Enhanced laser action from smart fabrics made with rollable hyperbolic metamaterials

Abstract

Rollable photonic devices that can adapt to freeform surfaces with reduced dimensions while maintaining their original functionalities are highly desirable. Among photonic devices, metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion in momentum space, defined as hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM), possess a large photonic density of states that has been proven to boost light-matter interaction. However, these devices are mainly developed on rigid substrates, restricting their functionalities. Here, we present the attempt to integrate flexible and rollable HMMs consisting of polymer and metal multilayers on paper substrate. Quite interestingly, this design enables to exhibit high photonic density of states and scattering efficiency to enhance stimulated emission and induce pronounced laser action. The flexible and rollable HMM structure remains well its functionalities on freeform surfaces with curvature radius of 1 mm, and can withstand repeated bending without performance degradation. The intensity of laser action is enhanced by 3.5 times as compared to the flat surface. We anticipate that this flexible and rollable HMM structure can serve as a diverse platform for flexible photonic technologies, such as light-emitting devices, wearable optoelectronics, and optical communication.

Photoluminescence control by hyperbolic metamaterials and metasurfaces: a review

“…CsPbI 3 nanocrystals with size distribution of 11−16 nm emits light at around 520 nm when excited by 405 nm laser radiation, 3-fold reduction of emission lifetime was ob-served when the nanocrystals were placed on top of the HMMs. Interestingly, very similar enhancement of radiative rate recombination, by almost 3 times, in quasi-2D perovskite thin films of BA 2 Cs 3 MA 3 Pb 7 Br 2 I 20 composition deposited on top of gold-alumina HMMs of different thicknesses (from 2 to 7 periods) was reported 95 . The Purcell factor was demonstrated to grow almost linearly with the number of periods in contrary to ref.…”

A Transferrable, Adaptable, Free-Standing, and Water-Resistant Hyperbolic Metamaterial

“…Meanwhile, under a curvature radius of 50 mm, the averaged emission intensity is slightly increased by 11% on a concave substrate and decreased by 18% on a convex substrate. These are due to the concave substrate with less curvature radius serving as a more efficient platform to scatter light of multiple reflection processes inside the valley structure. , Then, the feedback loops are strengthened to boost the random laser action.…”

“…Recently, optoelectronic devices have been extensively adapted for technology advances in Internet of Things applications, including smart clothing, electronic skins, and artificial intelligent systems. − In order to successfully integrate optoelectronic devices on freeform surfaces for a variety of functionalities, these devices are required to feature high sensitivity, low energy consumption, long-term use, and sustainability under certain mechanical strain and bending conditions. , Flexible, rollable, stretchable, conformable, miniaturized, and user-friendly systems are needed to implement human-machine building blocks, such as flexible photodetectors, flexible optoelectronic fibers and textiles, stretchable laser systems, rollable metamaterial devices, etc. − …”

Multifunctional Laser-Induced Bubble Microresonator for Upconversion Emission Enhancement

“…Integrating UCNPs with plasmonic metal nanostructures and dielectric photonic micro/nanosystems, have led to many-fold upconversion emission enhancements. , Based on the localized surface plasmon resonances of metal nanostructures, photons are confined to the ultrasmall mode volumes with high photonic density of states. This leads to larger absorption cross sections . These plasmonic nanostructures can be formed either by self-assembly of metal NPs or lithography techniques such as E-beam lithography, photolithography, etc .…”