Alberto Amo

Abstract:

Understanding and manipulating the localization mechanisms in electronic and optical materials is one of the main targets of modern physics. An efficient strategy to design localised modes in optics is to use the interplay of constructive and destructive interference in periodic photonic lattices. This mechanism is at the origin of the defect modes in photonic bandgaps, bound states in the continuum, topological edge states and compact localized states in flat bands. Here, we show that in lattices of lossy resonators, the addition of external optical drives with a controlled phase enlarges the possibilities of manipulating interference effects and allows for the design of novel types of localized modes. Using a honeycomb lattice of coupled photonic resonators resonantly driven with several laser spots at energies within its photonic bands, we demonstrate the localization of light in at-will geometries down to a single site. These localized modes are fully reconfigurable and have the potentiality of enhancing nonlinear effects and of controlling light–matter interactions with single site resolution.