Yu. P. Svirko

Flexible transparent graphene/polymer multilayers for efficient electromagnetic field absorption

Thanks to its high electrical conductivity, a graphene plane presents a good shielding efficiency against GHz electromagnetic radiations. Several graphene planes separated by thin polymer spacers add their conductivities arithmetically, because each of them conserves the intrinsic properties of isolated graphene. Maximum absorption of radiations for frequency around 30 GHz is achieved with six separated graphene planes, which is the optimum number. This remarkable result is demonstrated experimentally from electromagnetic measurements performed in the Ka band on a series of multilayers obtained by piling 1, 2, 3 … graphene/PMMA units on a silica substrate. Theoretical calculations convincingly explain the observed absorption and transmission data in the GHz domain. It is concluded that graphene/PMMA multilayers can be used as an efficient optically transparent and flexible shielding media.

Terahertz frequency Hall measurement by magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy in InAs

We report on the time-domain terahertz (THz) magneto-optical Kerr spectroscopy in the frequency range from 0.5 to 2.5 THz. The developed technique employs reflection geometry, enabling high-frequency noncontact Hall measurements in opaque samples. We also present a method to reveal the off-diagonal component of the complex dielectric tensor from the measured polarization-dependent THz wave forms. At a static magnetic field of 0.48 T, a large Kerr rotation over 10° originating from magnetoplasma resonance is observed in an n-type undoped InAs wafer at room temperature. This indicates the strong potential of this material for the polarization modulator in the THz regime.

DC discharge plasma studies for nanostructured carbon CVD

Abstract A synthesis of carbon films by d.c. discharge plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using a hydrogen–methane gas mixture was investigated by optical emission spectroscopy and by measurements of current–voltage dependencies. The effects of gas composition and pressure on the characteristics of d.c. discharge in the methane–hydrogen gas mixture are studied. Variation of the deposition process parameters over a wide range allows us to obtain various carbon thin film materials, whose structure and composition were qualitatively characterized by Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy. The data of optical emission spectroscopy show the presence in the discharge plasma of H, H2, CH and C2 activated species, which play a decisive role in nanostructured graphite-like carbon film formation and carbon condensation in the gas phase. We propose a model for the formation of graphitic nanostructured carbon films in plasma containing C2 dimers.

Giant optical rectification effect in nanocarbon films

We present observations of the optical rectification effect in the nanocarbon film, which is excited by nanosecond pulses of a Nd:YAG laser in the absence of an external electric field. Effective second order susceptibility of the film material is found to be 10−6 CGSE, which is higher than that of conventional noncentrosymmetric crystals. The measured ratio of the dc voltage to the laser power is 500 and 650 mV/MW at the wavelengths of 1064 and 532 nm, respectively. This makes the nanocarbon materials a promising alternative to conventional semiconductor-based terahertz radiation sources.

Enhanced microwave shielding effectiveness of ultrathin pyrolytic carbon films

Electromagnetic properties of pyrolytic carbon (PyC) films with thickness from 5 to 241 nm are studied experimentally and numerically at 28 GHz. We observe experimentally that PyC films are capable to absorb up to 50% of microwave power in the Ka-band. By using boundary conditions in the rectangular waveguide, we demonstrate theoretically that 50% of microwave power can be absorbed in a conductive film with thickness much smaller than the skin depth. The results of modelling for PyC films on silica substrate are in excellent coincidence with the experimental data.

Enhanced microwave-to-terahertz absorption in graphene

Fresnel equations predict that an ultrathin free standing conductive film, thousands times thinner than skin depth, is capable to absorb up to 50% of incident electromagnetic radiations. In the microwave range, the same holds true for a free standing graphene sheet. We demonstrate theoretically and prove experimentally that microwave absorptance of graphene can be enhanced considerably by depositing graphene on a dielectric substrate. On the experimental side, we obtain 80% and 65% absorptance at 30 GHz and 1 THz, respectively. Theory predicts that higher absorptance can be achieved with a suitable choice of the dielectric permittivity and the thickness of the substrate. Absorption can also be maximized by choosing the optimum incidence angle for s-polarized waves in free space or by working in the vicinity of the cut-off frequency of the transverse electric mode in waveguide configuration. The polarization sensitivity of the transmittance and reflectance of graphene layers can be used to tune the polariz...

Femtosecond absorption dynamics in glass-metal nanocomposites

We report strong optical nonlinearity of glasses embedded with copper and silver nanoparticles. In pump-probe experiments with copper-doped glasses, the observed absorption bleaching with picosecond relaxation time is as high as 22%. Transmission femtosecond measurementsreveal the reverse saturable absorption with nonlinear absorption coefficient of 10(-10)cm/W in both copper- and silver-doped nanocomposites.

Cubic optical nonlinearity of free electrons in bulk gold

A fast (Tau(response) <90 fs) free-electron spin-f lipping frequency-degenerate nonlinearity with a signif icant value of|chi((3))(xxyy)(omega,omega,omega,-omega)chi((3))(xxyy)(omega,omega,omega,-omega)|~10(-)(8)esu has been observed in bulk gold at 1260 nm by use of a new pump-probe polarization-sensitive technique.

Bleaching versus poling: Comparison of electric field induced phenomena in glasses and glass-metal nanocomposites

By examining the electric field induced processes in glasses and glass-metal nanocomposites (GMN) we propose mechanism of the electric field assisted dissolution (EFAD) of metal nanoparticles in glass. We show that in both glass poling and EFAD processes, the strong (up to 1 V/nm) local electric field in the subanodic region is due to the presence of “slow” hydrogen ions bonded to nonbridging oxygen atoms in glass matrix. However, the origin of these hydrogen ions in glass and GMN is different. Specifically, when we apply the electric field to a virgin glass, the enrichment of the glass with hydrogen species takes place in the course of the poling. In GMN, the hydrogen ions have been incorporated into the glass matrix during metal nanoparticles formation via reduction in a metal by hydrogen, i.e., before the electric field was applied. The EFAD of metal nanoparticles resembles the electric field stimulated diffusion of metal film in glass (the important difference however is that in GMN, there is no direc...

Coherent and incoherent specular inverse faraday-effect - chi((3)) measurements in opaque materials

We report what is to our knowledge the first observation of coherent and incoherent terms of the specular inverse Faraday effect. The specular inverse Faraday effect is treated as a four-wave mixing phenomenon, and the role of the phase-conjugated wave in the polarization-altering interaction is disclosed. Several components of the nonresonant cubic susceptibility tensor in InSb and GaAs are measured and found to be in the 10(-7)-10(-6)-esu range.