Super quasi-bound state in the continuum

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of super quasi-BICs in photonic crystals, significantly enhancing the quality factor by combining symmetry protected BICs in parametric and momentum spaces, validated through theory and microwave experiments.

Contribution

It presents a novel mechanism to boost BIC quality factors in finite photonic crystals by combining avoiding crossing and merging of BICs, supported by analytical theory and experiments.

Findings

Q factor scales as N^3 for super quasi-BICs

Analytical theory explains the transition in asymptotic behavior

Microwave experiments validate the theoretical predictions

Abstract

Avoided crossing of resonances and merging multiple bound states in the continuum (BICs) are parallel means for tailoring the physical properties of BICs. Herein, we introduce a new concept of super quasi-BIC for photonic crystal (PhC) systems where its quality ($Q$) factor is boosted in both parametric and momentum spaces. A super quasi-BIC with substantial enhancement of $Q$ factor can be achieved in a finite PhC by combining avoiding crossing of two symmetry protected (SP) quasi-BICs in parametric space and merging BICs in momentum space simultaneously. More importantly, analytical theory shows that the proposed mechanism results in the transition of asymptotic behavior of the $Q$ factor over the numbers of resonators from $N^2$ to exclusive $N^3$ for SP-BICs, which is of vital importance for realizing quasi-BICs in a compact PhC. Microwave experiments are performed to validate the theoretical results. Our results provide a paradigm shift for manipulating the physical properties quasi-BICs in finite PhC structures, which would facilitate various applications, including but not limited to low threshold lasing, wireless power transfer and high figure of merit sensing etc.