Ultrafast optical excitation of photocarriers has the potential to transform undoped semiconductor superlattices into semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs). In this paper, we investigate the ...optical properties associated with such ultrafast topological transitions. We first show reflectance, transmittance, and absorption under TE and TM plane wave incidence. In the unpumped state, the superlattice exhibits a frequency region with high reflectance (>80%) and a region with low reflectance (<1%) for both TE and TM polarizations over a wide range of incidence angles. In contrast, in the photopumped state, the reflectance for both frequencies and polarizations is very low (<1 %) for a similar range of angles. Interestingly, this system can function as an all-optical reflection switch on ultrafast timescales. Furthermore, for TM incidence and close to the epsilon-near-zero point of the longitudinal permittivity, directional perfect absorption on ultrafast timescales may also be achieved. Finally, we discuss the onset of negative refraction in the photopumped state.
We study semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs) at the quantum limit experimentally using spectroscopic ellipsometry as well as theoretically using a new microscopic theory. The theory is a ...combination of microscopic density matrix approach for the material response and Green's function approach for the propagating electric field. Our approach predicts absorptivity of the full multilayer system and for the first time allows the prediction of in-plane and out-of-plane dielectric functions for every individual layer constructing the SHM as well as effective dielectric functions that can be used to describe a homogenized SHM.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
All-dielectric metasurfaces made from arrays of high index nanoresonators supporting strong magnetic dipole modes have emerged as a low-loss alternative to plasmonic metasurfaces. Here we use ...oxygen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as quantum emitters and couple them to silicon metasurfaces to study effects of the magnetic dipole modes of the constituent nanoresonators on the photoluminescence (PL) of individual SWCNTs. We find that when in resonance, the magnetic mode of the silicon nanoresonators can lead to a moderate average PL enhancement of 0.8–4.0 of the SWCNTs, accompanied by an average increase in the radiative decay rate by a factor of 1.5–3.0. More interestingly, single dopant polarization experiments show an anomalous photoluminescence polarization rotation by coupling individual SWCNTs to silicon nanoresonators. Numerical simulations indicate that this is caused by modification of near-field polarization distribution at certain areas in the proximity of the silicon nanoresonators at the excitation wavelength, thus presenting an approach to control emission polarization. These findings indicate silicon nanoresonators as potential building blocks of quantum photonic circuits capable of manipulating PL intensity and polarization of single photon sources.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
We demonstrate numerically that two-dimensional arrays of ultrathin CdTe nano-cylinders on Ag can serve as an effective broadband anti-reflection structure for solar cell applications. Such devices ...exhibit strong absorption properties, mainly in the CdTe semiconductor regions, and can produce short-circuit current densities of 23.4 mA/cm(2), a remarkable number in the context of solar cells given the ultrathin dimensions of our nano-cylinders. The strong absorption is enabled via excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) under plane wave incidence. In particular, we identified the key absorption mechanism as enhanced fields of the SPP standing waves residing at the interface of CdTe nano-cylinders and Ag. We compare the performance of Ag, Au, and Al substrates, and observe significant improvement when using Ag, highlighting the importance of using low-loss metals. Although we use CdTe here, the proposed approach is applicable to other solar cell materials with similar absorption properties.
Recent advances in nanoscience have opened ways of recycling substrates for nanomaterial growth. Novel materials, such as atomically thin materials, are highly desirable for the recycling substrates. ...In this work, we report recycling of monolayer graphene as a growth template for synthesis of single crystalline ZnO nanowires. Selective nucleation of ZnO nanowires on graphene was elucidated by scanning electron microscopy and density functional theory calculation. Growth and subsequent separation of ZnO nanowires was repeated up to seven times on the same monolayer graphene film. Raman analyses were also performed to investigate the quality of graphene structure along the recycling processes. The chemical robustness of graphene enables the repetitive ZnO nanowire growth without noticeable degradation of the graphene quality. This work presents a route for graphene as a multifunctional growth template for diverse nanomaterials such as nanocrystals, aligned nanowires, other two-dimensional materials, and semiconductor thin films.
•A hydronium oxofluorotitanate phase is formed by reaction of gaseous HF with amorphous titania.•The reaction product is characterized by ellipsometry, XPS, Auger spectroscopy, and XRD.•The extent of ...reaction is found to depend on both HF concentration and relative humidity.•Gaseous HF at concentrations as low as 1ppm was detectable at moderate relative humidity.
Amorphous titania thin films were examined for use as the active material in a polarimetry based HF sensor. The amorphous titania films were found to be sensitive to vapor phase HF and the reaction product was identified as a hydronium oxofluorotitanate phase, which has previously only been synthesized in aqueous solution. The extent of reaction varied both with vapor phase HF concentration, relative humidity, and the exposure time. HF concentrations as low as 1ppm could be detected for exposure times of 120h.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The realization of metamaterials or metasurfaces with simultaneous electric and magnetic response and low loss is generally very challenging at optical frequencies. Traditional approaches using ...nanoresonators made of noble metals, while suitable for the microwave and terahertz regimes, fail at frequencies above the near-infrared, due to prohibitive high dissipative losses and the breakdown of scaling resulting from the electron mass contribution (kinetic inductance) to the effective reactance of these plasmonic meta-atoms. The alternative route based on Mie resonances of high-index dielectric particles normally leads to structure sizes that tend to break the effective-medium approximation. Here, we propose a subwavelength dark-state-based metasurface, which enables configurable simultaneous electric and magnetic responses with low loss. Proof-of-concept metasurface samples, specifically designed around telecommunication wavelengths (i.e., λ ≈ 1.5 μm), were fabricated and investigated experimentally to validate our theoretical concept. Because the electromagnetic field energy is localized and stored predominantly inside a dark resonant dielectric bound state, the proposed metasurfaces can overcome the loss issue associated with plasmonic resonators made of noble metals and enable scaling to very high operation frequency without suffering from saturation of the resonance frequency due to the kinetic inductance of the electrons.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
We demonstrate experimentally signatures and dispersion control of surface plasmon polaritons from 1 to 1.8 µm using periodic multilayer metallo-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterials. The fabricated ...structures are comprised of smooth films with very low metal filling factor. The measured dispersion properties of these hyperbolic metamaterials agree well with calculations using transfer matrix, finite-difference time-domain, and effective medium approximation methods despite using only 2.5 periods. The enhancement factor in the local photonic density of states from the studied samples in the near-infrared wavelength region is determined to be 2.5-3.5. Development of this type of metamaterial is relevant to sub-wavelength imaging, spontaneous emission and thermophotovoltaic applications.
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