Publications

We examine integration of a patterned metal nanoantenna (or metasurface) directly onto long-wave infrared detectors. These structures show significantly improved external quantum efficiency compared to their traditional counterparts. We will show simulation and experimental results.

We experimentally demonstrate resonantly enhanced nonlinear optical processes such as 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-harmonic generations, sum-frequency generation, four-wave mixing processes, etc., in the visible and near-IR using GaAs dielectric metasurfaces.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

We demonstrate the active tuning of all-dielectric metasurfaces exhibiting high-quality factor (high-Q) resonances. The active control is provided by embedding the asymmetric silicon meta-atoms with liquid crystals, which allows the relative index of refraction to be controlled through heating. It is found that high quality factor resonances (Q = 270 ± 30) can be tuned over more than three resonance widths. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using all-dielectric metasurfaces to construct tunable narrow-band filters.

Dielectric metasurfaces that exploit the different Mie resonances of nanoscale dielectric resonators are a powerful platform for manipulating electromagnetic fields and can provide novel optical behavior. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate independent tuning of the magnetic dipole resonances relative to the electric dipole resonances of split dielectric resonators (SDRs). By increasing the split dimension, we observe a blue shift of the magnetic dipole resonance toward the electric dipole resonance. Therefore, SDRs provide the ability to directly control the interaction between the two dipole resonances within the same resonator. For example, we achieve the first Kerker condition by spectrally overlapping the electric and magnetic dipole resonances and observe significantly suppressed backward scattering. Moreover, we show that a single SDR can be used as an optical nanoantenna that provides strong unidirectional emission from an electric dipole source.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Ultrafast control of the polarization state of light may enable a plethora of applications in optics, chemistry and biology. However, conventional polarizing elements, such as polarizers and waveplates, are either static or possess only gigahertz switching speeds. Here, with the aid of high-mobility indium-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) as the gateway plasmonic material, we realize a high-quality factor Berreman-type perfect absorber at a wavelength of 2.08 μm. On sub-bandgap optical pumping, the perfect absorption resonance strongly redshifts because of the transient increase of the ensemble-averaged effective electron mass of CdO, which leads to an absolute change in the p-polarized reflectance from 1.0 to 86.3%. By combining the exceedingly high modulation depth with the polarization selectivity of the perfect absorber, we experimentally demonstrate a reflective polarizer with a polarization extinction ratio of 91 that can be switched on and off within 800 fs.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Three-dimensional (3D) metafilms composed of periodic arrays of silicon unit cells containing single and multiple micrometer-scale vertical split ring resonators (SRRs) per unit cell were fabricated. In contrast to planar and stacked planar structures, these 3D metafilms have a thickness t ∼ λd/4, allowing for classical thin film effects in the long wavelength limit. The infrared specular far-field scattering response was measured for metafilms containing one and two resonators per unit cell and compared to numerical simulations. Excellent agreement in the frequency region below the onset of diffractive scattering was obtained. For dense arrays of unit cells containing single SRRs, normally incident linearly polarized plane waves which do not excite a resonant response result in thin film interference fringes in the reflected spectra and are virtually indistinguishable from the scattering response of an undecorated array of unit cells. For the resonant linear polarization, the specular reflection for arrays is highly dependent on the SRR orientation on the vertical face for gap-up, gap-down, and gap-right orientations. For dense arrays of unit cells containing two SRRs per unit cell positioned on adjacent faces, the specular reflection spectra are slightly modified due to near-field coupling between the orthogonally oriented SRRs but otherwise exhibit reflection spectra largely representative of the corresponding single-SRR unit cell structures. The ability to pack the unit cell with multiple inclusions which can be independently excited by choice of incident polarization suggests the construction of dual-channel films where the scattering response is selected by altering the incident polarization.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

We demonstrate the ultrafast formation of terahertz (THz) metasurfaces through all-optical creation of spatially modulated carrier density profiles in a deep-subwavelength GaAs film. The switch-on of the transient plasmon mode, governed by the GaAs effective electron mass and electron− phonon interactions, is revealed by structured-optical pump THz probe spectroscopy, on a time scale of 500 fs. By modulating the carrier density using different pump fluences, we observe a wide tuning of the electric dipole resonance of the transient GaAs metasurface from 0.5 THz to 1.7 THz. Furthermore, we numerically demonstrate that the metasurface presented here can be generalized to more complex architectures for realizing functionalities such as perfect absorption, leading to a 30 dB modulation depth. The platform also provides a pathway to achieve ultrafast manipulation of infrared beams in the linear and, potentially, nonlinear regime.

Abstract not provided.

Using III-V dielectric metasurfaces, we experimentally demonstrate resonantly enhanced harmonic generations up to the 4th order. Moreover, we observe large enhancements and spectral tailoring of the photoluminescence of quantum dots embedded inside dielectric metasurfaces. © OSA 2017.

We present a new approach to dielectric metasurface design that relies on a single resonator per unit cell and produces robust, high quality factor Fano resonances. Our approach utilizes symmetry breaking of highly symmetric resonator geometries, such as cubes, to induce couplings between the otherwise orthogonal resonator modes. In particular, we design perturbations that couple "bright" dipole modes to "dark" dipole modes whose radiative decay is suppressed by local field effects in the array. Our approach is widely scalable from the near-infrared to radio frequencies. We first unravel the Fano resonance behavior through numerical simulations of a germanium resonator-based metasurface that achieves a quality factor of ∼1300 at ∼10.8 μm. Then, we present two experimental demonstrations operating in the near-infrared (∼1 μm): a silicon-based implementation that achieves a quality factor of ∼350; and a gallium arsenide-based structure that achieves a quality factor of ∼600, the highest near-infrared quality factor experimentally demonstrated to date with this kind of metasurface. Importantly, large electromagnetic field enhancements appear within the resonators at the Fano resonant frequencies. We envision that combining high quality factor, high field enhancement resonances with nonlinear and active/gain materials such as gallium arsenide will lead to new classes of active optical devices.

We present all-dielectric 2D and 3D metamaterials that are monolithically fabricated from III-V semiconductor nanostructures. The active/gain and high optical nonlinearity properties of the metamaterials can lead to new classes of active devices.

We experimentally observe large enhancement of second-harmonic generation (SHG) from GaAs metasurfaces. The SHG polarization when excited at the electric and magnetic dipole resonances is orthogonal and can be attributed to different nonlinear generation mechanisms.

The development of novel thermal sources that control the emission spectrum and the angular emission pattern is of fundamental importance. In this paper, we investigate the thermal emission properties of semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs). Our structure does not require the use of any periodic corrugation to provide monochromatic and directional emission properties. We show that these properties arise because of epsilon-near-zero conditions in SHMs. The thermal emission is dominated by the epsilon-near-zero effect in the doped quantum wells composing the SHM. Furthermore, different properties are observed for s and p polarizations, following the characteristics of the strong anisotropy of hyperbolic metamaterials.