Broadband Epsilon-Near-Zero Perfect Absorption in the Near-Infrared

Yoon, Junho; Zhou, Ming; Badsha, Md. Alamgir; Kim, Tae Young; Jun, Young Chul; Hwangbo, Chang Kwon

doi:10.1038/srep12788

Cited by 132 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…(10). In certain applications, it is desirable to realize the perfect photon absorption with a broad bandwidth [31]. For the CQED system, one can have a cavity with >> while operating in the linear excitation regime of the CQED system with and at resonance (p=c=0); then by matching the condition .…”

Section: Theoretical Model and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfect photon absorption in the nonlinear regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics

Agarwal

Wang

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It has been shown that perfect photon absorption can occur in the linear excitation regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED), in which photons from two identical light fields coupled into two ends of the cavity are completely absorbed and result in excitation of the polariton state of the CQED system. The output light from the cavity is totally suppressed by the destructive interference and the polariton state can only decay incoherently back to the ground state. Here we analyze the perfect photon absorption and onset of optical bistability in the nonlinear regime of the CQED and show that the perfect photon absorption persists in the nonlinear regime of the CQED below the threshold of the optical bistability. Therefore the perfect photon absorption is a phenomenon that can be observed in both linear and nonlinear regimes of CQED. Furthermore, our study reveals for the first time that the optical bistability is influenced by the input-light interference and can be manipulated by varying the relative phase of the two input fields.

show abstract

Section: Theoretical Model and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfect photon absorption in the nonlinear regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics

Agarwal

Wang

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Of particular relevance for this work are materials which exhibit a real part of the dielectric permittivity that is zero, or close to zero, such as transparent conducting oxides where their permittivity cross over is typically located in the near infrared spectral region. The linear properties of these "epsilon-near-zero" (ENZ) materials have been investigated [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] for applications ranging from controlling the radiation pattern of electromagnetic sources to novel waveguiding regimes and perfect absorption. Similarly, the nonlinear properties have also been shown to be largely effected by the ENZ condition [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], and recently it has been theoretically predicted that the interplay between linear and nonlinear properties of ENZ bulk materials may allow threedimensional self-trapping of light [41].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index inε-Near-Zero Materials

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New propagation regimes for light arise from the ability to tune the dielectric permittivity to extremely low values. Here we demonstrate a universal approach based on the low linear permittivity values attained in the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regime for enhancing the nonlinear refractive index, which enables remarkable light-induced changes of the material properties. Experiments performed on Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films show a six-fold increase of the Kerr nonlinear refractive index (n2) at the ENZ wavelength, located in the 1300 nm region. This in turn leads to ultrafast light-induced refractive index changes of the order of unity, thus representing a new paradigm for nonlinear optics.The nonlinear optical response of matter to light is, by its very nature, a perturbative and hence typically weak effect. Applications, e.g. for nonlinear optical switches or quantum optics, are therefore largely underpinned by the continuous endeavour to attain stronger and more efficient light-matter interactions. Nonlinear mechanisms can typically be classified as resonant or non-resonant, depending on the frequency of light with respect to the characteristic electronic resonances of the material. Non resonant nonlinearities, like those present in transparent crystals or amorphous materials (e.g. fused silica glass), are generally weak and require high light intensities and/or very long samples to take advantage of an extended light matter interaction. Conversely, resonant nonlinearities can be several orders of magnitude stronger, but this comes at the price of introducing detrimental losses. A typical example is that of metals, which both reflect and absorb light strongly [1][2][3]. An alternative approach to enhance the nonlinear response of a material consists of creating artificial electromagnetic resonances, for example by stacking materials of different refractive index or using other types of composite materials [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Creating resonant metaldielectric stacks and composites yields a very strong nonlinear enhancement [12][13][14], but inevitably exacerbates the detrimental role of linear and nonlinear losses. Here we propose a different approach to enhance the effective nonlinearity without resorting to optical resonances. Our approach relies on enhancing the nonlinear effect, measured in terms of the nonlinear Kerr index n 2 , rather than on a direct enhancement of the intrinsic χ (3) nonlinear susceptibility. As we show below, this enhancement arises due to the fact that the nonlinear refractive index is a function of both the nonlinear susceptibility and the linear refractive index. Recent progress in material design and fabrication has provided access to the full range of linear optical properties bounded by dielectric and metallic regimes. Of particular relevance for this work are materials which exhibit a real part of the dielectric permittivity that is zero, or close to zero, such as transparent conducting oxides where their permittivity cross over is typically located in the near infrared s...

show abstract

Section: Metamaterialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the following, the dielectric constant is set to 10 −4 . Note that recent contributions on conductive oxide materials for ENZ applications show a real part of the dielectric constant that goes continuously from positive to negative values [14][15][16]. Then, it is realistic to expect values as small as 10…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent alternative relies on the management of the plasma frequency [13] at which the dielectric permittivity reaches zero. In solid-state photonics, recent contributions have shown the feasibility of ENZ materials at telecommunication frequencies by adjusting the free carrier concentration of transparent conducting oxides such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) or Aluminium Zinc Oxide (AZO) [14][15][16], paving the way to practical implementations and to the validation of proposed ENZ concepts.In this work, we numerically address the second issue that concerns the transmission efficiency through an ENZ region in the context of ENZ-based wavefront shaping. We propose a practical implementation for shaping a dipolar emission into a plane wave with a transmission efficiency as high as 15 % that is four orders of magnitude higher than devices proposed in ref [9].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Improving the transmittance of an epsilon-near-zero-based wavefront shaper

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although Epsilon-Near-Zero metamaterials (ENZ) offer many unconventional ways to play with light, the optical impedance mismatch with surroundings can limit the efficiency of future devices. We report here on the improvement of the transmittance of an Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) wavefront shaper. We first address in this paper the way to enhance the transmittance of a plane wave through a layer of ENZ material thanks to a numerical optimization approach based on the Transfer Matrix Method. We then transpose the one dimensional approach to a two dimensional case where the emission of a dipole is shaped into a plane wave by an ENZ device with a design that optimizes the transmittance. As a result, we demonstrate a transmittance efficiency of 15 % that is 4 orders of magnitude higher than previous devices proposed in the literature for wavefront shaping applications. This work aims at paving the way for future efficient ENZ devices by offering new strategies to optimize the transmittance through ENZ materials. [4] are the most emblematic metamaterials applications. Among the huge diversity of metamaterials, Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) materials consider the particular case where the dielectric constant reaches zero. These metamaterials have already demonstrated to behave unconventionally, with their ability to bend the light [5,6], to tunnel light through subwavelength channels [7] or to exalt optical nonlinearities [8], promising a new paradigm for nonlinear photonics and nonlinear plasmonics. MetamaterialsIn ENZ metamaterials, the vanishing permittivity induces an effective wavelength of electromagnetic waves that becomes infinite. As a consequence, the phase velocity becomes infinite and the phase distribution becomes almost uniform within the material. The phase distribution of the wave at the end facet of an ENZ is thus constant and the wavefront of outcoming waves is entirely driven by the shape of this output facet. ENZ metamaterials can therefore act as perfect wavefront shapers [9,10].Until now, practical implementations of ENZ-based wavefront shapers are still elusive for two main reasons. First, the elaboration of ENZ materials is still at its infancy and second, it is quite challenging to optimize the amount of transmitted light through an ENZ materials because of the large Fresnel coefficient of reflection at the ENZ/dielectric interface (r= n1−n2 n1+n2 ≈ 1). This latter issue has been poorly discussed in the literature despite its fundamental importance for future ENZ-based applications. Concerning the elaboration of ENZ metamaterials, two main approaches have been proposed that consist either working at the cut-off wavelength of a waveguide [11] or mixing materials with negative and positive permittivities to reach a vanishing mean permittivity [12].Since these methods provide an anisotropic permittivity they prevent the phase to be uniform and are not suitable for wavefront shaping applications. A recent alternative relies on the management of the plasma frequency [13] at which the dielectric permittivity ...

show abstract

Broadband Epsilon-Near-Zero Perfect Absorption in the Near-Infrared

Cited by 132 publications

References 42 publications

Perfect photon absorption in the nonlinear regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics

Perfect photon absorption in the nonlinear regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics

Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index inε-Near-Zero Materials

Improving the transmittance of an epsilon-near-zero-based wavefront shaper

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About