments in ultrafast optical switching have focused on deterministic control of magnetic properties of materials using femtosecond circularly polarized optical pulses. However, a monolithic high-speed optical helicity-dependent switching at room temperature has remained elusive...

Nonreciprocal lasing in topological cavities of arbitrary geometries (Science)

Resonant cavities are essential building blocks governing many wave-based phenomena, but their geometry and reciprocity fundamentally limit the integration of optical devices. We report, at telecommunication wavelengths, geometry-independent and integrated nonreciprocal topological cavities that couple stimulated emission from one-way photonic edge states to a selected waveguide output with an isolation ratio in excess of 10 decibels...

Symmetry-breaking-induced plasmonic exceptional points and nanoscale sensing (Nature Physics)

Singularities of open systems, known as exceptional points (EPs), have been shown to exhibit increased sensitivities, but the observation of EPs has so far been limited to wavelength-scaled systems subject to the diffraction limit. Plasmons, the collective oscillations of free electrons coupled to photons, shrink the wavelength of light to electronic and molecular length scales. We propose a novel approach...

Octave bandwidth photonic fishnet-achromatic-metalens (Nature Communications)

Planar structured interfaces, also known as metasurfaces, are continuously attracting interest owing to their ability to manipulate fundamental attributes of light, including angular momentum, phase, or polarization. However, chromatic aberration, limiting broadband operation, has remained a challenge for metasurfaces-based optical components and imagers...

Differentiating and quantifying exosome secretion from a single cell using quasi-bound states in the continuum (Nanophotonics)

One of the key challenges in biology is to understand how individual cells process information and respond to perturbations. However, most of the existing single-cell analysis methods can only provide a glimpse of cell properties at specific time points and are unable to provide cell secretion and protein analysis at single-cell resolution...

Recent Publications