We present a semi-analytical formalism capable of handling the coupling of electromagnetic sources, such as point dipoles or free-propagating fields, with various kinds of dissipative resonances with radiation leakage, Ohmic losses or both. Due to its analyticity, the approach is very intuitive and physically-sound. It is also very economic in computational resources, since once the resonances of a plasmonic or photonic resonator are known, their excitation coefficients are obtained analytically, independently of the polarization, frequency or location of the excitation source. To evidence that the present formalism is very general and versatile, we implement it with the commercial software COMSOL, rather than with our in-house numerical tools.

We consider here a model previously introduced to describe the collective behavior of an ensemble of cold atoms interacting with a coherent electromagnetic field. The atomic motion along the self-generated spatially periodic force field can be interpreted as the rotation of a phase oscillator. This suggests a relationship with synchronization transitions occurring in globally coupled rotators. In fact, we show that whenever the field dynamics can be adiabatically eliminated, the model reduces to a self-consistent equation for the probability distribution of the atomic “phases.” In this limit, there exists a formal equivalence with the Kuramoto model, though with important differences in the self-consistency conditions. Depending on the field-cavity detuning, we show that the onset of synchronized behavior may occur through either a first- or second-order phase transition. Furthermore, we find a secondary threshold, above which a periodic self-pulsing regime sets in, that is immediately followed by the unlocking of the forward-field frequency. At yet higher, but still experimentally meaningful, input intensities, irregular, chaotic oscillations may eventually appear. Finally, we derive a simpler model, involving only five scalar variables, which is able to reproduce the entire phenomenology exhibited by the original model.

Hybrid systems made of quantum emitters and plasmonic nanoresonators offer a unique platform to implement artificial atoms with completely novel optical responses that are not available otherwise. However, their theoretical analysis is difficult, and since many degrees of freedom have to be explored, engineering their optical properties remains challenging. Here, we propose a new formalism that removes most limitations encountered in previous analytical treatments and allows a flexible and efficient study of complex nanoresonators with arbitrary shapes in an almost fully analytically way. The formalism brings accurate closed-form expressions for the hybrid-system optical response and provides an intuitive description based on the coupling between the quantum emitters and the resonance modes of the nanoresonator. The ability to quickly predict light-scattering properties of hybrid systems paves the way to a deep exploration of their fascinating properties and may enable rapid optimization of quantum plasmonic metamaterials or quantum information devices.

We show that polarization singularities, generic for any complex vector field but so far mostly studied for electromagnetic fields, appear naturally in inhomogeneous yet monochromatic sound and water-surface (e.g., gravity or capillary) wave fields in fluids or gases. The vector properties of these waves are described by the velocity or displacement fields characterizing the local oscillatory motion of the medium particles. We consider a number of examples revealing C-points of purely circular polarization and polarization Möbius strips (formed by major axes of polarization ellipses) around the C-points in sound and gravity wave fields. Our results (i) offer a new readily accessible platform for studies of polarization singularities and topological features of complex vector wave fields and (ii) can play an important role in characterizing vector (e.g., dipole) wave–matter interactions in acoustics and fluid mechanics.

We have designed an ytterbium rod-type fiber laser oscillator with tunable pulse duration. This system that delivers more than 10 W of average power is self mode-locked. It yields femtosecond to picosecond laser pulses at a repetition rate of 74 MHz. The pulse duration is adjusted by changing the spectral width of a band pass filter that is inserted in the laser cavity. Using volume Bragg gratings of 0.9 nm and 0.07 nm spectrum bandwidth, this oscillator delivers nearly Fourier limited 2.8 ps and 18.5 ps pulses, respectively. With a 4 nm interference filter, one obtains picosecond pulses that have been externally dechirped down to 130 fs.

We report the fabrication, characterization and modeling of a solid-core photonic bandgap fiber with interstitial air holes between the cladding rods. The presence of these interstitial air holes leads to a great improvement of optical properties for this kind of fiber. Particularly, we demonstrate that confinement losses and bend sensitivity are substantially reduced. Our experimental results for this new solution are well supported by numerical results.