Zhenping Huang

Partially hollowed ultra-thin dielectric meta-surface for transmission manipulation

Impressive optical properties are numerically demonstrated in the partially hollowed dielectric meta-surface (p-HDMS), which consists of an air cavity array intercalated in an ultra-thin (~λ/6) high-index dielectric film. Multispectral transmission band-stop response with near-perfect spectral modulation depth is achieved. The spectral slop is up to 80%/nm, indicating the sharp and narrowband transmission behavior. Classical Malus law is confirmed by this sub-wavelength platform. Moreover, the multispectral light propagation manipulation can be perfectly reproduced by using the actual dielectric with absorption loss. In this all-dielectric meta-surface, conduction loss is avoided compared to its metallic plasmonic counterpart. Such configurations can therefore serve as excellent alternatives for plasmonic meta-surfaces and constitute an important step in nanophotonics.

III–V semiconductor resonators: A new strategy for broadband light perfect absorbers

Broadband light perfect absorbers (BPAs) are desirable for applications in numerous optoelectronics devices. In this work, a semiconductor-based broadband light perfect absorber (S-BPA) has been numerically demonstrated by utilizing plasmonlike resonances of high-index semiconductor resonators. A maximal absorption of 99.7% is observed in the near-infrared region. By taking the absorption above 80% into account, the spectral bandwidth reaches 340 nm. The absorption properties mainly originate from the optical cavity modes induced by the cylinder resonators and ultrathin semiconductor film. These optical properties and simple structural features can maintain the absorber platform with wide applications in semiconductor optoelectronics.

Multi-Band Ultra-Sharp Transmission Response in All-Dielectric Resonant Structures Containing Kerr Nonlinear Media

All-dielectric resonant structure (ADRS) consisting of high-index nonlinear dielectrics has been theoretically and numerically demonstrated with multi-band ultra-sharp transmission response in this work. Bandwidth down to sub-nanometer and spectral Q-factor up to 920 are achieved in this ADRS-based metamaterial-like platform. Strong resonant electric field distributions by the high-index dielectric resonators and efficient coupling between the layered dielectric particles and the cavity mainly contribute to the multiple narrowband light transmission filtering. By using a Kerr nonlinear medium as the resonant dielectric, the positions of the transmission dips in the spectrum can be actively tuned by the incident light intensity. Due to the ultra-narrow spectral feature and the strong electric field distribution by the resonators, an efficient all-optical switching behavior with high spectral difference intensity and contrast ratio is obtained. Further study presents the observed multi-band transmission with high scalability by tuning the structural parameters. These optical features hold the predicted ADRS be potentially applied to constructing dielectric metamaterial-based all-optical switching or active subtractive transmission filtering with low power threshold at sub-diffraction scale.

Metallic Metasurfaces for Light Absorbers

Multi-band light perfect absorption by all-metal resonant structure is of particular interest for applications in a wide variety of technologies. Here, we propose and demonstrate a new strategy for achieving multi-band light absorber based on the metallic sub-wavelength structure, which consists of a hexagonally packed nanoring-nanodisk composite array on an opaque metal substrate. By introducing asymmetry to the nanoring-nanodisk hybrid system, new absorption bands emerge. The optical properties are enabled by strong plasmon resonances of the metallic resonators and their near-field coupling effects. Designing such nanostructures is a promising route for all-metal multi-band light absorption platform, which can be used as absorption filters, photo-thermal therapy, multispectral thermal emitters, and plasmonic biosensors.