Exceptional Nanophotonics

Integrated nanophotonics promises next-generation computing platforms. In this talk, I will present our work on exceptional nanophotonics, creating “quantum” exceptional points on-a-chip and utilizing their associated topology. Based on the exceptional point-induced unidirectionality, we harness optical losses to enable unique photonics functionalities, in particular, an orbital angular momentum (OAM) microlaser that structures and twists lasing radiations at the micro/nano-scale and a low-power all-optical switch, which may address the growing demand for information capacity. Additionally, I will discuss non-Hermitian topological photonics where optical non-Hermiticity and topological physics are coupled to produce robust photonic integrated circuits and laser sources and novel microscopic thermal sensors.