Coherent superposition of light from subwavelength sources is an attractive prospect for the manipulation of the direction, shape and polarization of optical beams. This phenomenon constitutes the basis of phased arrays, commonly used at microwave and radio frequencies. Here we propose a new concept for phased-array sources at infrared frequencies based on metamaterial nanocavities coupled to a highly nonlinear semiconductor heterostructure. Optical pumping of the nanocavity induces a localized, phase-locked, nonlinear resonant polarization that acts as a source feed for a higher-order resonance of the nanocavity. Varying the nanocavity design enables the production of beams with arbitrary shape and polarization. As an example, we demonstrate two second harmonic phased-array sources that perform two optical functions at the second harmonic wavelength (∼5 μm): a beam splitter and a polarizing beam splitter. Proper design of the nanocavity and nonlinear heterostructure will enable such phased arrays to span most of the infrared spectrum.

We have applied scanning tunneling spectroscopy in studies of the electronic level structure of surface-functionalized colloidal Si nanocrystals (Si-NCs) as a function of their size for various capping ligands. The energy gaps extracted from the tunneling spectra increase with decreasing NC size, manifesting the effect of quantum confinement. This is consistent with the blueshift revealed by photoluminescence (PL) from dodecene functionalized Si-NCs. The tunneling spectra measured on NCs functionalized with NH4Br or allylamine show band-edge shifts toward higher energies, akin to p-type doping. This behavior can be accounted for by the combined contributions of the ligands' dipole moments and charge transfer between a Si-NC and its surface groups. Concomitantly, size-independent PL spectra, which cannot be associated with NC band gap variations, were observed for the latter Si-NCs.

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.

A prominent nonlinear optical phenomenon that is extensively studied using nanostructured materials is second-harmonic generation (SHG) as it has applications in various fields. Achieving efficient SHG from a nanostructure requires a large second-order nonlinear susceptibility of the material system and large electromagnetic fields. For practical applications, the nanostructures should also have low losses, high damage thresholds, large bandwidths, wavelength scalability, dual mode operation in transmission and reflection, monolithic integrability, and ease of fabrication. While various approaches have demonstrated efficient SHG, to the best of our knowledge, none have demonstrated all these desired qualities simultaneously. Here, we present a hybrid approach for realizing efficient SHG in an ultrathin dielectricsemiconductor nonlinear device with all the above-mentioned desired properties. Our approach uses high quality factor leaky mode resonances in dielectric metasurfaces that are coupled to intersubband transitions of semiconductor quantum wells. Using our device, we demonstrate SHG at pump wavelengths ranging from 8.5 to 11 μm, with a maximum second-harmonic nonlinear conversion factor of 1.1 mW/W 2 and maximum second-harmonic conversion efficiency of 2.5 × 10 −5 at modest pump intensities of 10 kW/cm 2 . Our results open a new direction for designing low loss, broadband, and efficient ultrathin nonlinear optical devices.

We report wiring of individual colloidal nanorods (NRs), 30-60 nm long by 3.5-5 nm diameter. Strong electrical coupling is achieved by electron beam induced deposition (EBID) of metallic lines targeting NR tips with nanometric precision. At T ) 4 K many devices exhibit smooth I(V) curves with no sharp onset features, which remarkably fit a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling model. All devices exhibit an anomalous exponential temperature dependence of the form I ∼ exp(T/T 0 ). This irregular behavior cannot be explained by any hopping or activation model and is interpreted by accounting for the lowering of the NR conduction band due to lattice dilation and phonon coupling.

We use planar metamaterial resonators to enhance by more than two orders of magnitude the near infrared second harmonic generation obtained from intersubband transitions in III-Nitride heterostructures. The improvement arises from two factors: employing an asymmetric double quantum well design and aligning the resonators' cross-polarized resonances with the intersubband transition energies. The resulting nonlinear metamaterial operates at wavelengths where single photon detection is available, and represents a different class of sources for quantum photonics related phenomena. V

Electrical current measurements through individually wired colloidal CdSe nanorods exhibit pronounced multistability. This current switching is analogous to the widely observed fluorescence intermittency in similar systems and may be associated with surface charge dynamics. Such association is quantitatively established for the case when the current is bistable, where the probability of the sojourn time t at the high or low current state follows an exponential dependence. Remarkably, this behavior can be modeled by charging dynamics of a single surface trap, whose position could be estimated from the intermittent current-voltage characteristics. The methodology presented here provides a unique route for charge dynamic sensing at the nanoscale, where the nanorod senses its own surface charge.

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