Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Response of One-Dimensional Metal-Dielectric Photonic Crystals

Lepeshkin, Nick N.; Schweinsberg, Aaron; Piredda, Giovanni; Bennink, Ryan S.; Boyd, Robert W.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.123902

Cited by 183 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Relatively less attention has been paid to the transport properties. Amongst the metals, noble metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nano-sized particles have drawn much attention for their unique electrical and optical properties dependent on their size and shape [8][9][10][11]. In most cases, silver nanoparticles can be obtained by reduction of silver nitrate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative photoconductivity in silver nanocubes prepared by simple photochemical method

Deb

Sarkar

2012

Journal of Experimental Nanoscience

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Silver nanocubes embedded in polyvinyl alcohol matrix have been synthesised by photoirradiation technique. The composite films are characterised by FESEM, XRD, UV-Visible absorption and photoluminescence. These show characteristics of silver nanoparticles with FESEM showing the cubic shape. The photoconductivity study of these films shows decrease in photocurrent with light irradiation. Such negative photoconductivity behaviour may be attributed to dominant scattering of electrons by excited surface plasmon polaritons in nanoscale.Keywords: silver nanoparticles; surface plasmon resonance; photoluminescence; polymer composite; polaritons IntroductionIn metal nanostructures, interesting phenomena [1-3] are exhibited due to surface plasmon polariton (SPP) [4]. Though SPP has capacity to have application potential in both photonics and microelctronics, most of the studies focussed on the optical properties [5][6][7]. Relatively less attention has been paid to the transport properties. Amongst the metals, noble metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nano-sized particles have drawn much attention for their unique electrical and optical properties dependent on their size and shape [8][9][10][11]. In most cases, silver nanoparticles can be obtained by reduction of silver nitrate. Also, to retain their nanosize, one often prepares nanocomposites by embedding the nanoparticles in glass [12], silica [13] or polymers [14][15][16][17][18] such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyacrilic acid or polymethyl methacrylate, etc. Out of these, PVA is used extensively as host matrix as it is water soluble, optically transparent and gives homogeneity to the silver nano dispersion. The existing methods to reduce silver nitrate in PVA matrix are numerous, to name some simple chemical reduction [19] [23,24]. Among these, the photoreduction method is widely adopted as one can easily obtain very stable nanocomposites by this method. Also, there are reports of obtaining special-shaped nanoparticles [24] other than spherical, with the help of this method. In this article, we explore optical transport (viz. photoconductivity) of cubic silver nano particles embedded in PVA along with their routine characterisation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative photoconductivity in silver nanocubes prepared by simple photochemical method

Deb

Sarkar

2012

Journal of Experimental Nanoscience

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“…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.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index inε-Near-Zero Materials

et al. 2016

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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...

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“…(10) we report the measurements performed in reflection mode as a function of the incidence angle for the 5-period Ta , and some uncertainty about the precise peak intensity that reaches the stack, one may objectively state that the agreement between our theory and our experiment is quite good, especially considering that the theoretical model has no adjustable parameters. Other possible sources of uncertainty include small deviations in layer thicknesses, and third order effects inside the metal layers, that may lead to band shifts and nonlinear absorption [17,18], which the current model does not take into account. Further studies will focus on extending the model to include a third harmonic frequency, third order effects, and the evaluation of conversion efficiency for other geometrical configurations and metals that might further clarify the relative importance and interplay between surface and volume contributions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A resonant tunneling mechanism renders hundreds of nanometers of metal transparent, and allows both TE-and TM-polarized fields to become localized inside both the metal and dielectric layers, without the usual detriments of absorption associated with the high imaginary index component. These structures thus turn out to be an extraordinary instrument to access and enhance the nonlinear optical response of nonlinear layers [15], and in particular, the second [16] and third [17,18] order optical nonlinearities of metals. This latter feature is particularly interesting when investigating second order nonlinear effects because most metals present centrosymmetric crystal structure, so that the SH source terms arise from magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole contributions [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second-harmonic generation from metallodielectric multilayer photonic-band-gap structures

et al. 2008

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We experimentally and theoretically investigate the second order nonlinear optical response of metallo-dielectric multilayer structures composed of Ag and Ta 2 O 5 layers, deposited by magnetron sputtering. Second harmonic generation measurements were performed in reflection mode as a function of incidence angle, using femtosecond pulses originating from a Ti:Sapphire laser system tuned at λ=800 nm. The dependence of the generated signal was investigated as a function of pump intensity and polarization state. Our experimental results show that the conversion efficiency from a periodic metallo-dielectric sample may be enhanced by at least a factor of 30 with respect to the conversion efficiency from a single metal layer, thanks in part to the increased number of active surfaces, pump field localization and penetration inside the metal layers. The conversion efficiency maximum shifts from 70° for the single silver layer down to approximately 55° for the stack. The experimental results are found to be in good agreement with calculations based on coupled Maxwell-Drude oscillators under the action of a nonlinear Lorentz force term.2

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Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Response of One-Dimensional Metal-Dielectric Photonic Crystals

Cited by 183 publications

References 18 publications

Negative photoconductivity in silver nanocubes prepared by simple photochemical method

Negative photoconductivity in silver nanocubes prepared by simple photochemical method

Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index inε-Near-Zero Materials

Second-harmonic generation from metallodielectric multilayer photonic-band-gap structures

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