Matthias W. Klein

Circular dichroism of planar chiral magnetic metamaterials

We propose, fabricate, and study a double-layer chiral planar metamaterial that exhibits pronounced circular dichroism at near-infrared wavelengths. The antisymmetric oscillation modes of the two coupled layers allow local magnetic-dipole moments and enhanced polarization effects compared with similar single-layer systems where only electric-dipole moments occur. Experiment and rigorous theoretical calculations are in good agreement.

Single-slit split-ring resonators at optical frequencies: limits of size scaling

We present magnetic metamaterials composed of 35 nm minimum feature-size gold split-ring resonators with a fundamental magnetic resonance at a wavelength of 900 nm. Corresponding calculations reveal excellent agreement with the experiments and show that the limits of size scaling have been reached.

Experiments on second- and third-harmonic generation from magnetic metamaterials

Photonic metamaterials could provide optical nonlinearities far exceeding those of natural substances due to the combined action of (magnetic) resonances and local-field enhancements. Here, we present our experiments on second- and third-harmonic generation from magnetic metamaterials composed of nanoscale gold split-ring resonators and from control samples for excitation with 170-fs pulses centered at 1.5-microm wavelength. The strongest nonlinear signals are found for resonances with magnetic-dipole character.

Second-harmonic generation from complementary split-ring resonators

We present experiments on second-harmonic generation from arrays of magnetic split-ring resonators and arrays of complementary split-ring resonators. In both cases, the fundamental resonance is excited by the incident femtosecond laser pulses under normal incidence, leading to comparably strong second-harmonic signals. These findings are discussed in terms of Babinets principle and in terms of a recently developed microscopic classical theory that leads to good agreement regarding the relative and the absolute nonlinear signal strengths. The hydrodynamic convective contribution is found to be the dominant source of second-harmonic generation--in contrast to a previous assignment [Science 313, 502 (2006)].

Lineshape of harmonic generation by metallic nanoparticles and metallic photonic crystal slabs

We study the linear- and nonlinear-optical lineshapes of metal nanoparticles (theory) and metallic photonic crystal slabs (experiment and theory). For metal nanoparticle ensembles, we show analytically and numerically that femtosecond second- or third-harmonic-generation (THG) experiments together with linear extinction measurements generally do not allow to determine the homogeneous linewidth. This is in contrast to claims of previous work in which we identify a technical mistake. For metallic photonic crystal slabs, we introduce a simple classical model of two coupled Lorentz oscillators, corresponding to the plasmon and waveguide modes. This model describes very well the key experimental features of linear optics, particularly the Fano-like lineshapes. The derived nonlinear-optical THG spectra are shown to depend on the underlying source of the optical nonlinearity. We present corresponding THG experiments with metallic photonic crystal slabs. In contrast to previous work, we spectrally resolve the interferometric THG signal, and we additionally obtain a higher temporal resolution by using 5 fs laser pulses. In the THG spectra, the distinct spectral components exhibit strongly different behaviors versus time delay. The measured spectra agree well with the model calculations.

Variation of the carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle laser pulses owing to the Gouy phase: a solid-state-based measurement.

The carrier-envelope phase of a laser pulse has recently become an important quantity in extreme nonlinear optics. Because of the topological Gouy phase, it changes while the pulse propagates through the focus of a lens. This variation is measured by a simple solid-state-based approach. The experimental results are analyzed by comparison with simple analytical model calculations.

Photonic metamaterials new opportunities for nanoimprint

This article presents a short discussion on the fabrication of photonic metamaterials. The method of choice for fabricating metamaterials is still electron beam lithography despite its intrinsic drawbacks like long writing time and high operation costs. Thus only small areas can be structured within reasonable time and at reasonable costs. Another way to fabricate high-quality photonic metamaterials on a macroscopic scale is provided by interference lithography which allows structuring huge areas. Another promising technique to achieve large-scale, high-quality metamaterials is nanoimprint lithography, which was recently applied to fabricate photonic metamaterials.

Spectroscopy of Individual Split-Ring Resonators

We measure the absolute extinction cross-section spectrum of the magnetic resonance of individual split-ring resonators by a modulation technique. The experimental data are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations.

Circular dichroism in double-layer chiral metamaterials

We present experiments and numerical calculations for chiral metamaterials composed of double-layer gammadions. The excitation of anti-symmetric magnetic modes leads to pronounced circular dichroism. In contrast, polarization effects are negligible in corresponding single layer gammadions.

Optical experiments on second-harmonic generation from metamaterials consisting of split-ring resonators

We discuss second-harmonic generation experiments on planar arrays of magnetic split-ring resonators, using 150 fs pulses at 1.5 mum wavelength. Lithographic tuning reveals by far the largest signals when exciting the magnetic-dipole resonance.