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Light Science & Applications

An actively ultrafast tunable giant slow-light effect in ultrathin nonlinear metasurfaces

Cuicui Lu, Xiaoyong Hu, Kebin Shi, Qin Hu, Rui Zhu, Hong Yang, Qihuang Gong

Published Jun 19, 2015• 67 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A slow-light effect based on metamaterial-induced transparency (MIT) possesses great practical applications for integrated photonic devices. However, to date, only very weak slow-light effects have been obtained in metamaterials because of the intrinsic loss of metal. Moreover, no active control of slow-light has been achieved in metamaterials. Here, we report the realization of a giant slow-light effect on an ultrathin metasurface that consists of periodic arrays of gold nanoprism dimers with a thickness of 40 nm sandwiched between a multilayer-graphene micro-sheet/zinc oxide nanoparticle layer and a monolayer graphene/polycrystalline indium tin oxide layer. The strong field confinement of the plasmonic modes associated with the MIT ensures a tremendous reduction in the group velocity around the transparency window. A group index of more than 4 × 103 is achieved, which is one order of magnitude greater than that of previous reports. A large tunable wavelength range of 120 nm is achieved around the center of the transparency window when the pump light intensity is only 1.5 kW cm−2. The response time is as fast as 42.3 ps. These results demonstrate the potential for the realization of various functional integrated photonic devices based on metasurfaces, such as all-optical buffers and all-optical switches. The achievement of a giant slow-light effect in an ultrathin metamaterial could prove useful for constructing ultrafast optical memories. Cuicui Lu and co-workers from Peking University in China made an engineered nonlinear metasurface from a periodic array of gold nanoprism dimers (40-nanometre-thick equilateral triangles with a side length of 400 nanometres). They patterned the gold nanoprisms onto a glass sheet that had been coated with a conductive film of indium tin oxide and a monolayer of graphene. The scientists then coated the prisms with zinc oxide nanoparticles and several layers of graphene. The resulting metasurface sandwich exhibited strong, ultrafast nonlinear properties. In particular, a giant, tunable slow light effect was reported with a group index of more than 4,000 and a tunable wavelength of 120 nanometres.

DOI
10.1038/lsa.2015.75

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A slow-light effect based on metamaterial-induced transparency (MIT) possesses great practical applications for integrated photonic devices. However, to date, only very weak slow-light effects have been obtained in metamaterials because of the intrinsic loss of metal. Moreover, no active control of slow-light has been achieved in metamaterials. Here, we report the realization of a giant slow-light effect on an ultrathin metasurface that consists of periodic arrays of gold nanoprism dimers with a thickness of 40 nm sandwiched between a multilayer-graphene micro-sheet/zinc oxide nanoparticle layer and a monolayer graphene/polycrystalline indium tin oxide layer. The strong field confinement of the plasmonic modes associated with the MIT ensures a tremendous reduction in the group velocity around the transparency window. A group index of more than 4 × 103 is achieved, which is one order of magnitude greater than that of previous reports. A large tunable wavelength range of 120 nm is achieved around the center of the transparency window when the pump light intensity is only 1.5 kW cm−2. The response time is as fast as 42.3 ps. These results demonstrate the potential for the realization of various functional integrated photonic devices based on metasurfaces, such as all-optical buffers and all-optical switches. The achievement of a giant slow-light effect in an ultrathin metamaterial could prove useful for constructing ultrafast optical memories. Cuicui Lu and co-workers from Peking University in China made an engineered nonlinear metasurface from a periodic array of gold nanoprism dimers (40-nanometre-thick equilateral triangles with a side length of 400 nanometres). They patterned the gold nanoprisms onto a glass sheet that had been coated with a conductive film of indium tin oxide and a monolayer of graphene. The scientists then coated the prisms with zinc oxide nanoparticles and several layers of graphene. The resulting metasurface sandwich exhibited strong, ultrafast nonlinear properties. In particular, a giant, tunable slow light effect was reported with a group index of more than 4,000 and a tunable wavelength of 120 nanometres.
We propose a graphene metamaterial consisting of several layers of longitudinally separated graphene nanoribbon array embedded into gain-assisted medium, demonstrating electromagnetically induced transparency-like spectra. Combined with finite-difference time-domain simulations, the transfer matrix method and temporal coupled-mode theory are adopted to quantitatively describe its transmission characteristics. These transmission characteristics can be tuned by altering the gain level in medium layer and the Fermi energy level in graphene. Additionally, it is the incorporation between gain medium and graphene nanoribbons with optimized geometrical parameters and Fermi energy level that the destructive interference between high order graphene plasmonic modes can be obtained, suggesting drastic phase transition with giant group delay and ultra-high group index up to 180 ps and 104, respectively. Our results can achieve efficient slow light effects for better optical buffers and other nonlinear applications.
Abstract Tunable slow light systems have gained much interests recently due to their efficient control of strong light–matter interactions as well as their huge potential for realizing tunable device applications. Here, a dynamically tunable polarization independent slow light system is experimentally demonstrated via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a terahertz (THz) metasurface constituted by plus and dimer-shaped resonators. Optical pump-power dependent THz transmissions through the metasurface samples are studied using the optical pump THz probe technique. Under various photoexcitations, the EIT spectra undergo significant modulations in terms of its resonance line shapes (amplitude and intensity contrast) leading to dynamic tailoring of the slow light characteristics. Group delay and delay bandwidth product values are modulated from 0.915 ps to 0.42 ps and 0.059 to 0.025 as the pump fluence increases from 0 to 62.5 nJ cm−2. This results in tunable slow THz light with group velocities ranging from 2.18 × 105 m s−1 to 4.76 × 105 m s−1, almost 54% change in group velocity. The observed tuning is attributed to the photo-induced modifications of the optoelectronic properties of the substrate layer. The demonstrated slow light scheme can provide opportunities for realizing dynamically tunable slow light devices, delay lines, and other ultrafast devices for THz domain.
We theoretically investigate dynamical control of light slowing within the induced transparent window, e.g., in near-infrared frequencies, in electromagnetically induced transparent (EIT) metamaterials loaded by low-lossy graphene. Coupling with graphene enables distinctive optical responses of the "bright" and "dark" resonators in EIT metamaterials, rendering a switching of the transparent window and a modulation on light dispersion. Optical performance of the transparent window manifests continuous tuning as the graphene doping level changes. We show that the active modulation on optical properties of the transparent window enabled by low-lossy graphene is distinctive either by passively adjusting the interspacing between the building blocks of EIT metamaterials, or active tuning by high-lossy graphene. Furthermore, we report that the group refractive index can be in situ tuned dynamically over a broad range, e.g., ∼2 orders for near-infrared frequencies, together with absorption maintained at a level similar to that of the unloaded structure. Our study offers new possibilities towards chip-scale devices, such as active optical switching, filtering, and data storing.
Abstract Based on graphene, an ultra-broadband electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) window with dynamic tunability is realized in theory. Through altering the Fermi level of graphene that can be regulated by the external voltage, the EIT window and the EIT effect, especially the slow-wave effect, can be easily adjusted. Moreover, the bandwidth of the EIT window can be changed by the incidence angle, achieving the transformation from broadband to narrowband. At the same time, by discussing the polarization state and loss index, the characteristics of polarization insensitivity and low loss are proved. Additionally, the influences of other parameters are discussed, such as the relaxation time of graphene and coupling distance. These unique features enable the designed EIT metamaterial to be masterly applied to optical switches, optical modulators, and slow-light devices.
We theoretically and numerically investigate a low-power, ultrafast, and dynamic all-optical tunable plasmonic analog to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in two nanodisk resonators side-coupled to a metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguide system. The optical Kerr effect is enhanced by the slow light effect of the plasmonic EIT-like effect and the plasmonic waveguide based on graphene-Ag composite material structures with giant effective Kerr nonlinear coefficient. The optical Kerr effect modulation method is applied to improve tuning rate with response time of subpicoseconds or even femtoseconds. With dynamically tuning the propagation phase of the plasmonic waveguide, π-phase shift of the transmission spectrum in the plasmonic EIT-like system is achieved under excitation of a pump light with an intensity as low as 5.85 MW/cm2. The group delay is controlled between 0.09 and 0.4 ps. All observed schemes are analyzed rigorously through finite-difference time-domain simulations and coupled-mode formalism. Results show a new direction toward the low power consumption and ultrafast responses of integration plasmonic photonic devices and all-optical dynamical storage of light devices in optical communication and quantum information processing.
We demonstrate and analyze the use of metamaterials featuring an analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in slow light technology. For most metamaterials, EIT-like effects suffer from intrinsic ohmic loss, and the metamaterial-based slow-light effect can only be tuned passively, which limits their application in slow light devices. We propose a hybrid metamaterial with a unit cell composed of a ring resonator formed from photoactive silicon (Si) and a rectangular bar formed from metallic silver (Ag). Based on an analogue of EIT in the designed hybrid metamaterial, we theoretically demonstrate an all-optical tunable slow-light effect in the telecommunication window. We successfully demonstrate the possibility of designing novel all-optical tunable chip-scale slow-light devices that could be used in optical buffering.