Surface bound states in the continuum

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new concept of surface bound states in the continuum within discrete lattices, providing methods to create and tune these modes, which are stable and controllable via nonlinearity.

Contribution

It presents a novel type of surface mode in the continuum, along with an efficient method to generate and tune these embedded states in discrete systems.

Findings

Surface bound states can be embedded into the spectral band of a lattice.

The proposed method effectively creates and supports these embedded modes.

Eigenvalues of the modes can be tuned continuously with weak nonlinearity.

Abstract

We introduce a novel concept of surface bound states in the continuum, i.e. surface modes embedded into the linear spectral band of a discrete lattice. We suggest an efficient method for creating such surface modes and the local bounded potential necessary to support such embedded modes. We demonstrate that the embedded modes are structural stable, and the position of their eigenvalues inside the spectral band can be tuned continuously by adding weak nonlinearity.