Volume 12, Issue 15

The optical and electrical characteristics of electrically-driven nanogap antennas are extremely sensitive to the nanogap region where the fields are tightly confined and electrons and photons can interplay. Upon injecting electrons in the nanogap, a conductance channel opens between the metal surfaces modifying the plasmon charge distribution and therefore inducing an electrical tuning of the gap plasmon resonance. Electron tunneling across the nanogap can be harnessed to induce broadband photon emission with boosted quantum efficiency. Under certain conditions, the energy of the emitted photons exceeds the energy of electrons, and this overbias light emission is due to spontaneous emission of the hot electron distribution in the electrode. We conclude with the potential of electrically controlled nanogap antennas for faster on-chip communication.

Terahertz (THz) wave plays important roles in the research of material properties, the non-invasive human security check and the next generation wireless communication. The progress of the scientific and technological applications of THz wave is strongly dependent on the improvement of THz detectors. Here a novel THz wave detection scheme is proposed in which the THz radiation is detected by an audible microphone based on the photo-thermo-acoustic (PTA) effect in graphene foam. Thanks to the room-temperature broadband electromagnetic absorption characteristics of graphene foam and the fast heat transfer between graphene foam and ambient air, this detection method not only inherits the advantages of the photo-thermal THz detector such as room-temperature and full bandwidth, but also has a response time 3 orders of magnitude faster than the photo-thermal detector. Besides, no micro-antenna/electrode is required to fabricate in the graphene foam THz detector which greatly simplifies the detector design and decreases the fabrication cost. It concludes that the room-temperature, full-bandwidth, fast-speed (≥10 kHz), and easy-to-fabricate THz detector developed in this work has superior comprehensive performances among both the commercial THz detectors and the detectors recently developed in laboratory.

Emerging 3D photonic circuits would greatly benefit from the ability to integrate skimming waveguides with low loss and controllable inscription depth into photonic circuits. These waveguides allow for the interaction of guiding light directly with external modulation signals and enable programmable photonic circuits. Here, we report the fabrication of a novel photonic-lattice-like skimming waveguide (PLLSW) using femtosecond laser writing. Our method enables fine control of cross-sectional symmetry and writing depth of waveguides, achieving a minimum depth of 1 μm and a low insertion loss of 1 dB. Based on the PLLSW, we demonstrate on-chip light modulation by designing an evanescent-field-type saturable absorber through the coupling of a carbon nanotube film with the PLLSW, which exhibits saturation intensity from 20 to 200 MW/cm 2 through the balanced twin-detector measurement. The strong nonlinear optical response of the PLLSW-based saturable absorber is further exploited to drive a Q-switched pulse laser at 1550 nm based on a fiber laser cavity. Our work demonstrates an effective method to integrate nonlinear optical materials into a glass chip for all-optical switching based on 3D waveguides, which holds great potential for the construction of large-scale programmable photonic circuits in the future.

To light emitting diodes (LEDs), solving the common non-uniform current injection and efficiency degradation issues in (0001) plane micro-LED is essential. Herein, we investigated the light emission characteristics of various mesa sizes and different p-electrode areas toward the realization of coaxial GaInN/GaN multi-quantum-shell (MQS) nanowires (NWs)-based micro-LEDs. As the mesa area was reduced, the current leakage decreases, and further reduction of the area showed a possibility of realizing micro-LED with less current leakage. The large leakage path is mainly associated with the defective MQS structure on the (0001) plane area of each NW. Therefore, more NWs involved in an LED chip will induce higher reverse leakage. The current density-light output density characteristics showed considerably increased electroluminescence (EL) intensity as the mesa area decreased, owing to the promoted current injection into the efficient NW sidewalls under high current density. The samples with a mesa area of 50 × 50 µm 2 showed 1.68 times higher light output density than an area of 100 × 100 µm 2 under a current density of 1000 A/cm 2 . In particular, the emission from (1-101) and (10-10) planes did not exhibit an apparent peak shift caused by the quantum-confined Stark effect. Furthermore, by enlarging the p-electrode area, current can be uniformly injected into the entire chip with a trade-off of effective injection to the sidewall of each NW. High performance of the MQS NW-based micro-LED can be expected because of the mitigated efficiency degradation with a reducing mesa area and an optimal dimension of p-electrode.

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is often utilized to characterize localized surface plasmon modes supported by plasmonic antennas. However, the spectral resolution of this technique is only mediocre, and it can be rather difficult to resolve modes close in the energy, such as coupled modes of dimer antennas. Here, we address this issue for a case study of the dimer plasmonic antenna composed of two gold discs. We analyze four nearly degenerate coupled plasmon modes of the dimer: longitudinal and transverse bonding and antibonding dipole modes. With a traditional approach, which takes into account the spectral response of the antennas recorded at specific points, the modes cannot be experimentally identified with EELS. Therefore, we employ the spectral and spatial sensitivity of EELS simultaneously. We propose several metrics that can be utilized to resolve the modes. First, we utilize electrodynamic simulations to verify that the metrics indeed represent the spectral positions of the plasmon modes. Next, we apply the metrics to experimental data, demonstrating their ability to resolve three of the above-mentioned modes (with transverse bonding and antibonding modes still unresolved), identify them unequivocally, and determine their energies. In this respect, the spatio-spectral metrics increase the information extracted from electron energy loss spectroscopy applied to plasmonic antennas.

With consideration of parity-time (PT) symmetry, Lorentz reciprocity theorem, and real Bloch phase, we propose a generalized parametric space for any PT-symmetric unit cells that can comprehensively illustrate the PT phase transition, Bloch phase, and necessary conditions of exotic wave scattering in the general finite periodic PT photonic structures. We put forward rigorous and formal expressions of bi-directional reflectionless and coherent perfect absorption and lasing (CPAL) for the finite one-dimensional PT photonic structures. With a new concept of the parametric space, we demonstrate the necessary PT phases of general unit cells, which result in the abnormal bi-directional reflectionless and CPAL effects. Moreover, thanks to parametrization, analytical formulas for complex relative permittivities of the unit cells composed of subwavelength gain–loss heterostructure are derived to provide a guideline for manipulating different PT scattering events. We accordingly study several one-dimensional PT photonic systems to achieve exotic wave scattering enabled by PT-symmetry. We believe this work may offer a theoretical underpinning for studying extraordinary wave phenomena of PT-symmetric photonics and may open avenues for manipulation of light.

Strong coupling between electronic excitations in materials and photon modes results in the formation of polaritons, which display larger nonlinearities than their photonic counterparts due to their material component. We theoretically investigate how to optically control the topological properties of molecular and solid-state exciton–polariton systems by exploiting one such nonlinearity: saturation of electronic transitions. We demonstrate modification of the Berry curvature of three different materials when placed within a Fabry–Perot cavity and pumped with circularly polarized light, illustrating the broad applicability of our scheme. Importantly, while optical pumping leads to nonzero Chern invariants, unidirectional edge states do not emerge in our system as the bulk-boundary correspondence is not applicable. This work demonstrates a versatile approach to control topological properties of novel optoelectronic materials.

Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) is an attractive thermal-control material exhibiting low thermal hysteresis and excellent temperature cycling performance. However, the deficiencies including weak spectral shift and narrow-band absorption during insulating-metallic transitions hinder its application in optoelectronics. The transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) can provide a promising solution with their high dielectric properties and robust optical coupling. Here, we report a MoS 2 /VO 2 /Au/Si metasurface and investigate the dynamic tunability of its optical absorbance and structural color upon heating via spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements and numerical simulations. The first-principles calculations reveal that the dielectric absorptions of metallic and insulating VO 2 oppositely response to temperature, closely related to the difference in the transitions of O-2p states. Finite-element simulations reveal that the introduction of MoS 2 nanostructure induces more absorption peaks by 2∼3 and achieves strong absorption in the full wavelength range of visible light. The Fabry–Perot (F–P) resonance is the critical factor for the optimized optical absorption. The structural color is sensitive to environmental perturbations at high- ε state of VO 2 , lower oblique incidence angles, and heights of MoS 2 . This work seeks to facilitate the spectral modulation of phase change metamaterials and can be extended to photoelectric detection and temperature sensing applications.

Fano resonance from photonic crystal nanobeam cavity (PCNC) is important building block for large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to enable photonic switches and sensors with superior characteristics. Nevertheless, most state-of-the-art demonstrations rely on electron beam lithography (EBL) and operate in dielectric mode. Hence, we theoretically, numerically and experimentally present the characteristics of Fano resonance from optical interference between the discrete state of air-mode PCNC and the continuum mode of side-coupled line-defect waveguide with partially transmitting element (PTE) using deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography for the first time. Experimentally high average Q -factor of ∼1.58 × 10 4 is achieved for 30 measured devices, which indicates the feasibility of mass manufacture of high- Q Fano resonance from air-mode PTE-PCNC. Additionally, the thermo-optic bi-stability and thermal tuning characterizations of the proposed device are discussed. This work will contribute to building ultra-compact lab-on-chip resonance-based photonic components.

Achieving multifunctional wavefront manipulations of waves with a flat and thin plate is pivotal for high-capacity communications, which however is also challenging. A multi-layer metasurface with suppressed mode crosstalk provides an efficient recipe primarily for circular polarization, but all multiple functionalities still are confined to locked spin states and modes. Here, a multifunctional metasurface with spin-decoupled full-space wavefront control is reported by multiplexing both linear momentum and frequency degree of freedom. We employed vertically cascaded quadrangular patches and crossbars to integrate both geometric and dynamic phases and realized four channels between two spin states and two frequencies in distinct scattering modes (transmission and reflection). For verification, a proof-of-concept metadevice with four-port wavefront manipulations is experimentally demonstrated, exhibiting distinct functionalities including spin- and frequency-dependent focusing, quad-beam radiation, anomalous reflections, and Bessel beam generation. Our finding of full-space spin-decoupled metasurfaces would be important for high-capacity communications, multifunctional radar detections, and other applications.

PbS colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) can be considered a promising lighting material, but their emission performance is mired by defect sites, strong photo-induced activity, and interaction with the environment. Here, we utilize periodic silicon metasurface sustaining a symmetry-protected bound state in the continuum to enhance the near-infrared emission of PbS CQDs at room temperature. In the experimental investigation, it is observed that the fluorescence of the coated PbS CQDs is enhanced by 10 times by the fabricated metasurface, and the emission peak has a quality factor up to 251 at wavelength 1408 nm. Meanwhile, the potential of this work in sensing is demonstrated by showing that the enhanced emission is disturbed by the introduction of sparse gold nanoparticles. In all, this work confirms that dielectric metasurfaces sustaining bound states in the continuum can be adopted to efficiently improve the emission performance of PbS CQDs which may find various practical applications including on-chip silicon-based optical sources and integrated sensors.

Structured optical fields, such as cylindrical vector (CV) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, have attracted considerable attention due to their polarization singularities and helical phase wavefront structure. However, one of the most critical challenges is still the intelligent generation or precise control of these modes. Here, we demonstrate the first simulation and experimental realization of decomposing the CV and OAM modes by reconstructing the multi-view images of projected intensity distribution. Assisted by the deep learning–based stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm, the modal coefficients and optical field distributions can be retrieved in 1.32 s within an average error of 0.416 % showing high efficiency and accuracy. Especially, the interference pattern and quarter-wave plate are exploited to confirm the phase and distinguish elliptical or circular polarization direction, respectively. The generated donut modes are experimentally decomposed in the CV and OAM modes, where purity of CV modes reaches 99.5 %. Finally, fast switching vortex modes is achieved by electrically driving the polarization controller to deliver diverse CV modes. Our findings may provide a convenient way to characterize and deepen the understanding of CV or OAM modes in view of modal proportions, which is expected of latent applied value on information coding and quantum computation.

The control of information is a defining feature of the information age, and the optical modulator likewise has a crucial role in optical networks. The transmission, processing, and storage of data have demanded low energy consumption and high speed for photonic systems, promoting the development of electro-optic modulators to all-optical modulators. Although these all-optical modulation methods eliminate the photoelectric conversion, the disadvantage of volatile materials requiring continuous power supply when processing and retaining data in new materials-based devices increase energy consumption. We propose a Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST) integrated all-optical, nonvolatile optical modulator for in-fiber operation. The pulse-induced GST phase transition changes the reflectivity of the fiber end face, and this difference affects the result of the interference, achieving a modulation of output light intensity in interference spectra. The experimental results reveal that the device has obtained 13 dB interference intensity contrast in the telecommunications bands, and its response to a pump pulse is around 100 ns. Furthermore, we demonstrated the operation of the device as a scalar multiplication unit and a logic operation unit. The signal can be transmitted, processed, and stored in the fiber without photoelectric conversion. With the benefits of the switching power consumption of less than 100 nJ and the nonvolatile nature of GST, the device will be more energy-efficient in synchronous processing and storing. This in-fiber operating modulator lays the foundation for developing all-optical devices and networks.

As photonic linear computations are diverse and easy to realize while photonic nonlinear computations are relatively limited and difficult, we propose a novel way to perform photonic nonlinear computations by linear operations in a high-dimensional space, which can achieve many nonlinear functions different from existing optical methods. As a practical application, the arbitrary binary nonlinear computations between two Boolean signals are demonstrated to implement a programmable logic array. In the experiment, by programming the high-dimensional photonic matrix multiplier, we execute fourteen different logic operations with only one fixed nonlinear operation. Then the combined logic functions of half-adder and comparator are demonstrated at 10 Gbit/s. Compared with current methods, the proposed scheme simplifies the devices and the nonlinear operations for programmable logic computing. More importantly, nonlinear realization assisted by space transformation offers a new solution for optical digital computing and enriches the diversity of photonic nonlinear computing.

Hiding terrestrial objects from aerial monitoring has long been an important objective in national security and public safety. However, the diversity of terrestrial environments raises great challenges to traditional camouflages optimized for a single spectral band or single type of background environment, rendering them vulnerable in other bands or backgrounds. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate simultaneous visual and thermal camouflage that can adapt to two different environments based on a thermally emissive electrochromic layer. We first explore diverse possible theoretical solutions for dual-band dual-environmental camouflage by solving analytic constraints for camouflage and steady-state thermal conditions and select the most viable approach. Based on the theoretical analysis, we design active camouflage thin-film material systems that can approximate two different target visible and infrared signatures of backgrounds under proper bias voltage. Our potentially flexible camouflage surfaces can also conceal heat sources such as human body as well with tailored designs. These results provide new directions in multi-band stealth designs.