Probing optical excitations with high resolution is important for understanding their dynamics and controlling their interaction with other photonic elements. This can be done using state-of-the-art ...electron microscopes, which provide the means to sample optical excitations with combined meV–sub-nm energy-space resolution. For reciprocal photonic systems, electrons traveling in opposite directions produce identical signals, while this symmetry is broken in nonreciprocal structures. Here, we theoretically investigate this phenomenon by analyzing electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and cathodoluminescence (CL) for structures consisting of magnetically biased InAs as an instance of gyrotropic nonreciprocal material. We find that the spectral features associated with excitations of InAs films depend on the electron propagation direction in both EELS and CL, and can be tuned by varying the applied magnetic field within a relatively modest subtesla regime. The magnetic field modifies the optical field distribution of the sampled resonances, and this in turn produces a direction-dependent coupling to the electron. The present results pave the way to the use of electron microscope spectroscopies to explore the near-field characteristics of nonreciprocal systems with high spatial resolution.
Electro-optical modulation of visible and near-infrared light is important for a wide variety of applications, ranging from communications to sensing and smart windows. However, currently available ...approaches result in rather bulky devices, suffer from low integrability, and can hardly operate at the low power consumption levels and fast switching rates required by microelectronic drivers. Here we show that planar nanostructures patterned in ultrathin metal-graphene hybrid films sustain highly tunable plasmons in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. Strong variations in the reflection and absorption of incident light take place when the plasmons are tuned on- and off-resonance with respect to externally incident light. As a result, a remarkable modulation depth (i.e., the maximum relative variation with/without graphene doping) exceeding 90% in transmission and even more dramatic in reflection (>600%) is predicted for graphene-loaded silver films of 1-5 nm thickness and currently attainable lateral dimensions. These new structures hold great potential for fast low-power electro-optical modulation.
Fast modulation and switching of light at visible and near-infrared (vis–NIR) frequencies are of utmost importance for optical signal processing and sensing technologies. No fundamental limit appears ...to prevent us from designing wavelength-sized devices capable of controlling the light phase and intensity at gigahertz (and even terahertz) speeds in those spectral ranges. However, this problem remains largely unsolved, despite recent advances in the use of quantum wells and phase-change materials for that purpose. Here, we explore an alternative solution based upon the remarkable electro-optical properties of graphene. In particular, we predict unity-order changes in the transmission and absorption of vis–NIR light produced upon electrical doping of graphene sheets coupled to realistically engineered optical cavities. The light intensity is enhanced at the graphene plane and so is its absorption, which can be switched and modulated via Pauli blocking through varying the level of doping. Specifically, we explore dielectric planar cavities operating under either tunneling or Fabry–Perot resonant transmission conditions, as well as Mie modes in silicon nanospheres and lattice resonances in metal particle arrays. Our simulations reveal absolute variations in transmission exceeding 90% as well as an extinction ratio of >15 dB with small insertion losses using feasible material parameters, thus supporting the application of graphene in fast electro-optics at vis–NIR frequencies.
The past decade has witnessed the realization of numerous different types of graphene photodetectors with a strong focus on the visible and near-infrared spectral range, in which various ...high-performance photodetectors exist based on traditional materials such as silicon and III–V compound semiconductors. However, high-speed mid-infrared photodetection at room temperature is still an unsolved challenge, despite its importance in applications such as security, sensing, and imaging. Here we address this challenge by demonstrating that high-quality graphene is an ideal high-speed bolometric material for the less-explored yet critical mid-infrared photodetection at room temperature, due to its broadband absorption, small heat capacity, and remarkably large temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of up to around 1% per Kelvin, which is comparable to that of commercial bolometric materials. We demonstrate a device based on graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibiting decent extrinsic responsivities of 5.1–1.4 mA/W in the 3.4–12 μm wavelength range at room temperature, and further predict a detection bandwidth of at least 47 MHz. Our demonstration lays the foundations for graphene high-speed mid-infrared technologies.
Manipulation of the propagation and energy-transport characteristics of subwavelength infrared (IR) light fields is critical for the application of nanophotonic devices in photocatalysis, biosensing, ...and thermal management. In this context, metamaterials are useful composite materials, although traditional metal-based structures are constrained by their weak mid-IR response, while their associated capabilities for optical propagation and focusing are limited by the size of attainable artificial optical structures and the poor performance of the available active means of control. Herein, a tunable planar focusing device operating in the mid-IR region is reported by exploiting highly oriented in-plane hyperbolic phonon polaritons in α-MoO
. Specifically, an unprecedented change of effective focal length of polariton waves from 0.7 to 7.4 μm is demonstrated by the following three different means of control: the dimension of the device, the employed light frequency, and engineering of phonon-plasmon hybridization. The high confinement characteristics of phonon polaritons in α-MoO
permit the focal length and focal spot size to be reduced to 1/15 and 1/33 of the incident wavelength, respectively. In particular, the anisotropic phonon polaritons supported in α-MoO
are combined with tunable surface-plasmon polaritons in graphene to realize in situ and dynamical control of the focusing performance, thus paving the way for phonon-polariton-based planar nanophotonic applications.
Strong coupling in light-matter systems is a central concept in cavity quantum electrodynamics and is essential for many quantum technologies. Especially in the optical range, full control of highly ...connected multi-qubit systems necessitates quantum coherent probes with nanometric spatial resolution, which are currently inaccessible. Here, we propose the use of free electrons as high-resolution quantum sensors for strongly coupled light-matter systems. Shaping the free-electron wave packet enables the measurement of the quantum state of the entire hybrid systems. We specifically show how quantum interference of the free-electron wave packet gives rise to a quantum-enhanced sensing protocol for the position and dipole orientation of a subnanometer emitter inside a cavity. Our results showcase the great versatility and applicability of quantum interactions between free electrons and strongly coupled cavities, relying on the unique properties of free electrons as strongly interacting flying qubits with miniscule dimensions.
Ultrafast light-induced spatiotemporal dynamics in metals in the form of electron and/or phonon heating is a fundamental physical process that has tremendous practical relevance. In particular, ...understanding the resulting lateral heat transport is of key importance for various (opto)electronic applications and thermal management but has attracted little attention. Here, by using scanning ultrafast thermo-modulation microscopy to track the spatiotemporal electron diffusion in thin gold films, we show that a few picoseconds after the optical pump there is unexpected heat flow from phonons to electrons, accompanied by negative effective thermal diffusion, characterized by shrinking of the spatial region with increased temperature. Peculiarly, this occurs on the intermediate time scale, between the few picosecond long thermalization stage and the many picosecond stage dominated by thermoacoustic vibrations. We accurately reproduced these experimental results by calculating the spatiotemporal photothermal response based on the two-temperature model and an improvement of the standard permittivity model for gold. Our findings facilitate the design of nanoscale thermal management strategies in photonic, optoelectronic, and high-frequency electronic devices.
The two-dimensionality of graphene and other layered materials can be exploited to simplify the theoretical description of their plasmonic and polaritonic modes. We present an analytical theory that ...allows us to simulate these excitations in laterally patterned structures in terms of plasmon wave functions (PWFs). Closed-form expressions are offered for their associated extinction spectra, involving only two real parameters for each plasmon mode and graphene morphology, which we calculate and tabulate once and for all. Classical and quantum-mechanical formulations of this PWF formalism are introduced, in excellent mutual agreement for armchaired islands with >10 nm characteristic size. Examples of application are presented to predict both plasmon-induced transparency in interacting nanoribbons and excellent sensing capabilities through the response to the dielectric environment. We argue that the PWF formalism has general applicability and allows us to analytically describe a wide range of 2D polaritonic behavior, thus providing a convenient tool for the design of actual devices.
Plasmonsthe collective oscillations of electrons in conducting materialsplay a pivotal role in nanophotonics because of their ability to couple electronic and photonic degrees of freedom. In ...particular, plasmons in graphenethe atomically thin carbon materialoffer strong spatial confinement and long lifetimes, accompanied by extraordinary optoelectronic properties derived from its peculiar electronic band structure. Understandably, this material has generated great expectations for its application to enhanced integrated devices. However, an efficient scheme for detecting graphene plasmons remains a challenge. Here we show that extremely compact graphene nanostructures are capable of realizing on-chip electrical detection of single plasmons. Specifically, we predict a 2-fold increase in the electrical current across a graphene nanostructure junction caused by the excitation of a single plasmon. This effect, which is due to the increase in electron temperature following plasmon decay, should persist during a picosecond time interval characteristic of electron-gas relaxation. We further show that a broad spectral detection range is accessible either by electrically doping the junction or by varying the size of the nanostructure. The proposed graphene plasmometer could find application as a basic component of future optics-free integrated nanoplasmonic devices.
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