V. I. Belotelov

Enhanced magneto-optical effects in magnetoplasmonic crystals

Plasmonics allows light to be localized on length scales much shorter than its wavelength, which makes it possible to integrate photonics and electronics on the nanoscale. Magneto-optical materials are appealing for applications in plasmonics because they open up the possibility of using external magnetic fields in plasmonic devices. Here, we fabricate a new magneto-optical material, a magnetoplasmonic crystal, that consists of a nanostructured noble-metal film on top of a ferromagnetic dielectric, and we demonstrate an enhanced Kerr effect with this material. Such magnetoplasmonic crystals could have applications in telecommunications, magnetic field sensing and all-optical magnetic data storage.

Nonreciprocal plasmonics enables giant enhancement of thin-film Faraday rotation

Light propagation is usually reciprocal. However, a static magnetic field along the propagation direction can break the time-reversal symmetry in the presence of magneto-optical materials. The Faraday effect in magneto-optical materials rotates the polarization plane of light, and when light travels backward the polarization is further rotated. This is applied in optical isolators, which are of crucial importance in optical systems. Faraday isolators are typically bulky due to the weak Faraday effect of available magneto-optical materials. The growing research endeavour in integrated optics demands thin-film Faraday rotators and enhancement of the Faraday effect. Here, we report significant enhancement of Faraday rotation by hybridizing plasmonics with magneto-optics. By fabricating plasmonic nanostructures on laser-deposited magneto-optical thin films, Faraday rotation is enhanced by one order of magnitude in our experiment, while high transparency is maintained. We elucidate the enhanced Faraday effect by the interplay between plasmons and different photonic waveguide modes in our system.

Extraordinary magneto-optical effects and transmission through metal-dielectric plasmonic systems

We predict theoretically a significant enhancement of the magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr effects in the bilayer systems of a metallic film perforated with subwavelength hole arrays and a uniform dielectric film magnetized perpendicular to its plane. Calculations, based on a rigorous coupled-wave analysis of Maxwells equations, demonstrate that in such structures the Faraday effect spectrum has several resonance peaks in the near-infrared range, some of them coinciding with transmittance peaks, providing simultaneous large Faraday rotation enhanced by an order of magnitude and high transmittance of about 35%.

Plasmon-mediated magneto-optical transparency

Magnetic field control of light is among the most intriguing methods for modulation of light intensity and polarization on sub-nanosecond timescales. The implementation in nanostructured hybrid materials provides a remarkable increase of magneto-optical effects. However, so far only the enhancement of already known effects has been demonstrated in such materials. Here we postulate a novel magneto-optical phenomenon that originates solely from suitably designed nanostructured metal-dielectric material, the so-called magneto-plasmonic crystal. In this material, an incident light excites coupled plasmonic oscillations and a waveguide mode. An in-plane magnetic field allows excitation of an orthogonally polarized waveguide mode that modifies optical spectrum of the magneto-plasmonic crystal and increases its transparency. The experimentally achieved light intensity modulation reaches 24%. As the effect can potentially exceed 100%, it may have great importance for applied nanophotonics. Further, the effect allows manipulating and exciting waveguide modes by a magnetic field and light of proper polarization.

Magneto-optical properties of photonic crystals

Magneto-optical properties of photonic crystals (or bandgap materials) have been examined with respect to their possible applications for the control of electromagnetic radiation in integrated-optics devices. Theoretical studies of one-dimensional photonic crystals were conducted on the basis of the transfer-matrix method. For investigation of two- and three-dimensional photonic crystals we propose the original theoretical approach based on perturbation theory. Magneto-optical Faraday and Voigt effects have been studied near extremum points of photonic bands where their significant enhancement takes place. On the basis of the theory elaborated some experimental results are discussed. Experimentally obtained Faraday-rotation-angle-frequency dependence shows good agreement with our theoretical analysis.

Tuning of the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect in magneto-plasmonic crystals

The spectral properties of the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (TMOKE) in periodic metal-dielectric hybrid structures are studied, in particular with respect to the achievable magnitude. It is shown that the TMOKE is sensitive to the magneto-optical activity of the bismuth-substituted rare-earth iron garnet, which is used as a dielectric material in the investigated structures. For samples with larger Bi substitution level and, consequently, larger gyration

RF magnetron sputtered (BiDy)3(FeGa)5O12:Bi2O3 composite garnet-oxide materials possessing record magneto-optic quality in the visible spectral region

Bismuth-substituted iron garnets are considered to be the most promising magneto-optical materials because of their excellent optical transparency and very high magneto-optical figures of merit in the near-infrared spectral region. However, the practical application of garnets in the visible and short-wavelength infrared parts of spectrum is currently limited, due to their very high optical absorption (especially in sputtered films) in these spectral regions. In this paper, we identify the likely source of excess absorption observed in sputtered garnet films in comparison with epitaxial layers and demonstrate (Bi,Dy)(3)(Fe,Ga)(5)O(12): Bi(2)O(3) composites possessing record MO quality in the visible region.

Photonic crystals with plasmonic patterns: novel type of the heterostructures for enhanced magneto-optical activity

A multilayer structure consisting of a magnetophotonic crystal with a rare-earth iron garnet microresonator layer and plasmonic grating deposited on it was fabricated and studied in order to combine functionalities of photonic and plasmonic crystals. The plasmonic pattern allows excitation of the hybrid plasmonic-waveguide modes localized in dielectric Bragg mirrors of the magnetophotonic crystal or waveguide modes inside its microresonator layer. These modes give rise to the additional resonances in the optical spectra of the structure and to the enhancement of the magneto-optical effects. The Faraday effect increases by about 50% at the microresonator modes while the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect demonstrates pronounced peculiarities at both hybrid waveguide modes and microresonator modes and increases by several times with respect to the case of the bare magnetophotonic crystal without the metal grating.

Magnetic photonic crystals: 1-D optimization and applications for the integrated optics devices

The optimization of multilayer one-dimensional (1-D) magnetophotonic crystals (MPCs) with multiple phase shifts, enabling their design to be tailored to practical photonics applications, is reported. The properties of sample optimized structures suitable for application in infrared intensity modulators are discussed. A novel scheme of high-resolution magnetic field sensing using MPCs is proposed. The effect of material absorption on spectral properties is shown.

Plasmonic crystals for ultrafast nanophotonics: Optical switching of surface plasmon polaritons

We demonstrate that the dispersion of surface plasmon polaritons in a periodically perforated gold film can be efficiently manipulated by femtosecond laser pulses in spectral regions far from the intrinsic gold resonances. Using a time- and frequency-resolved pump-probe technique we observe shifting of the plasmon polariton resonances with response times from 200 to 800 fs depending on the probe photon energy, by which we obtain comprehensive insight into the electron dynamics in gold. We show that Wood anomalies in the optical spectra provide pronounced resonances indifferential transmissionand reflection with magnitudes upto 3%for moderate pump fluences of 0.5 mJ/cm 2 .