Zhong Huang

Highly efficient metallic optical incouplers for quantum well infrared photodetectors.

Herein, we propose a highly efficient metallic optical incoupler for a quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) operating in the spectrum range of 14~16 μm, which consists of an array of metal micropatches and a periodically corrugated metallic back plate sandwiching a semiconductor active layer. By exploiting the excitations of microcavity modes and hybrid spoof surface plasmons (SSPs) modes, this optical incoupler can convert infrared radiation efficiently into the quantum wells (QWs) layer of semiconductor region with large electrical field component (Ez) normal to the plane of QWs. Our further numerical simulations for optimization indicate that by tuning microcavity mode to overlap with hybrid SSPs mode in spectrum, a coupled mode is formed, which leads to 33-fold enhanced light absorption for QWs centered at wavelength of 14.5 μm compared with isotropic absorption of QWs without any metallic microstructures, as well as a large value of coupling efficiency (η) of |Ez|2 ~ 6. This coupled mode shows a slight dispersion over ~40° and weak polarization dependence, which is quite beneficial to the high performance infrared photodetectors.

Dynamically Tunable Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Graphene and Split-Ring Hybrid Metamaterial

In this letter, a novel hybrid metamaterial consisting of periodic array of graphene nano-patch and gold split-ring resonator has been theoretically proposed to realize an active control of the electromagnetically induced transparency analog in the mid-infrared regime. A narrow transparency window occurs over a wide absorption band due to the coupling of the high-quality factor mode provided by graphene dipolar resonance and the low-quality factor mode of split-ring resonator magnetic resonance, which is interpreted in terms of the phase change and surface charge distribution. In addition to the obvious dependence of the spectral feature on the geometric parameters of the elements and the surrounding environmental dielectric constant, our proposed metamaterial shows great tunabilities to the transparency window by tuning the Fermi energy of the graphene nano-patch through electric gating and its electronic mobility without changing the geometric parameters. Furthermore, our proposed metamaterial combines low losses with very large group index associated with the resonance response in the transparency window, showing it suitable for slow light applications and nanophotonic devices for light filter and biosensing.

An electrically tunable plasmonic optical modulator with high modulation depth based on graphene-wrapped silver nanowire

We report a systematic study of a graphene-wrapped plasmonic optical modulator with a high modulation depth. The optical modulator consists of a silver (Ag) nanowire as a single mode plasmonic waveguide being wrapped with a graphene monolayer as an electrically controllable absorbing material. While a thin dielectric spacing layer is used to electrically isolate the Ag nanowire from the graphene monolayer, we find it further promotes higher optical absorption by manipulating a strong electric field at its outer surface, where the graphene layer is located. By optimizing the dielectric layer thickness as well as the Ag nanowire radius, a strong optical modulation of 0.46 dB μm−1 with a high-speed characteristic at the operating wavelength of 785 nm is achieved. This design is further implemented at the telecommunication wavelength (1550 nm) with an optimized modulation depth of 1.07 dB μm−1.

Optical lattices with higher-order exceptional points by non-Hermitian coupling

Exceptional points (EPs) are degeneracies in open wave systems with coalescence of at least two energy levels and their corresponding eigenstates. In higher dimensions, more complex EP physics not found in two-state systems is observed. We consider the emergence and interaction of multiple EPs in a four coupled optical waveguides system by non-Hermitian coupling showing a unique EP formation pattern in a phase diagram. In addition, absolute phase rigidities are computed to show the mixing of the different states in definite parameter regimes. Our results could be potentially important for developing further understanding of EP physics in higher dimensions via generalized paradigm of nonHermitian coupling for a new generation of parity-time (PT) devices.

A high-quality factor hybrid plasmonic nanocavity based on distributed Bragg reflectors*

Herein, we propose a high-quality (Q) factor hybrid plasmonic nanocavity based on distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) with low propagation loss and extremely strong mode confinement. This hybrid plasmonic nanocavity is composed of a high-index cylindrical nanowire separated from a metal surface possessing shallow DBRs gratings by a sufficiently thin low-index dielectric layer. The hybrid plasmonic nanocavity possesses advantages such as a high Purcell factor (Fp) of up to nearly 20000 and a gain threshold approaching 266 cm−1 at 1550 nm, promising a greater potential in deep sub-wavelength lasing applications.