We report the experimental observation of nonlinear light localization and edge soliton formation at the edges of fs-laser written trimer waveguide arrays, where transition from nontopological to topological phases is controlled by the spacing between neighboring trimers. We found that, in the former regime, edge solitons occur only above a considerable power threshold, whereas in the latter one they bifurcate from linear states. Edge solitons are observed in a broad power range where their propagation constant falls into one of the topological gaps of the system, while partial delocalization is observed when considerable nonlinearity drives the propagation constant into an allowed band, causing coupling with bulk modes. Our results provide direct experimental evidence of the coexistence and selective excitation in the same or in different topological gaps of two types of topological edge solitons with different internal structures, which can rarely be observed even in nontopological systems. This also constitutes the first experimental evidence of formation of topological solitons in a nonlinear system with more than one topological gap.

We observe linear and nonlinear light localization at the edges and in the corners of truncated moiré arrays created by the superposition of periodic mutually twisted at Pythagorean angles square sublattices. Experimentally exciting corner linear modes in the femtosecond-laser written moiré arrays we find drastic differences in their localization properties in comparison with the bulk excitations. We also address the impact of nonlinearity on the corner and bulk modes and experimentally observe the crossover from linear quasilocalized states to the surface solitons emerging at the higher input powers. Our results constitute the first experimental demonstration of localization phenomena induced by truncation of periodic moiré structures in photonic systems.

This review is devoted to the study of effects of quantum optics in nanostructures. The mechanisms by which the rates of radiative and nonradiative decay are modified are considered in the model of a two-level quantum emitter (QE) near a plasmonic nanoparticle (NP). The distributions of the intensity and polarization of the near field around an NP are analyzed, which substantially depend on the polarization of the external field and parameters of plasmon resonances of the NP. The effects of quantum optics in the system NP + QE plus external laser field are analyzed—modification of the resonance fluorescence spectrum of a QE in the near field, bunching/antibunching phenomena, quantum statistics of photons in the spectrum, formation of squeezed states of light, and quantum entangled states in these systems.

A quantum-information analysis of how the size and dimensionality of the quantum alphabet affect the critical error rate of the quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocols is given on an example of two QKD protocols—the six-state and ∞-state (i.e., a protocol with continuous alphabet) ones. In the case of a two-dimensional Hilbert space, it is shown that, under certain assumptions, increasing the number of letters in the quantum alphabet up to infinity slightly increases the critical error rate. Increasing additionally the dimensionality of the Hilbert space leads to a further increase in the critical error rate.

The dual-mode emission and multicolor outputs in the time domain from core-shell microcrystals are presented. The core-shell microcrystals, with NaYF₄:Yb/Er as the core and NaYF₄:Ce/Tb/Eu as the shell, were successfully fabricated by employing the hydrothermal method, which confines the activator ions into a separate region and minimizes the effect of surface quenching. The material is capable of both upconversion and downshifting emission, and their multicolor outputs in response to 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) excitation laser and 252 nm, and 395 nm ultraviolet (UV) excitation light have been investigated. Furthermore, the tunable color emissions by controlling the Tb³⁺- Eu³⁺ ratio in shells and the energy transfer of Ce³⁺→Tb³⁺→ Eu³⁺ were discussed in details. In addition, color tuning of core-shell-structured microrods from green to red region in the time domain could be obtained by setting suitable delay time. Due to downshifting multicolor outputs (time-resolved and pump-wavelength-induced downshifting) coupled with the upconversion mode, the core-shell microrods can be potentially applied to displays and high-level security.