Bound states in the continuum (BICs) is a special class of non-radiating waves which could be confined even though their energies would normally allow them to escape. BICs were predicted as a mathematical curiosity in quantum mechanics long time ago, while the proposed system has never been implemented experimentally. The beautiful physics of BIC was widely used in atomic physics, acoustics and hydrodynamics. Since 2014, BICs have been attracting very broad attention in photonics, primarily because they provide a simple way to achieve very large quality factors leading to dramatic enhancement of electromagnetic field at the nanoscale.

In the seminar, I will summarize theoretical and experimental results on investigation of physics and origins of optical BICs in periodic photonic structures, including photonic crystal slabs and meta-surfaces, and individual subwavelength nanoparticles. I will present our latest achievements in application of BICs to nonlinear nano-photonics, tunable photosensitive meta-surfaces and strong light-matter coupling in nanoscale resonators.