Xiaodong Yuan

High-contrast light-by-light switching and AND gate based on nonlinear photonic crystals

We present a light-by-light photonic crystal configuration consisting of a bend waveguide with three embedded Kerr-type nonlinear rods and a T-branch waveguide. We show that such a configuration can also demonstrate all-optical AND gate operation with extremely high-contrast between the OFF state and ON state in its transmission. Because the presented photonic crystal configuration of all-optical light-by-light switching is simple, this facilitates fabricating practical all-optical devices and further large-scale optical integration.

Coherent perfect absorption and transparency in a nanostructured graphene film

We show numerically that both coherent perfect absorption and transparency can be realized in a monolayer graphene. The graphene film, doped and patterned with a periodical array of holes, can support plasmonic resonances in the Mid-infrared range. Under the illumination of two counter-propagating coherent optical beams, resonant optical absorption may be tuned continuously from 99.93% to less than 0.01% by controlling their relative phase which gives a modulation contrast of 40 dB (about 30 dB for transmission). The phenomenon provides a versatile platform for manipulating the interaction between light and graphene and may serve applications in optical modulators, transducers, sensors and coherent detectors.

Design of ultrathin plasmonic quarter-wave plate based on period coupling

Based on an analysis of the surface admittance of a plasmonic film with a substrate, we propose an ultrathin quarter-wave plate consisting of a periodic plane array of symmetrical L-shaped plasmonic antennas. The period, which determines the coupling among L-shaped antennas, is an important parameter for optimizing the performance of the structure. Numerical simulation results show that an Au quarter-wave plate designed in this Letter can efficiently convert a linearly polarized light at normal incidence into circularly polarized light, whose ellipticity is 0.994 at an operating wavelength of 1550 nm. The thickness is only 30 nm, which is nearly 1/50 of the wavelength of incident light.

Unidirectional transmission in non-symmetric gratings made of isotropic material

We achieve a broadband unidirectional transmission or One-way diffraction grating by cascading two parallel gratings made of isotropic material with different periods. In order to significantly reduce the reciprocal transmission of the zero order, one of them is chosen to be a subwavelength grating and designed as a wideband reflector for the incident-wave. It is demonstrated that more than 65 percent of the incident-wave energy can be transmitted unidirectionally with less than 0.22 percent transmission in the opposite direction at normal incidence for TE polarization. And, the relative bandwidth of the unidirectional transmission is greater than 10 percent.

Dielectric loaded graphene plasmon waveguide

Dielectric loaded graphene plasmon waveguide (DLGPW) is proposed and investigated. An analytical model based on effective-index method is presented and verified by the finite element method simulations. The mode effective index, propagation loss, cutoff wavelength of higher order modes and single-mode operation region were derived at mid-infrared spectral region. By changing Fermi energy level, the propagation properties of fundamental mode could be tuned flexibly. The structure of the DLGPW is simple and easy for fabrication. It provided a new freedom to manipulate the graphene surface plasmons, which may led to new applications in actively tunable integrated optical devices.

Metallic nanofilm half-wave plate based on magnetic plasmon resonance

We proposed and fabricated a nanofilm half-wave plate consisting of periodic arrays of orthogonally coupled slit-hole resonator structures in Au film. Experimental results reveal that 95.2% of energy of the incident linearly polarized light is converted to the perpendicular polarization direction after reflection from the nanostructure. The wave plate is single layer with only 180 nm thickness, which is much thinner than the operation wavelength. Our method can be expanded to other resonant structures or transmitted case.

Ultrabroadband, More than One Order Absorption Enhancement in Graphene with Plasmonic Light Trapping

This paper presents an comprehensive study of light trapping and absorption enhancement in graphene through metallic plasmonic structures and shows a strategy to realize both ultrabroadband and strong absorption enhancement. Three different plasmonic absorber designs are investigated by numerical simulations. The excitation of localized plasmons in the metallic structures significantly enhances the interactions between graphene and light at the resonances. By employing a splitted cross design for plasmonic resonant antennas and integrating two types of sub-antennas with different sizes, more than 30% of optical absorption in monolayer graphene is realized in a ultrabroad spectral range from 780 to 1760 nm. This enhancement functionality can be translated to any wavelength band from ultraviolet to terahertz ranges by modifying the geometric design of the plasmonic structure and can be applied for other two dimensional materials and their heterogeneous structures. It may significantly improve the efficiency of optical devices such as broadband photodetectors and solar cells based on graphene and other two-dimensional materials.

Strong field enhancement and light-matter interactions with all-dielectric metamaterials based on split bar resonators

Strong subwavelength field enhancement has often been assumed to be unique to plasmonic nanostructures. Here we propose a type of all-dielectric metamaterials based on split bar resonators. The nano gap at the centre of the resonant elements results in large local field enhancement and light localization in the surrounding medium, which can be employed for strong light-matter interactions. In a Fano-resonant dielectric metamaterial comprising pairs of asymmetric split silicon bars, the enhancement of electric field amplitude in the gap exceeds 120 while the averaged electromagnetic energy density is enhanced by more than 7000 times. An optical refractive index sensor with a potential sensitivity of 525 nm/RIU is designed based on the proposed metamaterials. The proposed concept can be applied to other types of dielectric nanostructures and may stimulate further research of dielectric metamaterials for applications ranging from nonlinear optics and sensing to the realization of new types of active lasing devices.

One-way transmission of linearly polarized light in plasmonic subwavelength metallic grating cascaded with dielectric grating

We show that optical transmission of linearly polarized light through a plasmonic subwavelength metallic grating cascaded with a dielectric grating at a 45° angle to each other is asymmetric in opposite directions. A key characteristic of this asymmetric transmission is that the polarization of the transmitted light is changed. Simulation results reveal that transmission of 0.92 in one direction and 10(-5) in the opposite direction can be obtained at normal incidence at a wavelength of 1550 nm. Because of their high optical performance and loose fabrication requirements, the structures may provide practical applications in the control of light transmission.

Electromagnetically induced transparency-like optical responses in all-dielectric metamaterials

We investigate numerically the electromagnetically induced transparency-like behavior in alldielectric planar photonic metamaterials. The proposed metamaterial consists of a periodical array of silicon metamolecules. Each metamolecule comprises a radiative resonator and a subradiant resonator that couple to each other through near field interactions. Resonances with extremely high quality factors of up to several thousands are predicted, and a group refractive index of more than 200 can be realized at the transparency window. This provides an effective platform for slow light, enhanced nonlinearity and sensing applications and presents opportunities for developing new types of active lasing and optomechanical metamaterials.