Remote detection of buried landmines using a bacterial sensor

Nature Biotechnology 35, pp. 308–310, (2017).

Standoff detection of buried landmines by fluorescent bacterial biosensors (FBB) was demonstrated for the first time in a field experiment. This standoff detection scheme enables direct access to the sampled area without endangering the operating personnel and the equipment. 

Nanophotonics in Three Dimensional Curved Space

Nature Photonics 11, October (2017).

Nanophotonics is based on the ability to construct structures with specific spatial distributions of the refractive index. Conventional nanophotonic structures are fabricated in planar settings, similar to electronic integrated circuits. We present a new class of nanophotonic structures with intricate design in three dimensions inspired by general relativity concepts, where the evolution of light is controlled through the space curvature of the medium. We demonstrate this concept by studying the evolution of light in a paraboloid structure inspired by the Schwarzschild metric describing the space surrounding a massive black hole. Our construction allows control over the trajectories, the diffraction properties and the phase and group velocities of wavepackets propagating within the curved-space structure. Finally, our structure exhibits tunnelling through an electromagnetic bottleneck by transforming guided modes into radiation modes and back. This generic concept can serve as the basis for curved nanophotonics and can be employed in integrated photonic circuits.

Fast Electroholographic Wavelength Selective Switching Implemented in a Slab Waveguide

Optics Letters 2017, Sept 15

We present wavelength selective switching with a rise time of 25 ns implemented in a slab waveguide constructed in a KLTN:Cu crystal. The waveguide was fabricated by implantations of alpha particles at 2.1 MeV which produced a 0.5 μm thick cladding layer with reduced refractive index at 4.5 μm underneath the crystal surface.This demonstrates the feasibility of implementing electroholography in waveguides maintaining the performance obtained in bulk crystals, providing in potential the basis for constructing integrated photonic circuits which incorporate interconnected electroholographic wavelength selective switches and electrical wavelength tuning devices for employing wavelength addressing routing schemes in computer networks, in particular for relieving the bandwidth bottlenecks in data center networks.