Search

A temporal boundary refers to a specific time at which the properties of an optical medium are abruptly changed. When light interacts with the temporal boundary, its spectral content can be redistributed due to the breaking of continuous time-translational symmetry of the medium where light resides. In this work, we use this principle to demonstrate, at terahertz (THz) frequencies, the resonance-enhanced spectral funneling of light coupled to a Fabry–Perot resonator with a temporal boundary mirror. To produce a temporal boundary effect, we abruptly increase the reflectance of a mirror constituting the Fabry–Perot resonator and, correspondingly, its quality factor in a step-like manner. The abrupt increase in the mirror reflectance leads to a trimming of the coupled THz pulse that causes the pulse to broaden in the spectral domain. Through this dynamic resonant process, the spectral contents of the input THz pulse are redistributed into the modal frequencies of the high-Q Fabry–Perot resonator formed after the temporal boundary. An energy conversion efficiency of up to 33% was recorded for funneling into the fundamental mode with a Fabry–Perot resonator exhibiting a sudden Q-factor change from 4.8 to 48. We anticipate that the proposed resonance-enhanced spectral funneling technique could be further utilized in the development of efficient mechanically tunable narrowband terahertz sources for diverse applications.

Owning to their unusual optical properties, such as electrical tunability and strong spatial confinement, two-dimensional surface polaritons (2DSPs) hold great promise for deep sub-wavelength manipulation of light in a reduced low-dimensional space. Control of 2DSPs is possible by using their interaction with a boundary between two media, similar to how light behaves in three-dimensional (3D) space. The understanding of the interaction in the 2D case is still in its early stages, unlike the 3D case, as in-depth investigations are only available in a few cases including the interaction of 2DSPs with structured 2D crystals. Here, we extend the scope of our understanding to the interaction of 2DSPs with metallic nano-plates on 2D crystals, focusing on the reflection of 2DSPs. Through our rigorous model, we reveal that, for strongly confined 2DSPs having much larger momentum than free space photons, the interaction results in almost total internal reflection of 2DSPs as the radiative coupling of the 2DSPs to free space is negligible. We also find that the reflection involves an anomalous phase shift dependent on the thickness of the nano-plate, due to the temporary storing of electromagnetic energy in the evanescent waves induced near the edge of the nano-plate. Our theory predicts that the phase shift saturates to an anomalous value, 0.885π, as the nano-plate becomes thicker. Our work provides a detailed understanding of how to manipulate the 2DSPs by using one of the simplest nanostructures, essential for the further development of nanostructure-integrated low-dimensional devices for polariton optics.

Periodically driven systems are ubiquitously found in both classical and quantum regimes. In the field of photonics, these Floquet systems have begun to provide insight into how time periodicity can extend the concept of spatially periodic photonic crystals and metamaterials to the time domain. However, despite the necessity arising from the presence of nonreciprocal coupling between states in a photonic Floquet medium, a unified non-Hermitian band structure description remains elusive. We experimentally reveal the unique Bloch-Floquet and non-Bloch band structures of a photonic Floquet medium emulated in the microwave regime with a one-dimensional array of time-periodically driven resonators. These non-Hermitian band structures are shown to be two measurable distinct subsets of complex eigenfrequency surfaces of the photonic Floquet medium defined in complex momentum space.

We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the drastic changes in the wavelength scaling of tightly coupled metasurfaces caused by deep subwavelength variations in the distance between the unit resonators but no change in the length scale of the units themselves. This coupling-dependent wavelength scaling is elucidated by our model metasurfaces of ring resonators arranged with deep subwavelength lattice spacing g, and we show that narrower g results in rapider changes in wavelength scaling. Also, by using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, we experimentally observed a significant shift of the spectral response arising from very small variations in lattice spacing, confirming our theoretical predictions.

It has been demonstrated that circular dichroism (CD) signals from chiral molecules can be boosted by plasmonic nanostructures inducing strong local electromagnetic fields. To optimize nanostructures to improve CD enhancement, numerical simulations such as the finite element method (FEM) have been widely adopted. However, FEM calculations for CD have been frequently hampered by unwanted numerical artifacts due to improperly discretizing problem spaces. Here, we introduce a new meshing rule for FEM that provides CD simulations with superior numerical accuracy. We show that unwanted numerical artifacts can be suppressed by implementing the mirror-symmetric mesh configuration that generates identical numerical artifacts in the two-opposite circularly polarized waves, which cancel each other out in the final CD result. By applying our meshing scheme, we demonstrate a nanostructure/chiral molecule coupled system from which the CD signal is significantly enhanced. Since our meshing scheme addresses the previously unresolved issue of discriminating between very small CD signals and numerical errors, it can be directly applied to numerical simulations featuring natural chiral molecules which have intrinsically weak chiroptical responses.

Circular dichroism (CD), the difference in absorption of two opposite circularly polarized light sources by chiral molecules, can be significantly enhanced when molecules are adsorbed on the surface of nanostructures. We present a theory based on Poynting’s theorem adapted for chiral media to analyze the surface-enhanced CD of a chiral molecule/nanostructure coupled system. Our theory clarifies the microscopic origin of surface-enhanced CD signals by showing that the enhanced CD has two forms, inherent and induced. The inherent CD is the direct molecular CD that becomes enhanced due to the strongly localized optical helicity density near the nanostructure. The induced CD, previously ignored, derives from asymmetric excitation and absorption of electromagnetic fields inside the nanostructures surrounded by chiral molecules upon the injection of two oppositely circularly polarized light sources. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the induced CD can contribute significantly to the CD signals measured by surfa...

A waveplate, well known as a phase retarder, manipulates the polarization state of incident light travelling through it and is a necessary component in many optical systems. Generally, waveplates are constructed out of birefringent materials which lead to the different phase retardation of incident light according to initial polarization state. For the terahertz (THz) spectral range, however, there are some limitations including thickness, transmission, and cost for the waveplate fabrication due to the lack of natural materials that possess strong birefringence in this region. Recently, THz waveplates based on metasurfaces have been proposed to overcome this limitation. Single-layered metasurfaces have been utilized as THz quarter-waveplates (QWPs), for which a retarded phase of 90 degrees is sufficient. [1]. To achieve phase retardation of 180 degrees and realize THz half-waveplates (HWP), stacked single-layered metasurfaces have been adopted [2], but this approach requires sophisticated fabrication processes and sacrifices structural simplicity.

MXenes, an emerging class of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and nitrides, have attracted wide attention because of their fascinating properties required in functional electronics. Here, an atomic-switch-type artificial synapse fabricated on Ti3 C2 Tx MXene nanosheets with lots of surface functional groups, which successfully mimics the dynamics of biological synapses, is reported. Through in-depth analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, it is found that the synaptic dynamics originated from the gradual formation and annihilation of the conductive metallic filaments on the MXene surface with distributed functional groups. Subsequently, via training and inference tasks using a convolutional neural network for the Canadian-Institute-For-Advanced-Research-10 dataset, the applicability of the artificial MXene synapse to hardware neural networks is demonstrated.

Photonic crystals have revolutionized the field of optics with their unique dispersion and energy band gap engineering capabilities, such as the demonstration of extreme group and phase velocities, topologically protected photonic edge states, and control of spontaneous emission of photons. Time-variant media have also shown distinct functionalities, including nonreciprocal propagation, frequency conversion, and amplification of light. However, spatiotemporal modulation has mostly been studied as a simple harmonic wave function. Here, we analyze time-variant and spatially discrete photonic crystal structures, referred to as spatiotemporal crystals. The design of spatiotemporal crystals allows engineering of the momentum band gap within which parametric amplification can occur. As a potential platform for the construction of a parametric oscillator, a finite-sized spatiotemporal crystal is proposed and analyzed. Parametric oscillation is initiated by the energy and momentum conversion of an incident wave and the subsequent amplification by parametric gain within the momentum band gap. The oscillation process dominates over frequency mixing interactions above a transition threshold determined by the balance between gain and loss. Furthermore, the asymmetric formation of momentum band gaps can be realized by spatial phase control of the temporal modulation, which leads to directional radiation of oscillations at distinct frequencies. The proposed structure would enable simultaneous engineering of energy and momentum band gaps and provide a guideline for implementation of advanced dispersion-engineered parametric oscillators.

We propose a single-layer terahertz metasurface that acts as an efficient terahertz waveplate, providing phase retardation of up to 180° with a tunable operation frequency. Designed with the tight coupling of elementary resonators, our metasurface provides extraordinarily strong hyperbolicity that is closely associated with the distance between resonators, enabling both significant phase retardation and spectral tunability through mechanical deformation. The proposed concept of terahertz waveplates based on relatively simple metastructures fabricated on stretchable polydimethylsiloxane is experimentally confirmed using terahertz spectroscopy. It is believed that the proposed design will pave the way for a diverse range of terahertz applications.

We present a theory of the microscopic origins of the surface-enhanced circular dichroism (CD) with nanostructures. Recently, nanostructures and metamaterials have been used for the enhancement of CD signals of chiral molecules. However, the complete description of microscopic origins of the surface-enhanced circular dichroism (CD) has never been achieved. We find the total CD signals of the nanostructure coupled to chiral molecules can be decomposed into two factors: the induced and inherent CD. The inherent CD comes from the molecular absorption which can be enhanced by the strongly localized optical helicity density of resonant near-fields near the nanostructure. The induced CD is originated from the asymmetric absorption of light inside the nanostructure perturbed by nearby chiral molecules upon two opposite circularly polarized light. The recent surge of interest in the surface-enhanced CD spectroscopy has been inspired by the inherent CD enhancement, but our work shows that the induced CD can significantly contribute to the total CD signal of the chiral molecule/nanostructure coupled system. Using an example of gold nanodisk arrays, we demonstrate that the inherent and induced CD can compete with each other in plasmonic nanostructures. In this presentation, we also provide design principles for CD sensor using nanostructures and metamaterials.

Due to the relatively weak birefringence of natural materials in terahertz regime, metasurfaces have been proposed for compact terahertz phase modulators since they show effectively strong birefringence only with ultrathin structures. However, previous designs of metasurface show limited phase modulation reaching only up to the quarter-wavelength phase, and there has been no single metasurface design that works for a terahertz half-waveplate. Here, we present a metasurface that modulates the phase variably up to 180 degrees. The phase modulation is achieved by a hyperbolic metasurface composed of periodically arrayed rectangular metal rings with different periods for horizontal and vertical axis. By controlling each period, we show that our hyperbolic metasurface can possess large positive and negative permittivity values for horizontal and vertical axis and the phase shift can reach up to the 180 degrees. To check the validity of our design, we fabricate reconfigurable metasurface films and demonstrate the phase modulation 90 to 180 degrees. All results show good agreement with numerical simulation results.

Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. The effects of Fano resonance on the optical chirality of planar plasmonic nanodevices in the visible wavelength range are experimentally observed and theoretically explained. The nanodevice consists of a nanodisk at the center with surrounding six gold nanorods with an orientation angle to exhibit optical chirality under dark-field illumination. The chiral response induced by the gold nanorods is affected by the presence of the nanodisk with different diameters which causes Fano resonance of different coupling strength. An intriguing change to the opposite selection preference of different handedness of the circularly polarized light has been clearly observed experimentally. This change of the preference is understood based on the coupled localized surface plasmon model. Moreover, electrostatic analysis and the time-dependent simulations provide a further understanding of the phenomenon. The observed and understood effects of Fano resonance on optical chirality enables effective manipulation of chiral characteristics of planar subwavelength nanodevices.

Metamaterials, artificially constructed structures that mimic lattices in natural materials, have made numerous contributions to the development of unconventional optical devices. With an increasing demand for more diverse functionalities, terahertz (THz) metamaterials are also expanding their domain, from the realm of mere passive devices to the broader area where functionalized active THz devices are particularly required. A brief review on THz metamaterials is given with a focus on research conducted in the authors' group. The first part is centered on enhanced THz optical responses from tightly coupled meta-atom structures, such as high refractive index, enhanced optical activity, anomalous wavelength scaling, large phase retardation, and nondispersive polarization rotation. Next, electrically gated graphene metamaterials are reviewed with an emphasis on the functionalization of enhanced THz optical responses. Finally, the linear frequency conversion of THz waves in a rapidly time-variant THz metamaterial is briefly discussed in the more general context of spatiotemporal control of light.

We present a microscopic origin of metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in tightly-coupled metamaterials. Like Mott transition in crystal solid, MIT in metamaterial is shown to arise when the distance between unit resonators passes the critical gap-size.

We demonstrate for the first time that chiral electromagnetic fields display Fano resonance using nano-hole metasurfaces. We show the nano-hole structure can be utilized as biosensors to detect chiral molecules.