Phase-bistable pattern formation in oscillatory systems via rocking: application to nonlinear optical systems

Strong vacuum squeezing from bichromatically driven Kerrlike cavities: from optomechanics to superconducting circuits

Squeezed light, displaying less fluctuation than vacuum in some observable, is key in the flourishing field of quantum technologies. Optical or microwave cavities containing a Kerr nonlinearity are known to potentially yield large levels of squeezing, which have been recently observed in optomechanics and nonlinear superconducting circuit platforms. Such Kerr-cavity squeezing however suffers from two fundamental drawbacks. First, optimal squeezing requires working close to turning points of a bistable cycle, which are highly unstable against noise thus rendering optimal squeezing inaccessible. Second, the light field has a macroscopic coherent component corresponding to the pump, making it less versatile than the so-called squeezed vacuum, characterised by a null mean field. Here we prove analytically and numerically that the bichromatic pumping of optomechanical and superconducting circuit cavities removes both limitations. This finding should boost the development of a new generation of robust vacuum squeezers in the microwave and optical domains with current technology.

Localized structures in dissipative media: from optics to plant ecology

Localized structures (LSs) in dissipative media appear in various fields of natural science such as biology, chemistry, plant ecology, optics and laser physics. The proposal for this Theme Issue was to gather specialists from various fields of nonlinear science towards a cross-fertilization among active areas of research. This is a cross-disciplinary area of research dominated by nonlinear optics due to potential applications for all-optical control of light, optical storage and information processing. This Theme Issue contains contributions from 18 active groups involved in the LS field and have all made significant contributions in recent years.