Review on applications of bound states in the continuum in photonics

Our last review titled "Applications of bound states in the continuum in photonics" has been published in Nature Reviews Physics. This review details the unique optical properties of bound states in the continuum (BICs), provides insights into the impact of BICs in various applications, and envisages their use in several emerging research frontiers.

BICs exhibit intriguing optical properties, including the ability to achieve enhanced light confinement, sharp Fano resonances, and topological characteristics. As a universal wave phenomenon, photonic systems provide a versatile platform to study and exploit BIC. The light confinement induced by BICs has the advantages of reducing the lasing threshold, improving nonlinear conversion efficiency, and enhancing waveguiding in photonic integrated circuits. Fano resonances with tailored ultra-narrow linewidth are beneficial for advanced sensing performance. Polarization vortexes emerging around BICs trigger vortex beams, optical switches, beam shifts, and polarization conversion.

We provide an outlook on the development of BICs in novel physical systems, such as parity-time symmetric systems, higher-order topological phases, exciton–photon coupling, and moiré superlattices.

Figure 1 Overview of effects and applications of BICs.

For full text:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00642-8

https://rdcu.be/dnUr7