Designer photonic dynamics by using non-uniform electron temperature distribution for on-demand all-optical switching times

Nicholls, Luke H.; Stefaniuk, Tomasz; Nasir, Mazhar E.; Rodríguez-Fortuño, Francisco J.; Wurtz, Gregory A.; Zayats, Anatoly V.

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10840-7

Cited by 43 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In the former case, the size of nanostructures and their anisotropic shape influences the nonequilibrium and equilibrium dynamics. [ 26–29 ] In the latter case, the free‐electron concentration is the important parameter as it affects the electron scattering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast Carrier and Lattice Dynamics in Plasmonic Nanocrystalline Copper Sulfide Films

Bykov

Shukla

Schilfgaarde

et al. 2021

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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Excited carrier dynamics in plasmonic nanostructures determines many important optical properties such as nonlinear optical response and photocatalytic activity. Here it is shown that mesoscopic plasmonic covellite nanocrystals with low free‐carrier concentration exhibit a much faster carrier relaxation than in traditional plasmonic materials. A nonequilibrium hot‐carrier population thermalizes within first 20 fs after photoexcitation. A decreased thermalization time in nanocrystals compared to a bulk covellite is consistent with the reduced Coulomb screening in ultrathin films. The subsequent relaxation of thermalized, equilibrium electron gas is faster than in traditional plasmonic metals due to the lower carrier concentration and agrees well with that in a bulk covellite showing no evidence of quantum confinement or hot‐hole trapping at the surface states. The excitation of coherent optical phonon modes in a covellite is also demonstrated, revealing coherent lattice dynamics in plasmonic materials, which until now was mainly limited to dielectrics, semiconductors, and semimetals. These findings show advantages of this new mesoscopic plasmonic material for active control of optical processes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast Carrier and Lattice Dynamics in Plasmonic Nanocrystalline Copper Sulfide Films

Bykov

Shukla

Schilfgaarde

et al. 2021

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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“…These include, for example, highly non-uniform illumination of micron-scale metal objects, thick metal layers into which light penetration is minimal, metal-dielectric composites [22] etc.. In those cases, the heat diffusion causes the strongly illuminated regions to reach lower maximal temperatures (compared to the diffusion-free case) and the weakly-illuminated regimes to initially get hotter (before cooling down with the rest of the system due to heat transfer to the environment), as also observed in [23]; heat diffusion may also affect the overall time scales for the dynamics in a non-trivial way [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ultrafast Dynamics of Optically Induced Heat Gratings in Metals

Sivan

Spector

2020

ACS Photonics

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Diffusion of heat in metals is a fundamental process which, surprisingly, received only a little attention from the research community. Here, we study heat diffusion on the femtosecond and few picoseconds time scales. Specifically, we identify the underlying time scales responsible for the generation and erasure of optically-induced transient Bragg gratings in metal films. We show that due to a interplay between the temporally and spatially nature of the thermo-optic response, heat diffusion affects the temperature dynamics in a partially indirect, and overall non-trivial way. Further, we show that heat diffusion affects also the nonlinear response in a way that was not appreciated before.1 In comparison, the source in the TTM has just the temporal profile of the absorbed power. 2 Note that the eTTM does not capture the increase of rate of energy transfer to the lattice during the thermalization time, as discussed in [18]; however, this effect should have, at most, a modest quantitative effect on the issues discussed in the current work.

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“…Although similar to the device with a bare natural ENZ film, it also suffers from the narrow operation bandwidth around the ENZ point and a rigorous tilt incident angle. [ 25,26 ] These limitations impede the all‐optical polarization control to replace the traditional control technique in a variety of photonic and material characterization applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast All‐Optical Polarization Switching Based on Composite Metasurfaces with Gratings and an Epsilon‐Near‐Zero Film

Niu

et al. 2021

Advanced Photonics Research

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Active control of light polarization is necessary for the development of laser physics, optical communications, and also the molecular dynamics. Conventional polarization control methods suffer from low speed, and the existing all‐optical switching based on nonlinear materials solely has a lot of conducting restrictions, impeding its practical utilizations. Herein, an all‐optical polarization switching in the near‐IR range, composed of the plasmonic gratings deposited on an indium tin oxide (ITO) film with epsilon‐near‐zero response, is realized. A sub‐1 ps response speed and the 19° rotation of the polarization ellipse are determined with the excitation power of 1.37 GW cm−2. The device is demonstrated to output the varied signal with tuning the incident polarization and intensity in a spectral range from 1200 to 1500 nm. The ultrafast processing speed, broadband, and diverse tunability ensure the designed device a promising and necessary element for practically integrating into the next‐generation signal‐processing systems with high performance and large capacity.

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Designer photonic dynamics by using non-uniform electron temperature distribution for on-demand all-optical switching times

Cited by 43 publications

References 41 publications

Ultrafast Carrier and Lattice Dynamics in Plasmonic Nanocrystalline Copper Sulfide Films

Ultrafast Carrier and Lattice Dynamics in Plasmonic Nanocrystalline Copper Sulfide Films

Ultrafast Dynamics of Optically Induced Heat Gratings in Metals

Ultrafast All‐Optical Polarization Switching Based on Composite Metasurfaces with Gratings and an Epsilon‐Near‐Zero Film

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