Sunkyoo Yu
Seoul National University · Physics and Astronomy
About the Lab
Professor Sunkyoo Yu's research lab specializes in theoretical and applied wave physics, focusing on topological phenomena in non-Euclidean geometries, deterministic bandgap engineering in disordered and complex systems, and the development of novel optical platforms for quantum-inspired wave control. The lab explores the interplay between geometry, topology, and wave dynamics, particularly in hyperbolic lattices and Fano-resonant systems, to enable advanced functionalities such as perfect absorption and chiral light-matter interactions. By leveraging concepts from supersymmetry, Bohmian mechanics, and evolving network models, the lab pioneers deterministic design principles for wave manipulation beyond conventional periodicity and symmetry constraints.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Selected Papers
15Non-Euclidean geometry, discovered by negating Euclid's parallel postulate, has been of considerable interest in mathematics and related fields for the description of geographical coordinates, Internet infrastructures, and the general theory of relativity. Notably, an infinite number of regular tessellations in hyperbolic geometry-hyperbolic lattices-are expected to extend Euclidean Bravais lattices and the consequent wave phenomena to non-Euclidean geometry. However, topological states of matte
Bloch's theorem was a major milestone that established the principle of bandgaps in crystals. Although it was once believed that bandgaps could form only under conditions of periodicity and long-range correlations for Bloch's theorem, this restriction was disproven by the discoveries of amorphous media and quasicrystals. While network and liquid models have been suggested for the interpretation of Bloch-like waves in disordered media, these approaches based on searching for random networks with
The de Broglie-Bohm theory is one of the nonstandard interpretations of quantum phenomena that focuses on reintroducing definite positions of particles, in contrast to the indeterminism of the Copenhagen interpretation. In spite of intense debate on its measurement and nonlocality, the de Broglie-Bohm theory based on the reformulation of the Schrödinger equation allows for the description of quantum phenomena as deterministic trajectories embodied in the modified Hamilton-Jacobi mechanics. Here,
Chirality is a universal feature in nature, as observed in fermion interactions and DNA helicity. Much attention has been given to chiral interactions of light, not only regarding its physical interpretation but also focusing on intriguing phenomena in excitation, absorption, refraction, and topological phase. Although recent progress in metamaterials has spurred artificial engineering of chirality, most approaches are founded on the same principle of the mixing of electric and magnetic response
Here we propose a route to the high-$Q$ perfect absorption of light by introducing the concept of a Fano antilaser. Based on the drastic spectral variation of the optical phase in a Fano-resonant system, a spectral singularity for scatter-free perfect absorption can be achieved with an order of magnitude smaller material loss. By applying temporal coupled mode theory to a Fano-resonant waveguide platform, we reveal that the required material loss and following absorption $Q$ factor are ultimatel
Network science provides a powerful tool for unraveling the complexities of social, technological and biological systems. Constructing networks using wave phenomena is also of great interest in devising advanced hardware for machine learning, as shown in optical neural networks. Although most wave-based networks have employed static network models, the impact of evolving models in network science provides strong motivation to apply dynamical network modeling to wave physics. Here the concept of
Disorder plays a critical role in signal transport by controlling the correlation of a system, as demonstrated in various complex networks. In wave physics, disordered potentials suppress wave transport, because of their localized eigenstates, from the interference between multiple scattering paths. Although the variation of localization with tunable disorder has been intensively studied as a bridge between ordered and disordered media, the general trend of disorder-enhanced localization has rem
Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians satisfying parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry reveal unusual physical phenomena related to exceptional points, where the onset of $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking occurs. Here, by permitting dispersive variations in the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric potential along the propagation axis of a wave, we show that it is possible to obtain $\mathcal{PT}$-induced exceptional points of spatiospectral separation. As an example, we demonstrate ``rainbow nonreciprocity'' using a $\
We report particle swarm optimization (PSO) of photonic crystal (PC) structures through an example of a PC waveguide termination to achieve directional emission. PC waveguide termination is optimized by using the PSO algorithm by evaluating a fitness function by the scattering matrix method. We consider two different structures, reported earlier and designed through intuition and trial and error, for our optimization and compare the results obtained. Our results show that optimizing with PSO can
A network picture has been applied to various physical and biological systems to understand their governing mechanisms intuitively. Utilizing discretization schemes, both electrical and optical materials can also be interpreted as abstract 'graph' networks composed of couplings (edges) between local elements (vertices), which define the correlation between material structures and wave flows. Nonetheless, the fertile structural degrees of freedom in graph theory have not been fully exploited in p
Abstract Recently, there has been increasing interest in the temporal degree of freedom in photonics due to its analogy with spatial axes, causality and open-system characteristics. In particular, the temporal analogues of photonic crystals have allowed the design of momentum gaps and their extension to topological and non-Hermitian photonics. Although recent studies have also revealed the effect of broken discrete time-translational symmetry in view of the temporal analogy of spatial Anderson l
Developing hardware for high-dimensional unitary operators plays a vital role in implementing quantum computations and deep learning accelerations. Programmable photonic circuits are singularly promising candidates for universal unitaries owing to intrinsic unitarity, ultrafast tunability and energy efficiency of photonic platforms. Nonetheless, when the scale of a photonic circuit increases, the effects of noise on the fidelity of quantum operators and deep learning weight matrices become more
Abstract The vast amount of design freedom in disordered systems expands the parameter space for signal processing. However, this large degree of freedom has hindered the deterministic design of disordered systems for target functionalities. Here, we employ a machine learning approach for predicting and designing wave-matter interactions in disordered structures, thereby identifying scale-free properties for waves. To abstract and map the features of wave behaviors and disordered structures, we
In this paper, we investigate the dispersion properties of a multiatomic coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW), and show the existence of band-dependent group velocities in its slow-light bands. By including the next-nearest-neighbor coupling terms in a coupled-mode theory (CMT) analysis for the structure, we explain the physical origin of the band-dependent group velocities in terms of the modification of molecular mode-coupling strengths, and also derive the criteria for complete band sep
Research Areas
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