Experimental Observation of Optical Bound States in the Continuum

作者：Yonatan Plotnik, Or Peleg, Felix Dreisow, Matthias Heinrich, Stefan Nolte, Alexander Szameit, Mordechai Segev · 发表于：Physical Review Letters · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.1103/physrevlett.107.183901 · 被引用次数：819 · 研究领域：Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates、Quantum optics and atomic interactions、Quantum Information and Cryptography

We present the experimental observation of bound states in the continuum. Our experiments are carried out in an optical waveguide array structure, where the bound state (guided mode) is decoupled from the continuum by virtue of symmetry only. We demonstrate that breaking the symmetry of the system couples this special bound state to continuum states, leading to radiative losses. These experiments demonstrate ideas initially proposed by von Neumann and Wigner in 1929 and offer new possibilities for integrated optical elements and analogous realizations with cold atoms and optical trapping of particles.