Ningning Xu

Broadband Metasurfaces with Simultaneous Control of Phase and Amplitude

By combining the freedom of both the structural design and the orientation of split ring resonator antennas, we demonstrate terahertz metasurfaces that are capable of controlling both the phase and amplitude profiles over a very broad bandwidth. As an example, we show that the phase-amplitude metasurfaces can be engineered to control the diffraction orders arbitrarily.

A Tunable Dispersion-Free Terahertz Metadevice with Pancharatnam-Berry-Phase-Enabled Modulation and Polarization Control.

It is extremely challenging to control the phase of light at will in free space. Here, Pancharatnam-Berry-phase-enabled, tunable phase control of free-space light is experimentally demonstrated in an ultrathin flexible dispersion-free metadevice. This metadevice enables the broadband conversion of linearly polarized light into any desired output polarization.

Sharp Toroidal Resonances in Planar Terahertz Metasurfaces.

A toroidal dipole in metasurfaces provides an alternate approach for the excitation of high-Q resonances. In contrast to conventional multipoles, the toroidal dipole interaction strength depends on the time derivative of the surrounding electric field. A characteristic feature of toroidal dipoles is tightly confined loops of oscillating magnetic field that curl around the fictitious arrow of the toroidal dipole vector.

Electromagnetically induced absorption in a three-resonator metasurface system

Mimicking the quantum phenomena in metamaterials through coupled classical resonators has attracted enormous interest. Metamaterial analogs of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) enable promising applications in telecommunications, light storage, slow light and sensing. Although the EIT effect has been studied extensively in coupled metamaterial systems, excitation of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) through near-field coupling in these systems has only been sparsely explored. Here we present the observation of the EIA analog due to constructive interference in a vertically coupled three-resonator metamaterial system that consists of two bright and one dark resonator. The absorption resonance is one of the collective modes of the tripartite unit cell. Theoretical analysis shows that the absorption arises from a magnetic resonance induced by the near-field coupling of the three resonators within the unit cell. A classical analog of EIA opens up opportunities for designing novel photonic devices for narrow-band filtering, absorptive switching, optical modulation, and absorber applications.

Monolayer graphene sensing enabled by the strong Fano-resonant metasurface

Recent advances in graphene photonics reveal promising applications in the technologically important terahertz spectrum, where graphene-based active terahertz metamaterial modulators have been experimentally demonstrated. However, the sensitivity of the atomically thin graphene monolayer towards sharp Fano resonant terahertz metasurfaces remains unexplored. Here, we demonstrate thin-film sensing of the graphene monolayer with a high quality factor terahertz Fano resonance in metasurfaces consisting of a two-dimensional array of asymmetric resonators. A drastic change in the transmission amplitude of the Fano resonance was observed due to strong interactions between the monolayer graphene and the tightly confined electric fields in the capacitive gaps of the Fano resonator. The deep-subwavelength sensing of the atomically thin monolayer graphene further highlights the extreme sensitivity of the resonant electric field excited at the dark Fano resonance, allowing the detection of an analyte that is λ/1 000 000 thinner than the free space wavelength.

Dynamic mode coupling in terahertz metamaterials

The near and far field coupling behavior in plasmonic and metamaterial systems have been extensively studied over last few years. However, most of the coupling mechanisms reported in the past have been passive in nature which actually fail to control the coupling mechanism dynamically in the plasmonic metamaterial lattice array. Here, we demonstrate a dynamic mode coupling between resonators in a hybrid metal-semiconductor metamaterial comprised of metallic concentric rings that are physically connected with silicon bridges. The dielectric function of silicon can be instantaneously modified by photodoped carriers thus tailoring the coupling characteristics between the metallic resonators. Based on the experimental results, a theoretical model is developed, which shows that the optical responses depend on mode coupling that originates from the variation of the damping rate and coupling coefficient of the resonance modes. This particular scheme enables an in-depth understanding of the fundamental coupling mechanism and, therefore, the dynamic coupling enables functionalities and applications for designing on-demand reconfigurable metamaterial and plasmonic devices.

Frequency-agile electromagnetically induced transparency analogue in terahertz metamaterials

Recently reported active metamaterial analogues of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) are promising in developing novel optical components, such as active slow light devices. However, most of the previous works have focused on manipulating the EIT resonance strength at a fixed characteristic frequency and, therefore, realized on-to-off switching responses. To further extend the functionalities of the EIT effect, here we present a frequency tunable EIT analogue in the terahertz regime by integrating photoactive silicon into the metamaterial unit cell. A tuning range from 0.82 to 0.74 THz for the EIT resonance frequency is experimentally observed by optical pump-terahertz probe measurements, allowing a frequency tunable group delay of the terahertz pulses. This straightforward approach delivers frequency agility of the EIT resonance and may enable novel ultrafast tunable devices for integrated plasmonic circuits.

Active metasurface terahertz deflector with phase discontinuities

Metasurfaces provide great flexibility in tailoring light beams and reveal unprecedented prospects on novel functional components. However, techniques to dynamically control and manipulate the properties of metasurfaces are lagging behind. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we present an active wave deflector made from a metasurface with phase discontinuities. The active metasurface is capable of delivering efficient real-time control and amplitude manipulation of broadband anomalous diffraction in the terahertz regime. The device consists of complementary C-shape split-ring resonator elements fabricated on a doped semiconductor substrate. Due to the Schottky diode effect formed by the hybrid metal-semiconductor, the real-time conductivity of the doped semiconductor substrate is modified by applying an external voltage bias, thereby effectively manipulating the intensity of the anomalous deflected terahertz wave. A modulation depth of up to 46% was achieved, while the characteristics of broadband frequency responses and constant deflected angles were well maintained during the modulation process. The modulation speed of diffraction amplitude reaches several kilohertz, limited by the capacitance and resistance of the depletion region. The scheme proposed here opens up a novel approach to develop tunable metasurfaces.

Terahertz metasurfaces with a high refractive index enhanced by the strong nearest neighbor coupling.

The realization of high refractive index is of significant interest in optical imaging with enhanced resolution. Strongly coupled subwavelength resonators were proposed and demonstrated at both optical and terahertz frequencies to enhance the refractive index due to large induced dipole moment in meta-atoms. Here, we report an alternative design for flexible free-standing terahertz metasurface in the strong coupling regime where we experimentally achieve a peak refractive index value of 14.36. We also investigate the impact of the nearest neighbor coupling in the form of frequency tuning and enhancement of the peak refractive index. We provide an analytical circuit model to explain the impact of geometrical parameters and coupling on the effective refractive index of the metasurface. The proposed meta-atom structure enables tailoring of the peak refractive index based on nearest neighbor coupling and this property offers tremendous design flexibility for transformation optics and other index-gradient devices at terahertz frequencies.

High-Q lattice mode matched structural resonances in terahertz metasurfaces

The quality (Q) factor of metamaterial resonances is limited by the radiative and non-radiative losses. At terahertz frequencies, the dominant loss channel is radiative in nature since the non-radiative losses are low due to high conductivity of metals. Radiative losses could be suppressed by engineering the meta-atom structure. However, such suppression usually occurs at the fundamental resonance mode which is typically a closed mode resonance such as an inductive-capacitive resonance or a Fano resonance. Here, we report an order of magnitude enhancement in Q factor of all the structural eigenresonances of a split-ring resonator fueled by the lattice mode matching. We match the fundamental order diffractive mode to each of the odd and even eigenresonances, thus leading to a tremendous line-narrowing of all the resonances. Such precise tailoring and control of the structural resonances in a metasurface lattice could have potential applications in low-loss devices, sensing, and design of high-Q metamateria...