Jason Valentine

Three-dimensional optical metamaterial with a negative refractive index

Metamaterials are artificially engineered structures that have properties, such as a negative refractive index, not attainable with naturally occurring materials. Negative-index metamaterials (NIMs) were first demonstrated for microwave frequencies, but it has been challenging to design NIMs for optical frequencies and they have so far been limited to optically thin samples because of significant fabrication challenges and strong energy dissipation in metals. Such thin structures are analogous to a monolayer of atoms, making it difficult to assign bulk properties such as the index of refraction. Negative refraction of surface plasmons was recently demonstrated but was confined to a two-dimensional waveguide. Three-dimensional (3D) optical metamaterials have come into focus recently, including the realization of negative refraction by using layered semiconductor metamaterials and a 3D magnetic metamaterial in the infrared frequencies; however, neither of these had a negative index of refraction. Here we report a 3D optical metamaterial having negative refractive index with a very high figure of merit of 3.5 (that is, low loss). This metamaterial is made of cascaded ‘fishnet’ structures, with a negative index existing over a broad spectral range. Moreover, it can readily be probed from free space, making it functional for optical devices. We construct a prism made of this optical NIM to demonstrate negative refractive index at optical frequencies, resulting unambiguously from the negative phase evolution of the wave propagating inside the metamaterial. Bulk optical metamaterials open up prospects for studies of 3D optical effects and applications associated with NIMs and zero-index materials such as reversed Doppler effect, superlenses, optical tunnelling devices, compact resonators and highly directional sources.

An optical cloak made of dielectrics

Invisibility or cloaking has captured humans imagination for many years. With the recent advancement of metamaterials, several theoretical proposals show cloaking of objects is possible, however, so far there is a lack of an experimental demonstration at optical frequencies. Here, we report the first experimental realization of a dielectric optical cloak. The cloak is designed using quasi-conformal mapping to conceal an object that is placed under a curved reflecting surface which imitates the reflection of a flat surface. Our cloak consists only of isotropic dielectric materials which enables broadband and low-loss invisibility at a wavelength range of 1400-1800 nm.

Dielectric meta-reflectarray for broadband linear polarization conversion and optical vortex generation.

Plasmonic metasurfaces have recently attracted much attention due to their ability to abruptly change the phase of light, allowing subwavelength optical elements for polarization and wavefront control. However, most previously demonstrated metasurface designs suffer from low coupling efficiency and are based on metallic resonators, leading to ohmic loss. Here, we present an alternative approach to plasmonic metasurfaces by replacing the metallic resonators with high-refractive-index silicon cut-wires in combination with a silver ground plane. We experimentally demonstrate that this meta-reflectarray can be used to realize linear polarization conversion with more than 98% conversion efficiency over a 200 nm bandwidth in the short-wavelength infrared band. We also demonstrate optical vortex beam generation using a meta-reflectarray with an azimuthally varied phase profile. The vortex beam generation is shown to have high efficiency over a wavelength range from 1500 to 1600 nm. The use of dielectric resonators in place of their plasmonic counterparts could pave the way for ultraefficient metasurface-based devices at high frequencies.

Realization of an all-dielectric zero-index optical metamaterial

Previously demonstrated zero- or negative-refractive-index metamaterials at optical frequencies suffer from large ohmic losses because of the need to use metals. Metamaterials formed by stacked silicon rod unit cells allow the realization of all-dielectric impedance-matched zero-index metamaterials operating at optical frequencies, potentially benefiting the development of angular-selective optical devices.

All-dielectric metasurface analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency

Metasurface analogues of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) have been a focus of the nanophotonics field in recent years, due to their ability to produce high-quality factor (Q-factor) resonances. Such resonances are expected to be useful for applications such as low-loss slow-light devices and highly sensitive optical sensors. However, ohmic losses limit the achievable Q-factors in conventional plasmonic EIT metasurfaces to values <~10, significantly hampering device performance. Here we experimentally demonstrate a classical analogue of EIT using all-dielectric silicon-based metasurfaces. Due to extremely low absorption loss and coherent interaction of neighbouring meta-atoms, a Q-factor of 483 is observed, leading to a refractive index sensor with a figure-of-merit of 103. Furthermore, we show that the dielectric metasurfaces can be engineered to confine the optical field in either the silicon resonator or the environment, allowing one to tailor light-matter interaction at the nanoscale.

Plasmonic Luneburg and Eaton lenses

Plasmonics takes advantage of the properties of surface plasmon polaritons, which are localized or propagating quasiparticles in which photons are coupled to the quasi-free electrons in metals. In particular, plasmonic devices can confine light in regions with dimensions that are smaller than the wavelength of the photons in free space, and this makes it possible to match the different length scales associated with photonics and electronics in a single nanoscale device. Broad applications of plasmonics that have been demonstrated to date include biological sensing, sub-diffraction-limit imaging, focusing and lithography and nano-optical circuitry. Plasmonics-based optical elements such as waveguides, lenses, beamsplitters and reflectors have been implemented by structuring metal surfaces or placing dielectric structures on metals to manipulate the two-dimensional surface plasmon waves. However, the abrupt discontinuities in the material properties or geometries of these elements lead to increased scattering of surface plasmon polaritons, which significantly reduces the efficiency of these components. Transformation optics provides an alternative approach to controlling the propagation of light by spatially varying the optical properties of a material. Here, motivated by this approach, we use grey-scale lithography to adiabatically tailor the topology of a dielectric layer adjacent to a metal surface to demonstrate a plasmonic Luneburg lens that can focus surface plasmon polaritons. We also make a plasmonic Eaton lens that can bend surface plasmon polaritons. Because the optical properties are changed gradually rather than abruptly in these lenses, losses due to scattering can be significantly reduced in comparison with previously reported plasmonic elements.

Metamaterial Perfect Absorber Based Hot Electron Photodetection

While the nonradiative decay of surface plasmons was once thought to be only a parasitic process that limits the performance of plasmonic devices, it has recently been shown that it can be harnessed in the form of hot electrons for use in photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and photodetectors. Unfortunately, the quantum efficiency of hot electron devices remains low due to poor electron injection and in some cases low optical absorption. Here, we demonstrate how metamaterial perfect absorbers can be used to achieve near-unity optical absorption using ultrathin plasmonic nanostructures with thicknesses of 15 nm, smaller than the hot electron diffusion length. By integrating the metamaterial with a silicon substrate, we experimentally demonstrate a broadband and omnidirectional hot electron photodetector with a photoresponsivity that is among the highest yet reported. We also show how the spectral bandwidth and polarization-sensitivity can be manipulated through engineering the geometry of the metamaterial unit cell. These perfect absorber photodetectors could open a pathway for enhancing hot electron based photovoltaic, sensing, and photocatalysis systems.

Nonlinear Fano-Resonant Dielectric Metasurfaces

Strong nonlinear light-matter interaction is highly sought-after for a variety of applications including lasing and all-optical light modulation. Recently, resonant plasmonic structures have been considered promising candidates for enhancing nonlinear optical processes due to their ability to greatly enhance the optical near-field; however, their small mode volumes prevent the inherently large nonlinear susceptibility of the metal from being efficiently exploited. Here, we present an alternative approach that utilizes a Fano-resonant silicon metasurface. The metasurface results in strong near-field enhancement within the volume of the silicon resonator while minimizing two photon absorption. We measure a third harmonic generation enhancement factor of 1.5 × 10(5) with respect to an unpatterned silicon film and an absolute conversion efficiency of 1.2 × 10(-6) with a peak pump intensity of 3.2 GW cm(-2). The enhanced nonlinearity, combined with a sharp linear transmittance spectrum, results in transmission modulation with a modulation depth of 36%. The modulation mechanism is studied by pump-probe experiments.

A carpet cloak for visible light.

We report an invisibility carpet cloak device, which is capable of making an object undetectable by visible light. The cloak is designed using quasi conformal mapping and is fabricated in a silicon nitride waveguide on a specially developed nanoporous silicon oxide substrate with a very low refractive index (n<1.25). The spatial index variation is realized by etching holes of various sizes in the nitride layer at deep subwavelength scale creating a local effective medium index. The fabricated device demonstrates wideband invisibility throughout the visible spectrum with low loss. This silicon nitride on low index substrate can also be a general scheme for implementation of transformation optical devices at visible frequencies.

Circularly polarized light detection with hot electrons in chiral plasmonic metamaterials

Circularly polarized light is utilized in various optical techniques and devices. However, using conventional optical systems to generate, analyse and detect circularly polarized light involves multiple optical elements, making it challenging to realize miniature and integrated devices. While a number of ultracompact optical elements for manipulating circularly polarized light have recently been demonstrated, the development of an efficient and highly selective circularly polarized light photodetector remains challenging. Here we report on an ultracompact circularly polarized light detector that combines large engineered chirality, realized using chiral plasmonic metamaterials, with hot electron injection. We demonstrate the detectors ability to distinguish between left and right hand circularly polarized light without the use of additional optical elements. Implementation of this photodetector could lead to enhanced security in fibre and free-space communication, as well as emission, imaging and sensing applications for circularly polarized light using a highly integrated photonic platform.