We report the realization of a coherent perfect absorber, using a pair of passive resonators coupled to a microwave transmission line in the background, which can completely absorb light in its parity-time (PT-)symmetric phase but not in its broken phase. Instead of balancing material gain and loss, we exploit the incident waves in the open system as an effective gain so that ideal PT symmetry can be established by using only passive materials. Such a route will be effective to construct PT-symmetric metamaterials and also tunable PT-symmetric optical elements in general. It also provides a flexible platform for studying exceptional-point physics with both electric and magnetic responses.

We achieve reflection-type bound states in the continuum (BICs) in the compound grating waveguide structure by tuning the excitation of the guided modes. Assisted by the quasi-BICs with ultrahigh Q factors, the Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift can be greatly enhanced to larger than or equal to four orders of wavelength. In addition, different from the large GH shift based on the Brewster dip or transmission-type resonance, the maximum GH shift assisted by the reflection-type quasi-BIC is located at the reflectance peak with unity reflectance, which can be more easily detected in the experiment. Based on the quasi-BIC-assisted giant GH shift, we propose an ultrasensitive temperature sensor with a minimum resolution in the order of ${10}^{-4}$ °C. Our work provides a route, under the current experimental conditions, to design ultrasensitive sensors, light information storage devices, wavelength division de/multiplexers, optical switches, and polarization beam splitters based on this giant GH shift together with high reflectance.

This Letter reports on the experimental observation of a topologically protected edge state and exceptional point in an open and non-Hermitian (lossy) acoustic system. Although the theoretical underpinning is generic to wave physics, the simulations and experiments are performed for an acoustic system. It has nontrivial topological properties that can be characterized by the Chern number provided that a synthetic dimension is introduced. Unidirectional reflectionless propagation, a hallmark of exceptional points, is unambiguously observed in both simulations and experiments.

New structures with richer electromagnetic properties are in high demand for developing novel microwave and optic devices aimed at realizing fast light-based information transfer and information processing. Here we show theoretically that a topological photonic state exists in a hexagonal LC circuit with short-range textures in the inductance, which is induced by a band inversion between p- and d-like electromagnetic modes carrying orbital angular momentum, and realize this state experimentally in planar microstrip arrays. Measuring both amplitude and phase of the out-of-plane electric field accurately using microwave near-field techniques, we demonstrate directly that topological interfacial electromagnetic waves launched by a linearly polarized dipole source propagate in opposite directions according to the sign of the orbital angular momentum. The open planar structure adopted in the present approach leaves much room for including other elements useful for advanced information processing, such as electric/mechanical resonators, superconducting Josephson junctions and SQUIDs.

Graphene has shown intriguing optical properties as a new class of plasmonic material in the terahertz regime. In particular, plasmonic modes in graphene nanostructures can be confined to a spatial size that is hundreds of times smaller than their corresponding wavelengths in vacuum. Here, we show numerically that by designing graphene nanostructures in such deep-subwavelength scales, one can obtain plasmonic modes with the desired radiative properties such as radiative and dark modes. By placing the radiative and dark modes in the vicinity of each other, we further demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), analogous to the atomic EIT. At the transparent window, there exist very large group delays, one order of magnitude larger than those offered by metal structures. The EIT spectrum can be further tuned electrically by applying a gate voltage. Our results suggest that the demonstrated EIT based on graphene plasmonics may offer new possibilities for applications in photonics.

Based on the selective excitations of the forward and backward propagating resonant guided modes, we achieve $dual$ bound states in the continuum ($dual$ BICs) in a compound grating waveguide structure composed of a four-part periodic grating layer and a waveguide layer. Assisted by the quasi-BIC corresponding to forward propagating resonant guided mode (quasi-BIC 1) and the one corresponding to backward propagating resonant guided mode (quasi-BIC 2), large $positive$ and $negative$ GH shifts can be simultaneously realized. Also, in contrast to the GH shift enhanced by conventional transmission-type resonance, large positive and negative GH shifts assisted by dual quasi-BICs possess 100% reflectance, which can be more easily detected and utilized. Our work provides a route to design GH-shift-based high-performance sensors, wavelength division (de)multiplexers and light storage devices.