Broadband mid-infrared perfect absorber using fractal Gosper curve
Jihua Zou, Peng Yu, Wenhao Wang, Xin Tong, Le Chang, Cuo Wu, Wen Du, Haining Ji, Yongjun Huang, Xiaobin Niu, Alexander O. Govorov, Jiang Wu, Zhiming Wang
Designing broadband metamaterial perfect absorbers is challenging due to the intrinsically narrow bandwidth of surface plasmon resonances. Here, the paper reports an ultra-broadband metamaterial absorber by using space filling Gosper curve. The optimized result shows an average absorptivity of 95.78% from 2.64 to 9.79 μm across the entire mid-infrared region. Meanwhile, the absorber shows insensitivity to the polarization angle and the incident angle of the incident light. The underlying physical principles, used in our broadband absorber, involve a fractal geometry with multiple scales and a dissipative plasmonic crystal. The broadband perfect absorption can be attributed to multiple electric resonances at different wavelengths supported by a few segments in the defined Gosper curve.
Additive manufactured THz optics have been introduced as an efficient alternative to their commercial counterparts. Among various additive manufacturing methods, stereolithography provides superior spatial resolution and surface finish. However, examples of stereolithographically fabricated components for THz applications are still scarce. In this paper, we report on the fabrication process and performance of a stereolithographically fabricated broadband absorber for the THz spectral range. Simple THz transmission experiments were carried out for the absorber and bulk reference samples. The ex…
Increasing attention on microwave ultra-broadband metamaterial absorbers has been paid due to their promising applications. While most microwave ultra-broadband metamaterial absorbers developed so far are based on metallic resonant structures, dispersive dielectric water-based metamaterial opens a simpler and more versatile route for the construction of polarization- and angle- insensitive ultra-broadband absorption. Here, we review the recent progresses of water-based metamaterial absorber by providing an illustration of the mechanisms to realize ultra-broadband, tunable and multi-functional …
We propose a thin, compact, broadband, polarization and angle insensitive metamaterial absorber based on a tungsten reflector, silicon spacer and a top pattern composed of a double square-like ring resonator utilizing nickel(Ni). In such a structure, a high absorption (above 80 %) bandwidth ~ 4.8 μm from 3.52 up to 8.32 μm corresponding to the relative bandwidth ~81% can be achieved with deeply subwavelength unit cell dimensions. Here the physical origin of the broadband absorption is associated with low Q-factor dipole modes of the top pattern inner and outer sides functioning as rectangular …
In this paper, we analytically design a simple configuration of a broadband THz and polarization-insensitive absorber. The mentioned absorber consists of two layers of graphene disks, and the transmission line model is considered for the whole of the proposed absorber's structure to design it accurately. Therefore, the input admittance of the designed absorber is obtained by the transmission line model. Also, the real part of the input admittance is approximately tuned to be matched to the free space admittance. In contrast, the imaginary part of it is closely adjusted to zero around the centr…
In this paper, we analytically design a simple configuration of a broadband THz and polarization-insensitive absorber. The mentioned absorber consists of two layers of graphene disks, and the transmission line model is considered for the whole of the proposed absorber's structure to design it accurately. Therefore, the input admittance of the designed absorber is obtained by the transmission line model. Also, the real part of the input admittance is approximately tuned to be matched to the free space admittance. In contrast, the imaginary part of it is closely adjusted to zero around the centr…
We present an asymmetric bifacial graphene metasurface to realize tunable and broadband coherent perfect absorption (CPA) at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The proposed design is composed of two dissimilar graphene square patch metasurfaces stacked over an ultrathin dielectric substrate. Nonlinear CPA performance without resorting to optical nonlinearities and amplification are demonstrated based on wave interference phenomena taking place along and inside this subwavelength structure. Broadband asymmetric reflection from opposite directions is obtained in the case of single wave illumination. T…
We experimentally demonstrate an infrared broadband absorber for TM polarized light based on an array of nanostrip antennas of several different sizes. The broadband property is due to the collective effect of magnetic responses excited by these nano-antennas at distinct wavelengths. By manipulating the differences of the nanostrip widths, the measured spectra clearly validate our design for the purpose of broadening the absorption band. The present broadband absorber works very well in a wide angular range.
We propose herein a method of material-structure integrated design for broadband absorption of dielectric metamaterial, which is achieved by combination of genetic algorithm and simulation platform. A multi-layered metamaterial absorber with an ultra-broadband absorption from 5.3 to 18 GHz (a relative bandwidth of as high as 109%) is realized numerically and experimentally. In addition, simulated results demonstrate the proposed metamaterial exhibits good incident angle and polarization tolerance, which also are significant criteria for practical applications. By investigating the working prin…
This paper shows that customised broadband absorption of electromagnetic waves having arbitrary polarisation is possible by use of lossy cut-wire (CW) metamaterials. These useful features are confirmed by numerical simulations in which different lengths of CW pairs are combined as one periodic metamaterial unit and placed near to a perfect electric conductor (PEC). So far metamaterial absorbers have exhibited some interesting features, which are not available from conventional absorbers, e.g. straightforward adjustment of electromagnetic properties and size reduction. The paper shows how with …
The Brewster's law predicts zero reflection of p-polarization on a dielectric surface at a particular angle. However, when loss is introduced into the permittivity of the dielectric, the Brewster condition breaks down and reflection unavoidably appears. In this work, we found an exception to this long-standing dilemma by creating a class of nonmagnetic anisotropic metamaterials, where an anomalous Brewster effects with independently tunable absorption and refraction emerges. This loss-independent Brewster effect is bestowed by the extra degrees of freedoms introduced by anisotropy and strictly…
In this paper, a plasmonic absorber consisting of a metal-dielectric-metal stack with a top layer of Sierpinski nanocarpet is theoretically investigated. Such compact absorber depicts broadband angle-independent behavior over a wide optical wavelength range ($400-700$ nm) and a broad range of angles of light incidence ($0-80^{\circ}$). Including several feature sizes, such fractal-like structure shows widely strong extinction ($85-99$%) response for either transverse electric or magnetic polarization states under normal incidence. Underlying mechanisms of absorbance due to excited surface plas…
Complete absorption of electromagnetic waves is paramount in today's applications, ranging from photovoltaics to cross-talk prevention into sensitive devices. In this context, we use a genetic algorithm (GA) strategy to optimize absorption properties of periodic arrays of truncated square-based pyramids made of alternating stacks of metal/dielectric layers. We target ultra-broadband quasi-perfect absorption of normally incident electromagnetic radiations in the visible and near-infrared ranges (wavelength comprised between 420 and 1600 nm). We compare the results one can obtain by considering …
A metamaterial absorber converts solar radiation into heat for applications in thermoelectric generators and solar thermophotovoltaics. A metamaterial absorber typically consists of metallic parts separated by an insulator layer which does not allow the total heat extraction via direct heat conduction. Here, we propose wide-angle and broadband metamaterial absorber comprising an insulator layer, metal grating, and metal back plane (IMM) that allows the total heat extraction via direct heat conduction. We have formulated the quasi-analytical solution (QANS) of the IMM-absorber by applying the c…
A nearly omni-directional THz absorber for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations is proposed. Through the excitation of magnetic polariton in a metal-dielectric layer, the incident light is perfectly absorbed in a thin thickness which is about 25 times smaller than the resonance wavelength. By simply stacking several such structural layers with different geometrical dimensions, the bandwidth of this strong absorption can be effectively enhanced due to the hybridization of magnetic polaritons in different layers.
High absorption in a wide frequency band has attracted considerable interest since their potential applications in frequency spectrum imaging systems and anti-radar cloaking. In this paper, a polarization-independent, ultra-broadband and omnidirectional terahertz absorber is proposed, fabricated and evaluated. It is experimentally demonstrated that an over 95% absorption can be obtained in the frequency range of 0.75~2.41 THz. Attributing to the multi-frequency destructive interference between the layers and the impedance-matching condition of the grating, five successive absorption peaks at 0…
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)（浦项科技大学）
By learning the optimal policy with a double deep Q-learning network, we design ultra-broadband, biomimetic, perfect absorbers with various materials, based the structure of a moths eye. All absorbers achieve over 90% average absorption from 400 to 1,600 nm. By training a DDQN with motheye structures made up of chromium, we transfer the learned knowledge to other, similar materials to quickly and efficiently find the optimal parameters from the around 1 billion possible options. The knowledge learned from previous optimisations helps the network to find the best solution for a new material in …
We demonstrate a broadband, polarization independent, omnidirectional absorber based on a metallic metasurface architecture, which accomplishes greater than 90% absorptance in the visible and near-infrared range of the solar spectrum, and exhibits low emissivity at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. The complex unit cell of the metasurface solar absorber consists of eight pairs of gold nano-resonators that are separated from a gold ground plane by a thin silicon dioxide spacer. Our experimental measurements reveal high-performance absorption over a wide range of incidence angles for both s- an…
We demonstrate femtosecond performance of an ultra-broadband high-index-contrast saturable Bragg reflector consisting of a silicon/silicon-dioxide/germanium structure that is fully compatible with CMOS processing. This device offers a reflectivity bandwidth of over 700 nm and sub-picosecond recovery time of the saturable loss. It is used to achieve mode-locking of an Er-Yb:glass laser centered at 1540 nm, generating 220 fs pulses, with the broadest output spectrum to date.
A microwave ultra-broadband polarization-independent metamaterial absorber is demonstrated. It is composed of a periodic array of metal-dielectric multilayered quadrangular frustum pyramids. These pyramids possess resonant absorption modes at multi-frequencies, of which the overlapping leads to the total absorption of the incident wave over an ultra-wide spectral band. The experimental absorption at normal incidence is above 90% in the frequency range of 7.8-14.7GHz, and the absorption is kept large when the incident angle is smaller than 60 degrees. The experimental results agree well with th…
The loss of surface plasmon polaritons has long been considered as a fatal shortcoming in information transport. Here we propose a plasmonic absorber utilizing this "shortcoming" to absorb the stray light in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Based on adiabatic mode evolution, its performance is insensitive to incident wavelength with bandwidth larger than 300nm, and robust against surrounding environment and temperature. Besides, the use of metal enables it to be very compact and beneficial to thermal dissipation. With this 40um-long absorber, the absorption efficiency can be over 99.8% at …
It attracts wide interest to seek universe saturable absorber covering wavelengths from near infrared to mid-infrared band. Multilayer black phosphorus, with variable direct bandgap (0.3-2 eV) depending on the layer number, becomes a good alternative as a universe saturable absorber for pulsed lasers. In this contribution, we first experimentally demonstrated broadband saturable absorption of multilayer black phosphorus from 1 μm to 2.7 μm wavelength. With the as-fabricated black phosphorus nanoflakes as saturable absorber, stable Q-switching operation of bulk lasers at 1.03 μm, 1.93 μm, 2.72 …
A metamaterial composed of thin metallic strips as an efficient broadband absorber in the mid-infrared spectrum is investigated. Here the matching between dielectric and geometrical properties of the individual elements is critical to ensure high absorption. Detailed theoretical analysis based on the electric dipole approximation is performed to characterize the absorption and scattering properties of the individual elements of the unit cell and the results are used to design the metamaterial composed of such configurations. The absorption cross-section of a strip-shaped element can exceed its…
We discuss the possibility of realizing utlrabroadband omnidirectional absorbers and angularly selective coherent thermal emitters based on properly patterned plasmonic metastructures. Instead of relying on resonant concentration effects that inherently limit the bandwidth, we base our design on the combination of two inherently nonresonant effects: plasmonic Brewster funneling and adiabatic plasmonic focusing. With this approach, we demonstrate compact, broadband absorption and emission spanning terahertz, infrared and optical frequencies, ideal for various energy and defense applications.
We demonstrate a ytterbium (Yb) and an erbium (Er)-doped fiber laser Q-switched by a solution processed, optically uniform, few-layer tungsten disulfide saturable absorber (WS2-SA). Nonlinear optical absorption of the WS2-SA in the sub-bandgap region, attributed to the edge-induced states, is characterized by 3.1% and 4.9% modulation depths with 1.38 and 3.83 MW/cm2 saturation intensities at 1030 and 1558 nm, respectively. By integrating the optically uniform WS2-SA in the Yb- and Er-doped laser cavities, we obtain self-starting Q-switched pulses with microsecond duration and kilohertz repetit…
The experimental investigation of a broadband far-infrared meta-material absorber is described. The observed absorptance is $>\,0.95$ from ${\rm 1-20\,THz}$ (${\rm 300-15\,μm}$) over a temperature range spanning ${\rm 5-300\,K}$. The meta-material, realized from an array of tapers ${\rm \approx 100\,μm}$ in length, is largely insensitive to the detailed geometry of these elements and is cryogenically compatible with silicon-based micro-machined technologies. The electromagnetic response is in general agreement with a physically motivated transmission line model.
We suggest graphene and a two-dimensional (2D) Weyl semimetal (WSM) as 2D materials for the realization of a broadband coherent perfect absorber (CPA) respecting overall PT-symmetry. We also demonstrate the conditions for mutually equal amplitudes and phases of the left and right incoming waves to realize a CPA. 2D materials in our system play the role to enhance the absorption rate of a CPA once the appropriate parameters are inserted in the system. We show that a 2D WSM is more effective than graphene in obtaining the optimal conditions. We display the behavior of each parameter governing th…
Black phosphorus (BP) with its enticing electric and optical properties is intensely researched in the field of optoelectronics. In this paper, Q-switched pulses at 1550 nm and 2 um wavelengths are obtained by inserting bulk-structured BP based saturable absorber (SA) into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) and an thulium/holmium-doped fiber laser (THDFL), respectively. The BP-SA was prepared by depositing powered BP material on to the flat side of a side-polished single mode fiber. Q-switched 1550 nm pulses with width tuned from 9.35 to 31 us were obtained for the EDFL. For the THDFL, over 10…
We theoretically investigate photothermal heating of ultra-flexible metamaterials, which are obtained by randomly mixing TiN nanoparticles in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Due to the plasmonic properties of TiN nanoparticles, incident light is perfectly absorbed in a broadband range (300-3000 nm) to generate heat within these metamaterials. Under irradiation of an 808 nm near-infrared laser with different intensities, our predicted temperature rises as a function of time agree well with recent experimental data. For a given laser intensity, the temperature rise varies non-monotonically with con…
We suggest to exploit dielectric-metal core-shell nanostructures for efficient resonant and yet broadband absorption of infrared radiation with deeply subwavelength configurations. Realizing that nanostructures would efficiently absorb radiation only when their dielectric properties match those of the environment and making use of the effective medium approach, we develop the design strategy using core-shell nanostructures with very thin shells made of poor metals, i.e., metals having real and imaginary parts of their dielectric permittivities of the same order of magnitude. Analyzing in detai…
The enhanced nonlinear optical response of a one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PC) made from polymers and graphene composites is observed. The graphene PC was fabricated by spin-coating. It shows obvious bandgaps at two wavelengths in transmittance. Femtosecond Z-scan measurement at 515 nm and 1030 nm reveals a distinct enhancement in the effective nonlinear absorption coefficient Beff (and imaginary part of third-order dielectric susceptibility ImX(3)) for graphene nanoflakes embedded in the PC, when compared with the bulk graphene-polymer dispersion. The effect is studied in a wide rang…
We report on a waveguide engineering technique that enables the generation of a bandwidth up to 1 THz and record ultra-short pulse length of 2.5 ps in injection seeded terahertz quantum cascade lasers. The reported technique is able to control and fully suppress higher order lateral modes in broadband terahertz quantum cascade lasers by introducing side-absorbers to metal-metal waveguides. The side-absorbers consist of a top metalization set-back with respect to the laser ridge and an additional lossy metal layer. In continuous wave operation the side-absorbers lead to octave spanning laser em…
Coherent perfect absorption (CPA) refers to interferometrically induced complete absorption of incident light by a partial absorber independently of its intrinsic absorption (which may be vanishingly small) or its thickness. CPA is typically realized in a resonant device, and thus cannot be achieved over a broad continuous spectrum, which thwarts its applicability to photodetectors and solar cells, for example. Here, we demonstrate broadband omni-resonant CPA by placing a thin weak absorber in a planar cavity and pre-conditioning the incident optical field by introducing judicious angular disp…
Despite very efficient superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) reported recently, combining their other performance advantages such as high speed and ultra-low timing jitter in a single device still remains challenging. In this work, we present a perfect absorber model and corresponding detector design based on a micron-long NbN nanowire integrated with a 2D-photonic crystal cavity of ultra-small mode volume, which promises simultaneous achievement of near-unity absorption, gigahertz counting rates and broadband optical response with a 3 dB bandwidth of 71 nm. Compared to pre…
Light absorption plays an important role in many research areas. Here, we propose and demonstrate a thin ultra-broadband strong light absorber consisting of periodic taper arrays on a gold substrate.
Hot charge carrier extraction from metallic nanostructures is a very promising approach for applications in photo-catalysis, photovoltaics and photodetection. One limitation is that many metallic nanostructures support a single plasmon resonance thus restricting the light-to-charge-carrier activity to a spectral band. Here we demonstrate that a monolayer of plasmonic nanoparticles can be assembled on a multi-stack layered configuration to achieve broad-band, near-unit light absorption, which is spatially localised on the nanoparticle layer. We show that this enhanced light absorbance leads to …
Metamaterial-based absorbers have been extensively investigated in the terahertz (THz) range with ever increasing performances. In this paper, we propose an all-dielectric THz absorber based on doped silicon. The unit cell consists of a silicon cross resonator with an internal cross-shaped air cavity. Numerical results suggest that the proposed absorber can operate from THz to mid-infrared, having an average power absorption of >95% between 0.6 and 10 THz. Experimental results using THz time-domain spectroscopy show a good agreement with simulations. The underlying mechanisms for broadband abs…
The trapped rainbow effect has been mostly found on tapered anisotropic metamaterials (MMs) made of low loss noble metals, such as gold, silver, etc. In this work, we demonstrate that an anisotropic MM waveguide made of high loss metal tungsten can also support the trapped rainbow effect similar to the noble metal based structure. We show theoretically that an array of tungsten/germanium anisotropic nano-cones placed on top of a reflective substrate can absorb light at the wavelength range from 0.3 micrometer to 9 micrometer with an average absorption efficiency approaching 98%. It is found th…
Electromagnetic absorbers have drawn increasing attention in many areas. A series of plasmonic and metamaterial structures can work as efficient narrow band absorbers due to the excitation of plasmonic or photonic resonances, providing a great potential for applications in designing selective thermal emitters, bio-sensing, etc. In other applications such as solar energy harvesting and photonic detection, the bandwidth of light absorbers is required to be quite broad. Under such a background, a variety of mechanisms of broadband/multiband absorption have been proposed, such as mixing multiple r…
Metallic layers are known to be used for the suppression of wave transmission when their thickness is sufficiently higher than the skin depth of metal. If in addition to blocking the transmission, metallic layers have the feature of blocking the reflection, too, they would make perfect absorbers. In this work, we propose an experimental approach of using a single thin layer of Manganese (Mn) as both the transmission suppresser and the reflection suppresser. This approach leads to obtaining lithography-free ultra-broadband perfect absorption in an ultra-wide spectrum ranging from Ultraviolet (U…
Aligned, densely-packed carbon nanotube metamaterials prepared using vacuum filtration are an emerging infrared nanophotonic material. We report multiple hyperbolic plasmon resonances, together spanning the mid-infrared, in individual resonators made from aligned and densely-packed carbon nanotubes. In the first near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) imaging study of nanotube metamaterial resonators, we observe distinct deeply-subwavelength field profiles at the fundamental and higher-order resonant frequencies. The wafer-scale area of the nanotube metamaterials allows us to combine thi…
We demonstrated an ultra-broadband, polarization-insensitive and wide-angle metamaterial absorber for terahertz (THz) frequencies using arrays of truncated pyramid unit structure made of metal-dielectric multilayer composite. In our design each sub-layer behaving as an effective waveguide is gradually modified in their lateral width to realize a wideband response by effectively stitching together the resonance bands of different waveguide modes. Experimentally, our five layer sample with a total thickness 21um is capable of producing a large absorptivity above 80% from 0.7 to 2.3 THz up to the…
By a hybrid integration of plasmonic and dielectric waveguide concepts, it is shown that coherent perfect absorption can be achieved in a co-propagant coupler geometry. The device holds promises for classical and quantum signal processing. First, the operating principle of the proposed device is detailed in the context of a more general 2x2 lossy coupler formalism. Then, it is shown how to tune the device in a wide region of possible working points, its broadband operation, and the tolerance to fabrication uncertainties. Finally, a complete picture of the electromagnetic modes inside the hybri…
We present an ultra broadband thin-film infrared absorber made of saw-toothed anisotropic metamaterial. Absorbtivity of higher than 95% at normal incidence is supported in a wide range of frequencies, where the full absorption width at half maximum is about 86%. Such property is retained well at a very wide range of incident angles too. Light of shorter wavelengths are harvested at upper parts of the sawteeth of smaller widths, while light of longer wavelengths are trapped at lower parts of larger tooth widths. This phenomenon is explained by the slowlight modes in anisotropic metamaterial wav…
Energy of propagating electromagnetic waves can be fully absorbed in a thin lossy layer, but only in a narrow frequency band, as follows from the causality principle. On the other hand, it appears that there are no fundamental limitations on broadband matching of thin absorbing layers. However, known thin absorbers produce significant reflections outside of the resonant absorption band. In this paper we explore possibilities to realize a thin absorbing layer which produces no reflected waves in a very wide frequency range, while the transmission coefficient has a narrow peak of full absorption…
Black phosphorous (BP), a two-dimensional (2D) material, has a direct bandgap, which fills up the bandgap lacuna left by graphene topological insulators and transition-metal dichalcogenides because of its dependence on the layers and applied strains. Theoretically, the direct and tunable band gap indicates the broadband applications in optoelectronics with high efficiencies in the spectral range from visible to mid-infrared. Here, a BP broadband optical modulator is experimentally constructed and the passively modulated lasers at 639 nm (red), 1.06 um (near-infrared) and 2.1 um (mid-infrared) …
