Study of quantum optics in metamaterial nanostructures

Nikolay I. Zheludev

Yunxia, Dong, Xiaohua +1 more

Alexander N. Poddubny

Tiankun Wang, Sha Shiong Ng

The electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like effect can be generated in the metamaterial system, but most metamaterial systems are composed of complex and elaborated components (nanostructures) that cannot be removed or replaced easily. In this paper, a graphene grating is used to interact with random metal nanostructures (i.e., individual and connecting nanostructures) to induce the EIT-like effect through two destructive interference excitation pathways. Except for the new induced EIT-like mode, the overall original optical patterns (the shape and intensity of the transmission spectrum) remain unchanged as compared with the single metal nanostructure. Furthermore, due to the optical properties of graphene, the induced EIT-like effect was blueshifted as the Fermi energy of graphene increased. By depositing the graphene grating and the metal nanostructures on a gallium oxide substrate, the EIT-like effect was redshifted as the temperature of the environment increased. Through this study, the EIT-like effect induced by the graphene grating with a random metal nanostructure system was demonstrated by using a simple geometric system; further, the mechanism is easy and can be introduced to many different metamaterial systems to generate the EIT-like effect without changing other optical properties of the original metamaterial system. As such, this opens the door to broader applications for optical communication networks.

Yang Ming, Jie Ying Tang, Wang Zhang +1 more

We investigate utilizing nonlinear metamaterials for generating entangled photons with expected characteristics. Metamaterials are artificial structures with unique properties which are not attainable with naturally existing materials. In recent years, owing to high designability and flexibility, metamaterials have been deeply investigated and utilized for constructing novel photonic devices. Through tailoring the nanostructures of metamaterials with feasible nonlinear optical character, we can control the PDC process inside the medium to generate desirable photon states. Various spatial perturbations of optical parameters with special distributions can be introduced in via suitable arraying of elements of metamaterials. The spatial properties of entangled photons such as orbital angular momentum can be flexibly engineered. The nonlinear metamaterial provides a flexible platform for steering photonic entanglement.

Christophe Couteau