Wenjie Wan

Time-reversed lasing and interferometric control of absorption.

Tuning the amplitude and phase of incident light can induce an enhancement of the optical absorption process. In the time-reversed counterpart to laser emission, incident coherent optical fields are perfectly absorbed within a resonator that contains a loss medium instead of a gain medium. The incident fields and frequency must coincide with those of the corresponding laser with gain. We demonstrated this effect for two counterpropagating incident fields in a silicon cavity, showing that absorption can be enhanced by two orders of magnitude, the maximum predicted by theory for our experimental setup. In addition, we showed that absorption can be reduced substantially by varying the relative phase of the incident fields. The device, termed a “coherent perfect absorber,” functions as an absorptive interferometer, with potential practical applications in integrated optics.

Dispersive superfluid-like shock waves in nonlinear optics

We experimentally demonstrate dispersive optical shock waves in ID and 21), characterize their nonlinear properties, and observe the complex interactions when two such shocks collide.

Dispersive shock waves with nonlocal nonlinearity

We consider dispersive optical shock waves in nonlocal nonlinear media. Experiments are performed using spatial beams in a thermal liquid cell, and results agree with a hydrodynamic theory of propagation.

Multiple MoS2 Transistors for Sensing Molecule Interaction Kinetics.

Atomically layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) exhibit a significant potential to enable next-generation low-cost transistor biosensors that permit single-molecule-level quantification of biomolecules. To realize such potential biosensing capability, device-oriented research is needed for calibrating the sensor responses to enable the quantification of the affinities/kinetics of biomolecule interactions. In this work, we demonstrated MoS2-based transistor biosensors capable of detecting tumor necrosis factor – alpha (TNF-α) with a detection limit as low as 60 fM. Such a detection limit was achieved in both linear and subthreshold regimes of MoS2 transistors. In both regimes, all sets of transistors exhibited consistent calibrated responses with respect to TNF-α concentration, and they resulted in a standard curve, from which the equilibrium constant of the antibody-(TNF-α) pair was extracted to be KD = 369 ± 48 fM. Based on this calibrated sensor model, the time-dependent binding kinetics was also measured and the association/dissociation rates of the antibody-(TNF-α) pair were extracted to be (5.03 ± 0.16) × 108 M−1s−1 and (1.97 ± 0.08) × 10−4 s−1, respectively. This work advanced the critical device physics for leveraging the excellent electronic/structural properties of TMDCs in biosensing applications as well as the research capability in analyzing the biomolecule interactions with fM-level sensitivities.

Diffraction from an edge in a self-focusing medium

We experimentally demonstrate diffraction from a straight edge in a medium with self-focusing nonlinearity. Diffraction into the shadow region is suppressed with increasing nonlinearity, but mode coupling leads to excitations and traveling waves on the high-intensity side. Theoretically, we interpret these modulations as spatially dispersive shock waves with negative pressure.

Optically induced transparency in a micro-cavity

Electromagnetically induced transparency has the unique ability to optically control transparency windows with low light in atomic systems. However, its practical applications in quantum physics and information science are limited due to rigid experimental requirements. Here we demonstrate a new mechanism of optically induced transparency in a micro-cavity by introducing a four-wave mixing gain to nonlinearly couple two separated resonances of the micro-cavity in an ambient environment. A signature Fano-like resonance was observed owing to the nonlinear interference of the two coupled resonances. Moreover, we show that the unidirectional gain of the four-wave mixing can lead to the remarkable effect of non-reciprocal transmission at the transparency windows. Optically induced transparency may offer a unique platform for a compact, integrated solution to all-optical and quantum information.

Forward four-wave mixing with defocusing nonlinearity

We experimentally demonstrate degenerate, forward four-wave mixing effects in a self-defocusing photorefractive medium, in both one and two transverse dimensions. We observe the nonlinear evolution of new modes as a function of propagation distance, in both the near-field and far-field (Fourier space) regions.

Time-reversed wave mixing in nonlinear optics

Time-reversal symmetry is important to optics. Optical processes can run in a forward or backward direction through time when such symmetry is preserved. In linear optics, a time-reversed process of laser emission can enable total absorption of coherent light fields inside an optical cavity of loss by time-reversing the original gain medium. Nonlinearity, however, can often destroy such symmetry in nonlinear optics, making it difficult to study time-reversal symmetry with nonlinear optical wave mixings. Here we demonstrate time-reversed wave mixings for optical second harmonic generation (SHG) and optical parametric amplification (OPA) by exploring this well-known but underappreciated symmetry in nonlinear optics. This allows us to observe the annihilation of coherent beams. Our study offers new avenues for flexible control in nonlinear optics and has potential applications in efficient wavelength conversion, all-optical computing.

Forward Four-Wave Mixing with Defocusing Nonlinearity

We experimentally demonstrate degenerate, forward four-wave mixing in a self-defocusing photorefractive medium, in both one and two transverse dimensions. The cascaded evolution of new modes and potential asymptotic behavior are discussed.

Morphology-induced plasmonic resonances in silver-aluminum alloy thin films

We have investigated the optical properties of sputter-deposited silver-aluminum alloy thin films on silicon substrates at room temperature. In addition to the primary feature that corresponds to the bulk plasma resonance, a secondary dip appears in the optical reflectance spectra, which shifts and diminishes with thermal annealing. Careful structural characterization of both the as-deposited and annealed films suggests that the resonant feature originates from the surface plasmon resonances, which are localized in the dielectric gap between grains. This result indicates that the morphology of metal alloys could have a significant effect on their optical properties.