How to Count Modes and Deduce Limits in Optics

This invited talk at Metamaterials 2021 discusses how we can use the new kind of “modes”, formally given by the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the coupling operator, to describe optical communications and linear optical devices efficiently and precisely. This approach uniquely gives all the orthogonal channels between input and output spaces. It leads to general sum rules that generalize diffraction and clarifies counting of channels, and modal limits on device complexity. Novel physical laws apply only to these SVD modes.

15th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena, Metamaterials 2021, Special Session: Fundamental Performance Limits in Photonics, New York USA 20 – 25 September, 2021 (virtual meeting)