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The dynamical screening of the electron--phonon vertex is caused by the retarded oscillations of the electronic charge following the electron--hole scattering with a phonon mode. This retardation induces a frequency dependence of the electron--phonon interaction. Model Hamiltonians and {\em ab--initio} approaches have instilled the idea that this retardation is, in most of the cases, negligible. In this work I demonstrate that the dynamical screening of the electron--phonon vertex cannot be neglected {\em a priori}. By using a perturbative expansion I introduce a controllable and physically sound method to evaluate and include dynamical screening effects. Based on the exact results of the homogeneous electron gas I propose a dynamical vertex correction function $\Gamma_{e-p}(\omega)$ designed to screen the commonly used adiabatic electron--phonon interaction. This function is expressed in terms of adiabatic quantities, that can be easily calculated and used to evaluate the strength of the dynamical corrections, even in realistic materials.

Nonlinear optics lies at the heart of classical and quantum light generation. The invention of periodic poling revolutionized nonlinear optics and its commercial applications by enabling robust quasi-phase-matching in crystals such as lithium niobate. However, reaching useful frequency conversion efficiencies requires macroscopic dimensions, limiting further technology development and integration. Here we realize a periodically poled van der Waals semiconductor (3R-MoS$_2$). Due to its exceptional nonlinearity, we achieve macroscopic frequency conversion efficiency over a microscopic thickness of only 1.2${\mu}$m, $10-100\times$ thinner than current systems with similar performances. Due to unique intrinsic cavity effects, the thickness-dependent quasi-phase-matched second harmonic signal surpasses the usual quadratic enhancement by $50\%$. Further, we report the broadband generation of photon pairs at telecom wavelengths via quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric down-conversion. This work opens the new and unexplored field of phase-matched nonlinear optics with microscopic van der Waals crystals, unlocking applications that require simple, ultra-compact technologies such as on-chip entangled photon-pair sources for integrated quantum circuitry and sensing.

We investigate the potential of surface plasmon polaritons at noble metal interfaces for surface-enhanced chiroptical sensing of dilute chiral drug solutions. The high quality factor of surface plasmon resonances in both Otto and Kretschmann configurations enables the enhancement of circular dichroism differenatial absorption thanks to the large near-field intensity of such plasmonic excitations. Furthermore, the subwavelength confinement of surface plasmon polaritons is key to attain chiroptical sensitivity to small amounts of drug volumes placed around $\simeq 100$ nm by the metal surface. Our calculations focus on reparixin, a pharmaceutical molecule currently used in clinical studies for patients with community-acquired pneumonia, including COVID-19 and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Considering realistic dilute solutions of reparixin dissolved in water with concentration $\leq 5$ mg$/$ml, we find a circular-dichroism differential absorption enhancement factor of the order $\simeq 20$ and chirality-induced polarization distortion upon surface plasmon polariton excitation.

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit., Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figures

The lack of transmissive photonic components in the extreme ultra-violet (XUV) constitutes a challenge for micro/nano-metric confinement. Here, we theoretically design a novel approach to attain XUV radiation guidance based on the electromagnetic properties of Titanium-Aluminum-Titanium heterostructures in such a spectral domain. We show that, thanks to the near-zero-index properties of aluminum and titanium, XUV radiation can couple efficiently with plasma oscillations in such heterostructures, enabling the excitation of several distinct plasmon polariton modes. Our predictions, based on the semi-analytical solution of fully vectorial Maxwell's equations, indicate that the dispersion profile of plasmon polariton modes can get efficiently modulated by the aluminum thickness, enabling nanometre confinement and micrometre propagation length. Moreover, we quantify the third-order nonlinearity enhancement factor, finding that it is resonant at the zero-index wavelength. Our results are promising for the development of future devices enabling advanced control and manipulation of XUV radiation.

Phonon properties of realistic materials are routinely calculated within the Density Functional Perturbation Theory\,(DFPT). This is a semi--classical approach where the atoms are assumed to oscillate along classical trajectories immersed in the electronic Kohn--Sham density, treated quantistically. In this work I demonstrate that, in metals, non--adiabatic effects induce a gap between the DFTP phonon frequencies and the fully quantistic solution of the phonon Dyson equation. A gap that increases with the phonon energy width reflecting the breakdown of the semi--classical DFPT description. The final message is that non--adiabatic phonon effects can be included only by using a fully quantistic approach.

In model Hamiltonians, like Fr\"ohlich's, the electron-phonon interaction is assumed to be screened from the beginning. The same occurs when this interaction is obtained by using the state-of-the-art density functional perturbation theory as starting point. In this work I formally demonstrate that these approaches are affected by a severe over-screening error. By using an out-of-equilibrium Many-Body technique I discuss how to merge the many-body approach with density-functional perturbation theory in order to correct the over-screening error. A symmetric statically screened phonon self-energy is obtained by down-folding the exact Baym-Kadanoff equations. The statically screened approximation proposed here is shown to have the same long-range spatial limit of the exact self-energy and to respect the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The doubly screened approximation, commonly used in the literature, is shown, instead, to be over-screened, to violate several Many-Body properties and to have a wrong spatial long-range decay. The accuracy of the proposed approximation is tested against the exact solution of an extended model Fr\"ohlich Hamiltonian and it is applied to a paradigmatic material: MgB$_2$. I find that the present treatment enhances the linewidths by $57 \%$ with respect to what has been previously reported for the anomalous $E_{2g}$ mode. I further discover that the $A_{2u}$ mode is also anomalous (its strong coupling being completely quenched by the over-screened expression). The present results deeply question methods based on state-of-the-art approaches and impact a wide range of fields such as thermal conductivity, phononic instabilities and non-equilibrium lattice dynamics., Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures

In this work, we describe in detail how Deep Learning and Computer Vision can help to detect fault events of the AirTender system, an aftermarket motorcycle damping system component. One of the most effective ways to monitor the AirTender functioning is to look for oil stains on its surface. Starting from real-time images, AirTender is first detected in the motorbike suspension system, simulated indoor, and then, a binary classifier determines whether AirTender is spilling oil or not. The detection is made with the help of the Yolo5 architecture, whereas the classification is carried out with the help of a suitably designed Convolutional Neural Network, OilNet40. In order to detect oil leaks more clearly, we dilute the oil in AirTender with a fluorescent dye with an excitation wavelength peak of approximately 390 nm. AirTender is then illuminated with suitable UV LEDs. The whole system is an attempt to design a low-cost detection setup. An on-board device, such as a mini-computer, is placed near the suspension system and connected to a full hd camera framing AirTender. The on-board device, through our Neural Network algorithm, is then able to localize and classify AirTender as normally functioning (non-leak image) or anomaly (leak image)., Comment: analysis of literature reviewed, n.2 figures added, minor corrections

The concept of \textit{optical} exciton - a photo-excited bound electron-hole pair within a crystal - is routinely used to interpret and model a wealth of excited-state phenomena in semiconductors. Beside originating sub-band gap signatures in optical spectra, optical excitons have also been predicted to condensate, diffuse, recombine, relax. However, all these phenomena are rooted on a theoretical definition of the excitonic state based on the following simple picture: "excitons" are actual particles that both appear as peaks in the linear absorption spectrum and also behave as well-defined quasiparticles. In this paper we show, instead, that the electron-phonon interaction decomposes the initial optical excitons into \textit{elemental} excitons, the latter being a different kind of bound electron-hole pairs lacking the effect caused by the induced, classical, electric field. This is demonstrated within a many-body perturbation theory approach starting from the interacting electronic Hamiltonian including both electron-phonon and electron-hole interactions. We then apply the results on two realistic systems, monolayer MoS$_2$ (where the lowest-bound exciton is optically inactive) and monolayer MoSe$_2$ (where it is optically active), using first-principles methods to compute the exciton-phonon coupling matrix elements. Among the consequences of optical-elemental decomposition, we point to a homogeneous broadening of absorption peaks occurring even for the lowest-bound optical exciton, we demonstrate this by computing exciton-phonon transition rates. More generally, our findings suggest that the optical excitons gradually lose their initial structure and evolve as elemental excitons. These states can be regarded as the real intrinsic excitations of the interacting system, the ones that survive when the external perturbation and the induced electric fields have vanished., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures

Photoexcited metals can produce highly-energetic hot carriers whose controlled generation and extraction is a promising avenue for technological applications. While hot carrier dynamics in Au-group metals have been widely investigated, a microscopic description of the dynamics of photoexcited carriers in the mid-infrared and near-infrared Pt-group metals range is still scarce. Since these materials are widely used in catalysis and, more recently, in plasmonic catalysis, their microscopic carrier dynamics characterization is crucial. We employ \emph{ab initio} many-body perturbation theory to investigate the hot carrier generation, relaxation times, and mean free path in bulk Pd and Pt. We show that the direct optical transitions of photoexcited carriers in this metals are mainly generated in the near-infrared range. We also find that the electron-phonon mass enhancement parameter for Pt is 16 $\%$ higher than Pd, a result that help explains several experimental results showing diverse trends. Moreover, we predict that Pd (Pt) hot electrons possess total relaxation times of up to 35 fs (24 fs), taking place at approximately 0.5 eV (1.0 eV) above the Fermi energy. Finally, an efficient hot electron generation and extraction can be achieved in nanofilms of Pd (110) and Pd (100) when subject to excitation energies ranging from 0.4 to 1.6 eV., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review B

We investigate dissipative nonlinear dynamics in graphene-based active metamaterials composed of randomly dispersed graphene nano-flakes embedded within an externally pumped gain medium. We observe that graphene saturable nonlinearity produces a sub-critical bifurcation of nonlinear modes, enabling self-organization of the emitted radiation into several dissipative soliton structures with distinct topological charges. We systematically investigate the existence domains of such nonlinear waves and their spatio-temporal dynamics, finding that soliton vortices are unstable, thus enabling self-organization into single dissipative structures with vanishing topological charge, independently of the shape of the graphene nano-flakes. Our results shed light on self-organization of coherent radiation structures in disordered systems and are relevant for future cavity-free lasers and amplifier designs.

We develop from first principles a theoretical model for infrared pulse propagation in graphene-covered hybrid waveguides. We model electron dynamics in graphene by Bloch equations, enabling the derivation of the nonlinear conductivity and of a rate equation accounting for free-carrier generation. Radiation propagation is modeled through a generalized nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation for the field envelope coupled with the rate equation accounting for the generation of free carriers in graphene. Our numerical simulations clearly indicate that unperturbed Kerr solitons accelerate due to the carrier-induced index change and experience a strong self-induced spectral blueshift. Our numerical results are fully explained by semianalytical predictions based on soliton perturbation theory., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Typo error in the value of $e_0$ in page-3 subsection-B has been rectified in version 3 of the manuscript

Coherence and de-coherence are the most fundamental steps that follow the initial photo-excitation occurring in typical Pump&Probe experiments. Indeed, the initial external laser pulse transfers coherence to the system in terms of creation of multiple electron-hole pairs excitation. The excitation concurs both to the creation of a finite carriers density and to the appearance of induced electromagnetic fields. The two effects, to a very first approximation, can be connected to the simple concepts of populations and oscillations. The dynamics of the system following the initial photo-excitation is, thus, entirely dictated by the interplay between coherence and de-coherence. This interplay and the de-coherence process itself, is due to the correlation effects stimulated by the photo-excitation. Single-particle, like the electron-phonon, and two-particles, like the electron-electron, scattering processes induce a complex dynamics of the electrons that, in turn, makes the description of the correlated and photo-excited system in terms of pure excitonic and/or carriers populations challenging., Comment: 79 pages, 14 figures, review

Quantum annealing has emerged in the last few years as a promising quantum computing approach to solving large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we formulate the problem of correctly placing pressure sensors on a Water Distribution Network (WDN) as a combinatorial optimization problem in the form of a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) or Ising model. Optimal sensor placement is indeed key to detect and isolate fault events. We outline the QUBO and Ising formulations for the sensor placement problem starting from the network topology and few other features. We present a detailed procedure to solve the problem by minimizing its Hamiltonian using PyQUBO, an open-source Python Library. We then apply our methods to the case of a real Water Distribution Network. Both simulated annealing and a hybrid quantum-classical approach on a D-Wave machine are employed., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. v2: minor corrections

In this paper, we present an approach to evaluate Research \& Development (R\&D) performance based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Through a set of questionnaires submitted to a team of experts, we single out a set of indicators needed for R\&D performance evaluation. The indicators, together with the corresponding criteria, form the basic hierarchical structure of the AHP method. The numerical values associated with all the indicators are then used to assign a score to a given R\&D project. In order to aggregate consistently the values taken on by the different indicators, we operate on them so that they are mapped to dimensionless quantities lying in a unit interval. This is achieved by employing the empirical Cumulative Density Function (CDF) for each of the indicators. We give a thorough discussion on how to assign a score to an R\&D project along with the corresponding uncertainty due to possible inconsistencies of the decision process. A particular example of R\&D performance is finally considered., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures

Setting sale prices correctly is of great importance for firms, and the study and forecast of prices time series is therefore a relevant topic not only from a data science perspective but also from an economic and applicative one. In this paper we examine different techniques to forecast sale prices applied by an Italian food wholesaler, as a step towards the automation of pricing tasks usually taken care by human workforce. We consider ARIMA models and compare them to Prophet, a scalable forecasting tool by Facebook based on a generalized additive model, and to deep learning models exploiting Long Short--Term Memory (LSTM) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). ARIMA models are frequently used in econometric analyses, providing a good benchmark for the problem under study. Our results indicate that ARIMA models and LSTM neural networks perform similarly for the forecasting task under consideration, while the combination of CNNs and LSTMs attains the best overall accuracy, but requires more time to be tuned. On the contrary, Prophet is quick and easy to use, but considerably less accurate.t overall accuracy, but requires more time to be tuned. On the contrary, Prophet is quick and easy to use, but considerably less accurate., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 10 tables. v3: improved structure and content, added figures and references

State-of-the-art approaches to calculate the electron-phonon and the phonon-electron self-energy are based on a mean-field approximation for the interacting electronic system. This approach introduces an overscreening error which results in an underestimation of the electron-phonon coupling strength. We introduce a theoretical and numerical approach for the calculation of the phonon-electron self-energy without the overscreening error. Starting from the out-of-equilibrium Kadanoff-Baym equations for the phonon propagator, we discuss and compare the overscreened (i.e., symmetrically screened) and overscreening--free (i.e., asymmetrically screened) cases. We point out that the difficulty in treating the latter stems from the static approximation to the dielectric function and from the need to obtain a self-energy that preserves the elementary scattering processes. We solve both problems in the equilibrium case by considering a manifestly symmetric form of the correct self-energy which can be easily calculated numerically and yields an overscreening--free coupling strength. Finally, we describe the numerical implementation of this treatment into the first--principles Yambo code for the calculations of phonon linewidths., Comment: The present manuscript has been superseded by: arXiv:2211.02573. Author list has changed, and also the material and discussion presented

State-of-the-art model Hamiltonians, like Fr\"ohlich's, or density functional theory approaches to electron-phonon interaction suffer from a severe overscreening error. This is due to the incorrect treatment of the screening of the ionic potential. We derive a correct formulation of the electron-phonon interaction and demonstrate its validity by numerically implementing the new scheme in a paradigmatic material: MgB$_2$, a system whose double-gap, low-$T_c$ superconductivity depends on exceptionally high phonon linewidths. We find that the present treatment enhances the linewidths by $57 \%$ with respect to what has been previously reported for the anomalous $E_{2g}$ mode. We further discover that the $A_{2u}$ mode is also anomalous (its strong coupling being completely quenched by the overscreened expression). Our results deeply question methods based on state-of-the-art approaches and impact a wide range of fields such as thermal conductivity, phononic instabilities and non-equilibrium lattice dynamics., Comment: The present manuscript has been superseded by: arXiv:2211.02573. Author list has changed, and also the material and discussion presented

Self-action nonlinearity is a key aspect -- either as a foundational element or a detrimental factor -- of several optical spectroscopies and photonic devices. Supercontinuum generation, wavelength converters and chirped pulse amplification are just a few examples. The recent advent of Free Electron Lasers (FEL) fostered building on nonlinearity to propose new concepts and extend optical wavelengths paradigms for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray regimes. No evidence for intrapulse dynamics, however, has been reported at such short wavelengths, where the light-matter interactions are ruled by the sharp absorption edges of core-electrons. Here, we provide experimental evidence for self-phase modulation of femtosecond FEL pulses, which we exploit for fine self-driven spectral tunability by interaction with sub-micrometric foils of selected monoatomic materials. Moving the pulse wavelength across the absorption edge, the spectral profile changes from a non-linear spectral blue-shift to a red-shifted broadening. These findings are rationalized accounting for ultrafast ionization and delayed thermal response of highly excited electrons above and below threshold, respectively., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures

In many paradigmatic materials, like Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, the role played by the spin degrees of freedom is as important as the one played by the electron-electron interaction. Thus an accurate treatment of the two effects and of their interaction is necessary for an accurate and predictive study of the optical and electronic properties of these materials. Despite the GW-BSE approach correctly accounts for electronic correlations the spin-orbit coupling effect is often neglected or treated perturbatively. Recently spinorial formulations of GW-BSE have become available in different flavours in material-science codes. Still an accurate validation and comparison of different approaches is missing. In this work we go through the derivation of non collinear GW-BSE approach. The scheme is applied to transition metal dichalcogenides comparing perturbative and full spinorial approach. Our calculations reveal that dark-bright exciton splittings are generally improved when the spin orbit coupling is included non perturbatively. The exchange-driven intravalley mixing between the A and B exciton is found to be extremely important in the case of MoSe$_2$. We finally define the excitonic spin and use it to sharply analyze the spinorial properties of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides excitonic states., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures

Femtosecond light-induced phase transitions between different macroscopic orders provide the possibility to tune the functional properties of condensed matter on ultrafast timescales. In first-order phase transitions, transient non-equilibrium phases and inherent phase coexistence often preclude non-ambiguous detection of transition precursors and their temporal onset. Here, we present a study combining time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab-initio electron dynamics calculations elucidating the transient subpicosecond processes governing the photoinduced generation of ferromagnetic order in antiferromagnetic FeRh. The transient photoemission spectra are accounted for by assuming that not only the occupation of electronic states is modified during the photoexcitation process. Instead, the photo-generated non-thermal distribution of electrons modifies the electronic band structure. The ferromagnetic phase of FeRh, characterized by a minority band near the Fermi energy, is established 350+- 30 fs after the laser excitation. Ab-initio calculations indicate that the phase transition is initiated by a photoinduced Rh-to-Fe charge transfer.

Controlling directional emission of nanophotonic radiation sources is fundamental to tailor radiation-matter interaction and to conceive highly efficient nanophotonic devices for on-chip wireless communication and information processing. Nanoantennas coupled to quantum emitters have proven to be very efficient radiation routers, while electrical control of unidirectional emission has been achieved through inelastic tunneling of electrons. Here we prove that the radiation emitted from the interaction of a high-energy electron beam with a graphene-nanoparticle composite has beaming directions which can be made to continuously span the full circle even through small variations of the graphene Fermi energy. Emission directionality stems from the interference between the double cone shaped electron transition radiation and the nanoparticle dipolar diffraction radiation. Tunability is enabled since the interference is ruled by the nanoparticle dipole moment whose amplitude and phase are driven by the hybrid plasmonic resonances of the composite and the absolute phase of the graphene plasmonic polariton launched by the electron, respectively. The flexibility of our method provides a way to exploit graphene plasmon physics to conceive improved nanosources with ultrafast reconfigurable radiation patterns.

We calculate the time evolution of the transient reflection signal in an MoS$_2$ monolayer on a SiO$_2$/Si substrate using first-principles out-of-equilibrium real-time methods. Our simulations provide a simple and intuitive physical picture for the delayed, yet ultrafast, evolution of the signal whose rise time depends on the excess energy of the pump laser: at laser energies above the A- and B-exciton, the pump pulse excites electrons and holes far away from the K valleys in the first Brillouin zone. Electron-phonon and hole-phonon scattering lead to a gradual relaxation of the carriers towards small $\textit{Active Excitonic Regions}$ around K, enhancing the dielectric screening. The accompanying time-dependent band gap renormalization dominates over Pauli blocking and the excitonic binding energy renormalization. This explains the delayed buildup of the transient reflection signal of the probe pulse, in excellent agreement with recent experimental data. Our results show that the observed delay is not a unique signature of an exciton formation process but rather caused by coordinated carrier dynamics and its influence on the screening.

Time-resolved soft-X-ray photoemission spectroscopy is used to simultaneously measure the ultrafast dynamics of core-level spectral functions and excited states upon excitation of excitons in WSe$_2$. We present a many-body approximation for the Green's function, which excellently describes the transient core-hole spectral function. The relative dynamics of excited-state signal and core levels reveals a delayed core-hole renormalization due to screening by excited quasi-free carriers, revealing an excitonic Mott transition. These findings establish time-resolved core-level photoelectron spectroscopy as a sensitive probe of subtle electronic many-body interactions and an ultrafast electronic phase transition., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data., Comment: 58 pages, minor revision following comments from SciPost referees

Spin and angular momenta of light are important degrees of freedom in nanophotonics which control light propagation, optical forces and information encoding. Typically, optical angular momentum is generated using q-plates or spatial light modulators. Here, we show that graphene-supported plasmonic nanostructures with broken rotational symmetry provide a surprising spin to orbital angular momentum conversion, which can be continuously controlled by changing the electrochemical potential of graphene. Upon resonant illumination by a circularly polarized plane wave, a polygonal array of indium-tin-oxide nanoparticles on a graphene sheet generates scattered field carrying electrically-tunable orbital angular momentum. This unique photonic spin-orbit coupling occurs due to the strong coupling of graphene plasmon polaritons and localised surface plasmons of the nanoparticles and leads to the controlled directional excitation of graphene plasmons. The tuneable spin-orbit conversion pave the way to high-rate information encoding in optical communications, electric steering functionalities in optical tweezers, and nanorouting of higher-dimensional entangled photon states.

Optical parametric amplification is a second-order nonlinear process whereby an optical signal is amplified by a pump via the generation of an idler field. It is the key ingredient of tunable sources of radiation that play an important role in several photonic applications. This mechanism is inherently related to spontaneous parametric down-conversion that currently constitutes the building block for entangled photon pair generation, which has been exploited in modern quantum technologies ranging from computing to communications and cryptography. Here we demonstrate single-pass optical parametric amplification at the ultimate thickness limit; using semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides, we show that amplification can be attained over a propagation through a single atomic layer. Such a second-order nonlinear interaction at the 2D limit bypasses phase-matching requirements and achieves ultrabroad amplification bandwidths. The amplification process is independent on the in-plane polarization of the impinging signal and pump fields. First-principle calculations confirm the observed polarization invariance and linear relationship between idler and pump powers. Our results pave the way for the development of atom-sized tunable sources of radiation with applications in nanophotonics and quantum information technology.

We investigate the reflection of a Gaussian beam impinging upon the surface of an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) medium. In particular, we discuss the occurrence of Goos-H\"anchen and Imbert-Fedorov shifts. Our calculations reveal that spatial shifts are significantly enhanced owing to the ENZ nature of the medium, and that their value and angular position can be tuned by tuning the plasma frequency of the medium.

We investigate the ultrafast nonlinear dynamics of light emitted in an active plasmonic waveguide composed of a thin film of gold sandwiched by two silicon layers immersed in externally pumped Al$_2$O$_3$:Er$^{3+}$. We model optical propagation in such a dissipative system through a generalized cubic Ginzburg-Landau equation accounting for the amplification of the active medium and the effect of absorption and thermo-modulational nonlinearity of gold. We find that heating heavily affects the propagation of temporal dissipative solitons in such a plasmonic waveguide by producing a soliton self-frequency redshift accompanied by soliton deceleration in the time domain. By adopting a semi-analytical variational approach, we evaluate the dependence of the self-induced redshift by deriving a set of coupled differential equations for the pulse parameters. These equations provide physical insight into the complex nonlinear dynamics through simple approximate analytic expressions for temporal and frequency shifts. Such analytical predictions are found in excellent agreement with direct numerical simulations of the generalized cubic Ginzburg-Landau equation. Our results provide a general understanding of ultrafast nonlinear dynamics in gold-based active plasmonic waveguides, as in particular the spectral shaping properties of propagating optical pulses., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Ab initio many-body perturbation theory within the $GW$ approximation is a Green's function formalism widely used in the calculation of quasiparticle excitation energies of solids. In what has become an increasingly standard approach, Kohn-Sham eigenenergies, generated from a DFT calculation with a strategically-chosen exchange correlation functional ``starting point'', are used to construct $G$ and $W$, and then perturbatively corrected by the resultant $GW$ self-energy. In practice, there are several ways to construct the $GW$ self-energy, and these can lead to variations in predicted quasiparticle energies. For example, for ZnO and TiO$_2$, reported $GW$ fundamental gaps can vary by more than 1 eV. In this work, we address the convergence and key approximations in contemporary $G_0W_0$ calculations, including frequency-integration schemes and the treatment of the Coulomb divergence in the exact-exchange term. We study several systems,and compare three different $GW$ codes: BerkeleyGW, Abinit and Yambo. We demonstrate, for the first time, that the same quasiparticle energies for systems in the condensed phase can be obtained with different codes, and we provide a comprehensive assessment of implementations of the $GW$ approximation.

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit high nonlinear optical (NLO) susceptibilities. Experiments on MoS$_2$ have indeed revealed very large second-order ($\chi^{(2)}$) and third-order ($\chi^{(3)}$) optical susceptibilities. However, third harmonic generation results of other layered TMDs has not been reported. Furthermore, the reported $\chi^{(2)}$ and $\chi^{(3)}$ of MoS$_2$ vary by several orders of magnitude, and a reliable quantitative comparison of optical nonlinearities across different TMDs has remained elusive. Here, we investigate second- and third-harmonic generation, and three-photon photoluminescence in TMDs. Specifically, we present an experimental study of $\chi^{(2)}$, and $\chi^{(3)}$ of four common TMD materials (\ce{MoS2}, \ce{MoSe2}, \ce{WS2} and \ce{WSe2}) by placing different TMD flakes in close proximity to each other on a common substrate, allowing their NLO properties to be accurately obtained from a single measurement. $\chi^{(2)}$ and $\chi^{(3)}$ of the four monolayer TMDs have been compared, indicating that they exhibit distinct NLO responses. We further present theoretical simulations of these susceptibilities in qualitative agreement with the measurements. Our comparative studies of the NLO responses of different two-dimensional layered materials allow us to select the best candidates for atomic-scale nonlinear photonic applications, such as frequency conversion and all-optical signal processing., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, To be appeared in Physical Review B

We explore the nonlinear response of plasmonic materials driven by ultrashort pulses of electromagnetic radiation with temporal duration of few femtoseconds and high peak intensity. By developing the Fokker-Planck-Landau theory of electron collisions, we solve analytically the collisional integral and derive a novel set of hydrodynamical equations accounting for plasma dynamics at ultrashort time scales. While in the limit of small light intensities we recover the well established Drude model of plasmas, in the high intensity limit we observe nonlinear quenching of collision-induced damping leading to absorption saturation. Our results provide a general background to understand electron dynamics in plasmonic materials with promising photonic applications in the manipulation of plasma waves with reduced absorption at the femtosecond time scale.

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the AC conductivities for a (2+1)-dimensional system of massless fundamental fermions coupled to (3+1)-dimensional Super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling. We consider the system at finite charge density, with a constant electric field along the defect and an orthogonal magnetic field. The holographic model we employ is the well studied D3/probe-D5-brane system. There are two competing phases in this model: a phase with broken chiral symmetry favored when the magnetic field dominates over the charge density and the electric field and a chirally symmetric phase in the opposite regime. The presence of the electric field induces Ohm and Hall currents, which can be straightforwardly computed by means of the Karch-O'Bannon technique.Studying the fluctuations around the stable configurations in linear response theory, we are able to derive the full frequency dependence of longitudinal and Hall conductivities in all the regions of the phase space., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. v2: Discussions in Sections 4 and 5 improved, references added and typos corrected. Accepted by JHEP

We present a formal derivation of the many-body perturbation theory for a system of electrons and bosons subject to a nonlinear electron-boson coupling. The interaction is treated at an arbitrary high order of bosons scattered. The considered Hamiltonian includes the well-known linear coupling as a special limit. This is the case, for example, of the Holstein and Fr\"{o}hlich Hamiltonians. Indeed, whereas linear coupling have been extensively studied, the scattering processes of electrons with multiple bosonic quasiparticles are largely unexplored. We focus here on a self-consistent theory in terms of dressed propagators and generalize the Hedin's equations using the Schwinger technique of functional derivatives. The method leads to an exact derivation of the electronic and bosonic self-energies, expressed in terms of a new family of vertex functions, high order correlators and bosonic and electronic mean-field potentials. In the electronic case we prove that the mean-field potential is the $n$th-order extension of the well-known Debye-Waller potential. We also introduce a bosonic mean-field potential entirely dictated by nonlinear electron-boson effects. The present scheme, treating electrons and bosons on an equal footing, demonstrates the full symmetry of the problem. The vertex functions are shown to have purely electronic and bosonic character as well as a mixed electron-boson one. These four vertex functions are shown to satisfy a generalized Bethe-Salpeter equation. Multi bosons response functions are also studied and explicit expressions for the two and the three bosons case are given., Comment: In press on PRB

We explore the ability of two-dimensional periodic atom arrays to produce light amplification and generate laser emission when gain is introduced through external optical pumping. Specifically, we predict that lasing can take place for arbitrarily weak atomic scatterers assisted by cooperative interaction among atoms in a 2D lattice. We base this conclusion on analytical theory for three-level scatterers, which additionally reveals a rich interplay between lattice and atomic resonances. Our results provide a general background to understand light amplification and lasing in periodic atomic arrays, with promising applications in the generation, manipulation, and control of coherent photon states at the nanoscale., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, fully self-contained derivation of 2D array scattering and lasing

We study the potential of graphene plasmons for spectrometer-free sensing based on surface-enhanced infrared absorption and Raman scattering. The large electrical tunability of these excitations enables an accurate identification of infrared molecular resonances by recording broadband absorption or inelastic scattering, replacing wavelength-resolved light collection by a signal integrated over photon energy as a function of the graphene doping level. The high quality factor of graphene plasmons plays a central role in the proposed detection techniques, which we show to be capable of providing label-free identification of the molecular vibration fingerprints. We find an enhancement of the absorption and inelastic scattering cross-sections by 3-4 orders of magnitude for molecules in close proximity to doped graphene nanodisks under currently feasible conditions. Our results pave the way for the development of novel cost-effective sensors capable of identifying spectral signatures of molecules without using spectrometers and laser sources.

The use of ultra-short laser pulses to pump and probe materials activates a wealth of processes which involve the coherent and non coherent dynamics of interacting electrons out of equilibrium. Non equilibrium (NEQ) many body perturbation theory (MBPT) offers an equation of motion for the density-matrix of the system which well describes both coherent and non coherent processes. In the non correlated case there is a clear relation between these two regimes and the matrix elements of the density-matrix. The same is not true for the correlated case, where the potential binding of electrons and holes in excitonic states need to be considered. In the present work we discuss how NEQ-MBPT can be used to describe the dynamics of both coherent and non-coherent excitons in the low density regime. The approach presented is well suited for an ab initio implementation.

We demonstrate that a strong asymmetric transmission for forward and backward propagation of tilted circular polarized optical waves is supported by ultrathin epsilon-near-zero hyperbolic slabs. We find that, remarkably, this effect is solely triggered by anisotropy without resorting to any breaking of reciprocity and chiral symmetries or spatial nonlocal effects. In addition, we show that the asymmetric transmission undergoes a dramatic enhancement if the slab is hyperbolic in the epsilon-near-zero regime. This happens since, close to epsilon-near-zero point, the hyperbolic dispersion activates etalon resonances where extraordinary waves accumulate propagation phase even though the slab is ultrathin. The proposed strategy holds promise for realizing ultra-compact and efficient polarization devices at different frequency bands., Comment: 4 figures, submitted to PRApplied