Kevin F. MacDonald
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View article: Electron-beam-controlled volatile nanomechanical bistability
Electron-beam-controlled volatile nanomechanical bistability Open
Bistability in nanomechanical resonators can be exploited for sensing, signal processing, and memory applications due to its potential for switching and high sensitivity to external stimuli. External vibration can be used to drive a doubly…
View article: Control of nanomechanical resonances by an electron beam
Control of nanomechanical resonances by an electron beam Open
The sensitivity of mechanical resonators to physical quantities such as acceleration, pressure, mass and temperature enables them to underpin sensing and metrology applications. Here, we observe that the resonance frequency of a nanomechan…
View article: Controlling the Flow of Information in Optical Metrology
Controlling the Flow of Information in Optical Metrology Open
Optical metrology has progressed beyond the Abbe-Rayleigh limit, unlocking (sub)atomic precision by leveraging nonlinear phenomena, statistical accumulation, and AI-estimators trained on measurand variations. Here, we reveal that Fisher in…
View article: Time-translation symmetry, ergodicity, and entropy dynamics in a time crystal driven by optical interaction forces
Time-translation symmetry, ergodicity, and entropy dynamics in a time crystal driven by optical interaction forces Open
Nonreciprocal processes are universally present in living systems, and they control social behavior, kinetic asymmetries in chemistry, pattern formation, and phase transitions in active matter out of equilibrium. It was shown recently that…
View article: Localization of nanoscale objects with light singularities
Localization of nanoscale objects with light singularities Open
Unprecedented atomic-scale measurement resolution has recently been demonstrated in single-shot optical localization measurements based on deep-learning analyses of diffraction patterns of topologically structured light scattered from obje…
View article: Localization of nanoscale objects with light singularities
Localization of nanoscale objects with light singularities Open
Unprecedented atomic-scale measurement resolution has recently been demonstrated in single-shot optical localization metrology based on deep-learning analyses of diffraction patterns of topologically structured light scattered from objects…
View article: Robust optical picometrology through data diversity
Robust optical picometrology through data diversity Open
Topologically structured light contains deeply subwavelength features, such as phase singularities, and the scattering of such light can therefore be sensitive to the geometry or movement of scattering objects at such scales. Indeed, it ha…
View article: 3D positional metrology of a virus-like nanoparticle with topologically structured light
3D positional metrology of a virus-like nanoparticle with topologically structured light Open
Locating and identifying viruses in in vitro optical measurements is desirable for disease control; however, the sub-diffraction-limit dimensions and low refractive index contrast of viruses make this challenging. Here, we introduce a 3D p…
View article: Breaking of Time Translation Symmetry and Ergodicity, and Entropy decrease in a Continuous Time Crystal Driven by Nonreciprocal Optical Forces
Breaking of Time Translation Symmetry and Ergodicity, and Entropy decrease in a Continuous Time Crystal Driven by Nonreciprocal Optical Forces Open
Nonreciprocal nonequilibrium process are attracting growing interest in sociology, animal behaviour, chemistry, and nanotechnology, and may have played a role in the origin of life. It is less widely recognized, however, that in open syste…
View article: Continuous Space-Time Crystal State Driven by Nonreciprocal Optical Forces
Continuous Space-Time Crystal State Driven by Nonreciprocal Optical Forces Open
Continuous time crystals (CTCs) - media with broken continuous time translation symmetry - are an eagerly sought state of matter that spontaneously transition from a time-independent state to one of periodic motion in response to a small p…
View article: Picophotonic localization metrology beyond thermal fluctuations
Picophotonic localization metrology beyond thermal fluctuations Open
Despite recent tremendous progress in optical imaging and metrology 1–6 , there remains a substantial resolution gap between atomic-scale transmission electron microscopy and optical techniques. Is optical imaging and metrology of nanostru…
View article: Photonic metamaterial analogue of a continuous time crystal
Photonic metamaterial analogue of a continuous time crystal Open
Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with broken time-translation symmetry. Quantum time crystals with discretely broken time-translation symmetry have been demonstrated in trapped ions, atoms and spins whereas continuously …
View article: Photonic Metamaterial Analogue of a Continuous Time Crystal
Photonic Metamaterial Analogue of a Continuous Time Crystal Open
Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter with broken time-translation symmetry. Quantum time crystals with discretely broken time-translation symmetry have been demonstrated in trapped ions, atoms and spins while continuously br…
View article: Ballistic dynamics of flexural thermal movements in a nanomembrane revealed with subatomic resolution
Ballistic dynamics of flexural thermal movements in a nanomembrane revealed with subatomic resolution Open
Flexural oscillations of freestanding films, nanomembranes, and nanowires are attracting growing attention for their importance to the fundamental physical and optical properties and device applications of two-dimensional and nanostructure…
View article: Coherently switching the focusing characteristics of all-dielectric metalenses
Coherently switching the focusing characteristics of all-dielectric metalenses Open
Flat, gradient index, metasurface optics – in particular all-dielectric metalenses – have emerged and evolved over recent years as compact, lightweight alternative to their conventional bulk glass/crystal counterparts. Here we show that th…
View article: Optical Control of Nanomechanical Brownian Motion Eigenfrequencies in Metamaterials
Optical Control of Nanomechanical Brownian Motion Eigenfrequencies in Metamaterials Open
Nanomechanical photonic metamaterials provide a wealth of active switching, nonlinear, and enhanced light-matter interaction functionalities by coupling optically and mechanically resonant subsystems. Thermal (Brownian) motion of the nanos…
View article: Picophotonics -- Subatomic Optical Localization Beyond Thermal Fluctuations
Picophotonics -- Subatomic Optical Localization Beyond Thermal Fluctuations Open
Despite recent tremendous progress in optical imaging and metrology, the resolution gap between atomic scale transmission electron microscopy and optical techniques has not been closed. Is optical imaging and metrology of nanostructures ex…
View article: Deep-Learning-Assisted Focused Ion Beam Nanofabrication
Deep-Learning-Assisted Focused Ion Beam Nanofabrication Open
Focused ion beam (FIB) milling is an important rapid prototyping tool for micro- and nanofabrication and device and materials characterization. It allows for the manufacturing of arbitrary structures in a wide variety of materials, but est…
View article: Optical Control of Nanomechanical Eigenfrequencies and Brownian Motion in Metamaterials
Optical Control of Nanomechanical Eigenfrequencies and Brownian Motion in Metamaterials Open
Nanomechanical photonic metamaterials provide a wealth of active switching, nonlinear and enhanced light-matter interaction functionalities by coupling optically and mechanically resonant subsystems. Thermal (Brownian) motion of the nanost…
View article: Thermal Fluctuations of the Optical Properties of Nanomechanical Photonic Metamaterials
Thermal Fluctuations of the Optical Properties of Nanomechanical Photonic Metamaterials Open
The combination of optical and mechanical resonances offers strong hybrid nonlinearities, bistability, and the ability to efficiently control the optical response of nanomechanical photonic metamaterials with electric and magnetic field. W…
View article: Metamaterial nanomachines driven by heat, sound, electric and magnetic fields, and light
Metamaterial nanomachines driven by heat, sound, electric and magnetic fields, and light Open
We review recent advances in the physics and technology of plasmonic and dielectric nanomechanical metamaterials, wherein optical and mechanical resonances can be coupled to provide a plethora of dynamic photonic functionalities. External …
View article: Phase-change optical nonlinearity as a cellular automaton
Phase-change optical nonlinearity as a cellular automaton Open
We introduce a cellular automata methodology for studying the photonics of light-induced phase transitions. A model governed by a sparse set of evolutionary rules successfully describes the complex, non-stationary, spatially inhomogeneous …
View article: Dynamics of nanomechanical metamaterials: Pico-vibrometry with light and electron beams
Dynamics of nanomechanical metamaterials: Pico-vibrometry with light and electron beams Open
We report on the detection and quantitative mapping of picometre (sub-atomic) amplitude, thermal (phonon-induced) and driven movements in photonic nanostructures, using light and electron beams. These techniques enable measurements of the …
View article: Optical magnetic response without metamaterials
Optical magnetic response without metamaterials Open
One of the main achievements of metamaterials research has been the development of structured matter exhibiting optical magnetism: first, in an array of microwave split-ring resonators and, soon after, in plasmonic and dielectric metamater…
View article: Nanomechanical Photonic Metamaterials
Nanomechanical Photonic Metamaterials Open
The optical properties of materials are determined by the spatial arrangement of their building blocks and nanomechanical metamaterials can be actuated by temperature changes, electric and magnetic fields, light and ultrasound. This provid…
View article: Cellular automata dynamics of nonlinear optical processes in a phase-change material
Cellular automata dynamics of nonlinear optical processes in a phase-change material Open
Changes in the arrangement of atoms in matter, known as structural phase transitions or phase changes, offer a remarkable range of opportunities in photonics. They are exploited in optical data storage and laser-based manufacturing, and ha…
View article: Dataset for Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures
Dataset for Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures Open
Research data supports the paper: T. Liu, J. Y. Ou, K. F. MacDonald, and N. I. Zheludev, Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures. Nanoscale Advances
View article: Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures
Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures Open
Nanoscale objects move fast and oscillate billions of times per second. We introduce a methodology for detecting such movements, which is sensitive to displacements of sub-atomic amplitude.