There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

[신간의 별자리x] 우리/미술, 그리고 ‘슬픔의 박물관’

Topological photonics is a rapidly emerging field of research in which geometrical and topological ideas are exploited to design and control the behavior of light. Drawing inspiration from the discovery of the quantum Hall effects and topological insulators in condensed matter, recent advances have shown how to engineer analogous effects also for photons, leading to remarkable phenomena such as the robust unidirectional propagation of light, which hold great promise for applications. Thanks to the flexibility and diversity of photonics systems, this field is also opening up new opportunities to realize exotic topological models and to probe and exploit topological effects in new ways. This article reviews experimental and theoretical developments in topological photonics across a wide range of experimental platforms, including photonic crystals, waveguides, metamaterials, cavities, optomechanics, silicon photonics, and circuit QED. A discussion of how changing the dimensionality and symmetries of photonics systems has allowed for the realization of different topological phases is offered, and progress in understanding the interplay of topology with non-Hermitian effects, such as dissipation, is reviewed. As an exciting perspective, topological photonics can be combined with optical nonlinearities, leading toward new collective phenomena and novel strongly correlated states of light, such as an analog of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Topological Photonics

to be done in this area. Face recognition is a problem that scarcely clamoured for attention before the computer age but, having surfaced, has involved a wide range of techniques and has attracted the attention of some fine minds (David Mumford was a Fields Medallist in 1974). This singular application of mathematical modelling to a messy applied problem of obvious utility and importance but with no unique solution is a pretty one to share with students: perhaps, returning to the source of our opening quotation, we may invert Duncan's earlier observation, 'There is an art to find the mind's construction in the face!'.

Linear and nonlinear waves, by G. B. Whitham. Pp.636. £50. 1999. ISBN 0 471 35942 4 (Wiley).

Layered structures of two-dimensional (2D) materials stacked by van der Waals interactions such as homojunctions and heterojunctions have shown a number of microelectronic applications in the realm of ultrathin and highly flexible devices. Since van der Waals interaction is the dominant strength among these layered structures and can induce the anisotropic behavior of incident electromagnetic waves or photons, a novel concept of photonic transport can be proposed based on the physical picture of transferring both far-field and near-field components of an object to a certain distance and rebuilding a subwavelength image. Herein, through delicately designing and engineering the layered structures based on graphene, we have achieved a flexible graphene van der Waals homojunction for subwavelength imaging. Such an approach is the first time an optical lens from the atomic level has been designed and constitutes a further important step towards practical applications of subwavelength imaging.

Photonic transport in a graphene van der Waals homojunction

An inverse Doppler frequency shift of light, i.e., superlight inverse Doppler effect, is shown possible even in homogeneous media with positive-refractive index, contrary to the status quo ante. We show an example with graphene plasmons.

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The Superlight Inverse Doppler Effect

Superscattering, induced by degenerate resonances, breaks the fundamental single-channel limit of scattering cross section of subwavelength structures; in principle, an arbitrarily large total cross section can be achieved via superscattering. It thus provides a unique way to strengthen the light-matter interaction at the subwavelength scale, and has many potential applications in sensing, energy harvesting, bio-imaging (such as magnetic resonance imaging), communication and optoelectronics. However, the experimental demonstration of superscattering remains an open challenge due to its vulnerability to structural imperfections and intrinsic material losses. Here we report the first experimental evidence for superscattering, by demonstrating the superscattering simultaneously in two different frequency regimes through both the far-field and near-field measurements. The underlying mechanism for the observed superscattering is the degenerate resonances of confined surface waves, by utilizing a subwavelength metasurface-based multilayer structure. Our work paves the way towards practical applications based on superscattering.

Experimental observation of superscattering

Group-Velocity-Controlled and Gate-Tunable Directional Excitation of Polaritons in Graphene-Boron Nitride Heterostructures (Laser Photonics Rev. 12(5)/2018)

In this work, we propose and numerically investigate a new kind of two-dimensional microcavity resonator, consisting of an organic Rhodamine 6G doped SiO$_2$ thin layer sandwiched between two symmetric high-contrast-grating (HCG) layers. The larger periodic-index-contrast from the grating enables an ultra-high (99$\%$) reflectivity over a broad spectrum. Meanwhile, the so called bound states in continuum (BIC) are supported when the light in the guided modes interfere destructively with Fabry-Perot modes. Upon a proper choice of topological parameters, a quasi-BIC lasing with emission wavelength at 570 nm is realized. The ultracompact laser exhibits very low threshold (pump fluence of 17 $\mu$J/cm$^2$), and very narrow optical spectrum linewidth. Moreover, it displays distinguished sensing performance for gas detection. The emission wavelength sensitively shifts to the longer wavelength with the changing of environment refractive index (in order of $5 \times 10^{-4}$). The achieved bulk sensitivity is 221 nm/RIU with a high signal to noise ratio, and a record-high figure of merit (FOM) reaches to 4420 RIU$^{-1}$. This ultracompact and low threshold characteristics of quasi-BIC laser facilitated by the ultra-narrow resonance can serve as formidable candidate for on-chip gas sensor.

Xiao Lin

Papers

Photonic transport in a graphene van der Waals homojunction

The Superlight Inverse Doppler Effect

Experimental observation of superscattering

Group-Velocity-Controlled and Gate-Tunable Directional Excitation of Polaritons in Graphene-Boron Nitride Heterostructures (Laser Photonics Rev. 12(5)/2018)

High-contrast grating resonator supported quasi-BIC lasing and gas sensing