Zhi Hong Zhu

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.

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.

Wave propagation in deep-subwavelength mode waveguides

This Letter proposes a dielectric waveguide with deep-subwavelength mode sizes. Results of both frequency domain and time domain analysis show that the effective mode area is below λ(0)(2)/400 and can even reach λ(0)(2)/1000 (λ(0) is the wavelength in vacuum). The effective electrical mode area can be comparable to that of a hybrid plasmonic subwavelength confinement waveguide, with reduced optical absorption. In contrast to slot waveguides, which guide light in low-index materials, the proposed structure guides light in high-index materials. Results obtained in this Letter show that the losses are sensitive to the surface roughness on the tens of nanometers scale. The structure can be used to design ring resonators with a quality factor comparable to that of a diffraction-limited dielectric ring resonator with the same standing wave numbers. The property can be applied in nonlinear effect enhancement or laser design with ultralow threshold.

Ultra-fast pulse propagation in nonlinear graphene/silicon ridge waveguide.

We report the femtosecond laser propagation in a hybrid graphene/silicon ridge waveguide with demonstration of the ultra-large Kerr coefficient of graphene. We also fabricated a slot-like graphene/silicon ridge waveguide which can enhance its effective Kerr coefficient 1.5 times compared with the graphene/silicon ridge waveguide. Both transverse-electric-like (TE-like) mode and transverse-magnetic-like (TM-like) mode are experimentally measured and numerically analyzed. The results show nonlinearity dependence on mode polarization not in graphene/silicon ridge waveguide but in slot-like graphene/silicon ridge waveguide. Great spectral broadening was observed due to self-phase modulation (SPM) after propagation in the hybrid waveguide with length of 2 mm. Power dependence property of the slot-like hybrid waveguide is also measured and numerically analyzed. The results also confirm the effective Kerr coefficient estimation of the hybrid structures. Spectral blue shift of the output pulse was observed in the slot-like graphene/silicon ridge waveguide. One possible explanation is that the blue shift was caused by the ultra-fast free carrier effect with the optical absorption of the doped graphene. This interesting effect can be used for soliton compression in femtosecond region. We also discussed the broadband anomalous dispersion of the Kerr coefficient of graphene.

Electro-optic switching based on a waveguide-ring resonator made of dielectric-loaded graphene plasmon waveguides

We numerically demonstrate that electro-optic switching in the mid-infrared range can be realized using a waveguide-ring resonator made of dielectric-loaded graphene plasmon waveguides (DLGPWs). The numerical results are in good agreement with the results of physical analysis. The switching mechanism is based on dynamic modification of the resonant wavelengths of the ring resonator, achieved by varying the Fermi energy of a graphene sheet. The results reveal that a switching ratio of ~24 dB can be achieved with only a 0.01 eV change in the Fermi energy. Such electrically controlled switching operation may find use in actively tunable integrated photonic circuits.

Improving the room-temperature confinement of light by miniaturizing mode sizes into a deep subwavelength scale using dielectric spheres in metal cavities.

The confinement of light within nanometer-scale regions may result in the significant enhancement of light-matter interactions. However, light confinement to nanometers is hindered by the diffraction limit of a dielectric material. For a dielectric cavity, if the material loss is negligible, reducing the cavity size usually causes a significantly increase in radiation loss. Surface plasmons show great promise for potential subwavelength light confinement. However, in most circumstances, light confinement by dissipative metallic materials can cause ohmic losses at optical frequencies. In such cases, the realization of light confinement with deep subwavelength mode sizes results in great losses and thus has low quality factors. In the present study, a three-dimensional light confinement with deep subwavelength mode sizes is achieved using dielectric spheres in metal cavities. Contrary to other mechanisms for subwavelength light confinement that are based on the use of dielectric or metal cavities, the nanometer-scale regions ensure that most of the light energy is confined away from the metal-dielectric interfaces, thereby decreasing light absorption in the metal cavity. In turn, the metal cavity decreases the radiation loss of light. Thus, high quality factors ranging from 2×10(2) to 6×10(2) can be obtained at room temperature. An effective electrical mode volume ranging from 7×10(-5)λ(0)(3) to 2×10(-4)λ(0)(3) (where λ(0) is the resonant wavelength in a vacuum) can be achieved. Therefore, this method of three-dimensional light confinement with deep subwavelength mode sizes using dielectric spheres in metal cavities may have potential applications in the design of nanolasers, nanophoton detectors, nonlinear optical switches, and so on.

Great optical buffering capacity for optical delay line and extraordinary optical reflection and mode conversion with extremely weak dielectric perturbations based on circular Bragg resonators

Circular Bragg resonators (CBRs) are analyzed in both the frequency domain and the time domain based on the scattering matrix method and the numerical model. The CBR with the same size as a dielectric ring can be designed to have denser resonant mode distributions in the frequency domain, and the expansion of the slow light band is imposed by the combination of multiresonant modes. Thus the expansion is independent of group velocity and is not limited by the delay-bandwidth product constraint in static photonic structures, which is deduced for a single resonant mode. Hence, the CBR can store more bits than a dielectric ring. For certain parameters, clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) modes in the CBR are quite sensitive to dielectric perturbations, which are weak enough that they have little effect on the CW mode and CCW mode in a dielectric ring. When light propagates along a line waveguide coupled with the CBR, and if there are weak dielectric perturbations in the CBRs, extraordinary reflections could be produced and there exists strong coupling and conversion between CW and CCW modes in the CBR. The optical property indicates that extremely weak dielectric perturbations in the CBR play an important role in mode conversion. These unique properties of CBRs may find applications in the design of practical optical delay line buffers, and they also provide a new method to achieve light control by mode conversion in passive optical resonators.

Enhanced Frequency-Upconverted Photoluminescence and Terahertz Emission From Graphene

Graphene is a gapless material with a linear energy–momentum dispersion relationship. Because of its unique band structure, graphene has been demonstrated as an ultra-broadband photon absorption material from the visible to terahertz frequency ranges. Here, we study the reverse process: photon emission from graphene. Using silica microsphere structures and femtosecond laser pulse excitation, photon emission enhancement at visible, near infrared, and terahertz ranges were achieved. These results help to promote graphene as a new type of light generation material, which can overcome the restriction that the emission wavelength is determined by the material bandgap. It is also found that the graphenes electrical properties, such as the nonlinear conductivity, changed significantly with the enhancement of the absorption during the ultrafast process.