Researchers from the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) and Florida International University have unveiled a novel method for controlling wave phenomena, such as light and sound, using a concept called complex frequency excitations. Their findings, published in Science, highlight a promising new direction in the field of wave physics that could push the boundaries of current technologies.
In traditional systems—ranging from wireless communications and speakers to microscopes and medical imaging devices—the behavior of waves is largely limited by the intrinsic properties of the materials used. To overcome these constraints, engineers have often relied on exotic materials, active components that consume energy, or bulky and complicated designs.
The new approach sidesteps these limitations by shaping the form of the signal that excites the system, rather than altering the materials themselves. Specifically, by engineering wave excitations to oscillate at complex frequencies, researchers can emulate the effects of material gain and loss. This unlocks a variety of exotic behaviors, such as perfect absorption, directional wave transport, super-resolution imaging, and responses that go beyond traditional physical limits—all without relying on energy-consuming or unstable components.
“This provides a fundamentally new strategy for wave control,” said Andrea Alù, the study’s principal investigator and Distinguished Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. “Rather than being constrained by the material platform, we can now control wave responses by designing the right types of excitations.”
The team showed that signal excitations with amplitudes that grow or decay exponentially over time can engage a system’s natural resonances and anti-resonances. This mimics what would typically require the addition of carefully distributed gain or loss materials. The implications are wide-ranging, from enhanced wireless power transfer and energy storage to advanced quantum state control and dynamic light manipulation.
While most of the initial demonstrations have focused on radio and acoustic frequencies, the researchers believe this strategy could eventually be applied to higher-frequency systems like optics. “Scaling this technique to optical frequencies remains a challenge,” said Seunghwi Kim, first author and postdoctoral researcher at ASRC. “But our work lays a solid foundation and offers a roadmap for exploring complex frequency excitations across many areas of wave physics.”
The research, carried out by the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University, opens the door to future advances in high-resolution imaging, efficient communications, and quantum sensing and computing.
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