Controlling the directionality of emitted far-field thermal radiation is a fundamental challenge in contemporary photonics and materials research. While photonic strategies have enabled angular selectivity of thermal emission over narrow sets of bandwidths, thermal radiation is inherently a broadband phenomenon. We currently lack the ability to constrain emitted thermal radiation to arbitrary angular ranges over broad bandwidths. Here, we introduce and experimentally realize gradient epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material structures that enable broad spectrum directional control of thermal emission by supporting leaky electromagnetic modes that couple to free space at fixed angles over a broad bandwidth. We demonstrate two emitter structures consisting of multiple semiconductor oxides in a photonic configuration that enable gradient ENZ behavior over long-wave infrared wavelengths. The structures exhibit high average emissivity (greater than 0.6 and 0.7) in the p polarization between 7.7 and 11.5 micron over an angular range of 70 deg - 85 deg, and between 10.0 to 14.3 micron over an angular range of 60 deg-75 deg, respectively. Outside these angular ranges, the emissivity dramatically drops to 0.4 at 50 deg and 40 deg. The structures broadband thermal beaming capability enables strong radiative heat transfer only at particular angles and is experimentally verified through direct measurements of thermal emission. By decoupling conventional limitations on angular and spectral response, our approach opens new possibilities for radiative heat transfer in applications such as thermal camouflaging, solar heating, radiative cooling and waste heat recovery.
Silicon nitride based photonic integrated circuits offer a wavelength operation window in the near infrared down to visible light, which makes them attractive for life science applications. However, they exhibit significantly different behavior in comparison with better-established silicon on insulator counterparts due to the lower index contrast. Among the most important building blocks in photonic integrated circuits are broadband couplers with a defined coupling ratio. We present silicon nitride broadband asymmetric directional coupler designs with 50/50 and 90/10 splitting ratios with a ce…
An optical equivalent of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is of great interest to large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Previous programmable photonic devices relying on the weak, volatile thermo-optic or electro-optic effect usually suffer from a large footprint and high energy consumption. Phase change materials (PCMs) offer a promising solution due to the large non-volatile change in the refractive index upon phase transition. However, the large optical loss in PCMs poses a serious problem. Here, by exploiting an asymmetric directional coupler design, we demonstrate PCM-clad sil…
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.
Aluminum nitride (AlN)-on-insulator has emerged as a promising platform for the realization of linear and non-linear integrated photonic circuits. In order to efficiently route optical signals on-chip, precise control over the interaction and polarization of evanescently coupled waveguide modes is required. Here we employ nanophotonic AlN waveguides to realize directional couplers with a broad coupling bandwidth and low insertion loss. We achieve uniform splitting of incoming modes, confirmed by high extinction-ratio exceeding 33dB in integrated Mach-Zehnder Interferometers. Optimized three-wa…
Broadband coherent light sources are becoming increasingly important for sensing and spectroscopic applications, especially in the mid-infrared and terahertz (THz) spectral regions, where the unique absorption characteristics of a whole host of molecules are located. The desire to miniaturize such light emitters has recently lead to spectacular advances with compact on-chip lasers that cover both of these spectral regions. The long wavelength and the small size of the sources result in a strongly diverging laser beam that is difficult to focus on the target that one aims to perform spectroscop…
Controlling both the spectral bandwidth and directional range of emitted thermal radiation is a fundamental challenge in modern photonics and materials research. Recent work has shown that materials with a spatial gradient in their epsilon near zero response can support broad spectrum directionality in their emissivity, enabling high radiance to specific angles of incidence. However, this capability has been limited spectrally and directionally by the availability of materials supporting phonon-polariton resonances over long-wave infrared wavelengths. Here, we design and experimentally demonst…
We detect thermally excited surfaces waves on a submicron SiO 2 layer, including Zenneck and guided modes in addition to Surface Phonon Polaritons. The measurements show the existence of these hybrid thermal-electromagnetic waves from near-(2.7 $μ$m) to far-(11.2 $μ$m) infrared. Their propagation distances reach values on the order of the millimeter, several orders of magnitude larger than on semi-infinite systems. These two features, spectral broadness and long range propagation, make these waves good candidates for near-field applications both in optics and thermics due to their dual nature.
We demonstrate a spectrally broadband and effcient technique for collecting photoluminescence from a single InAs quantum dot directly into a standard single mode optical fiber. In this approach, an optical fiber taper waveguide is placed in contact with a suspended GaAs nanophotonic waveguide with embedded quantum dots, forming an effcient and broadband directional coupler with standard optical fiber input and output. Effcient photoluminescence collection over a wavelength range of tens of nanometers is demonstrated, and a maximum collection effciency of 6.05 % (corresponding single photon rat…
An important source of innovation in nanophotonics is the idea to scale down known radio wave technologies to the optical regime. One thoroughly investigated example of this approach are metallic nanoantennas which employ plasmonic resonances to couple localized emitters to selected far-field modes. While metals can be treated as perfect conductors in the microwave regime, their response becomes Drude-like at optical frequencies. Thus, plasmonic nanoantennas are inherently lossy. Moreover, their resonant nature requires precise control of the antenna geometry. A promising way to circumvent the…
The concept of the broadband epsilon-near-zero meta-atom consisting of layered stacks with specified metallic filling ratio and thickness is proposed based on the Bergman spectral representation of the effective permittivity. The step-like metal-dielectric multilayer structures are designed to achieve realistic broadband epsilon-near-zero meta-atoms in optical frequency range. These meta-atoms can be integrated as building blocks for unconventional optical components with exotic electromagnetic properties over a wide frequency range, such as the demonstrated broadband directional emission and …
Inspired by moth eyes, nature's most powerful antireflex, we present a sub-wavelength SiC micropyramid design, which operates in the Reststrahlen band of SiC, namely the spectral band of strong phonon-photon coupling in the SiC material. While within this band SiC repels EM waves, we observe here a broad low-reflectivity window with unique attributes, with distinct characteristics different from typical dielectric moth-eye-like structures. To be specific, while the latter systems are entirely symmetric, the reflection response of our SiC micropyramid system can be highly asymmetric. In particu…
We numerically demonstrate that a planar slab made of magnetic Weyl semimetal (a class of topological materials) can emit high-purity circularly polarized (CP) thermal radiation over a broad mid- and long-wave infrared wavelength range for a significant portion of its emission solid angle. This effect fundamentally arises from the strong infrared gyrotropy or nonreciprocity of these materials which primarily depends on the momentum separation between Weyl nodes in the band structure. We clarify the dependence of this effect on the underlying physical parameters and highlight that the spectral …
Broadband electrochromism from visible to infrared wavelengths is attractive for applications like smart windows, thermal-camouflage, and temperature control. In this work, the broadband electrochromic properties of Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) and its suitability for infrared-camouflage and thermoregulation are investigated. Upon Li+ intercalation, LTO changes from a wide band-gap semiconductor to a metal, causing LTO nanoparticles on metal to transition from a super-broadband optical reflector to a solar absorber and thermal emitter. Large tunabilities of 0.74, 0.68 and 0.30 are observed for the solar re…
We propose an approach to enhance and direct the spontaneous emission from isolated emitters embedded inside hyperbolic metamaterials into single photon beams. The approach rests on collective plasmonic Bloch modes of hyperbolic metamaterials which propagate in highly directional beams called quantum resonance cones. We propose a pumping scheme using the transparency window of the hyperbolic metamaterial that occurs near the topological transition. Finally, we address the challenge of outcoupling these broadband resonance cones into vacuum using a dielectric bullseye grating. We give a detaile…
Programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have recently gained significant interest due to their potential in creating next-generation technologies ranging from artificial neural networks and microwave photonics to quantum information processing. The fundamental building block of such programmable PICs is a tunable 2 x 2 switch, traditionally controlled by the thermo-optic or free-carrier dispersion. Yet, these implementations are power-hungry, volatile, and have a large footprint (typically > 100 um). Therefore, a truly 'set-and-forget' type 2 x 2 switch with zero static power consumpt…
We experimentally demonstrate that a thin (~150 nm) film of vanadium dioxide (VO2) deposited on sapphire has an anomalous thermal emittance profile when heated, which arises due to the optical interaction between the film and the substrate when the VO2 is at an intermediate state of its insulator-metal transition (IMT). Within the IMT region, the VO2 film comprises nanoscale islands of metal- and dielectric-phase, and can thus be viewed as a natural, disordered metamaterial. This structure displays "perfect" blackbody-like thermal emissivity over a narrow wavelength range (~40 cm-1), surpassin…
We present optimized aperiodic structures for use as broadband thermal incandescent emitters which are capable of increasing the emittance by nearly a factor of two over the visible wavelength range when compared to bulk tungsten. These aperiodic multilayer structures are designed with alternating layers of tungsten and air or tungsten and silicon carbide on top of a tungsten substrate. We investigate the properties of these structures for use as lightbulb filaments. We find that these structures greatly enhance the emittance over the visible wavelength range, while also increasing the overall…
In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and characterization of a traveling wave directional coupler modulator based on electro-optic polymer, which is able to provide both high linearity and broad bandwidth. The high linearity is realized by introducing domain-inversion technique in the two-domain directional coupler. A travelling wave electrode is designed to function with bandwidth-length product of 302GHz cm, by achieving low microwave loss, excellent impedance matching and velocity matching, as well as smooth electric field profile transformation. The 3-dB bandwidth of the devic…
We develop the fluctuational electrodynamics of metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion and show the existence of broadband thermal emission beyond the black body limit in the near field. This arises due to the thermal excitation of unique bulk metamaterial modes, which do not occur in conventional media. We consider a practical realization of the hyperbolic metamaterial and estimate that the effect will be observable using the characteristic dispersion (topological transitions) of the metamaterial states. Our work paves the way for engineering the near-field thermal emission using metamateri…
We estimate the loss angles of the materials currently used in the highly reflective test-mass coatings of interferometric detectors of gravitational waves, namely Silica, Tantala, and Ti-dop ed Tantala, from direct measurement of coating thermal noise in an optical interferometer testbench, the Caltech TNI. We also present a simple predictive theory for the material properties of amorphous glassy oxide mixtures, which gives results in good agreement with our measurements on Ti-doped Tantala. Alternative measure ment methods and results are reviewed, and some critical issues are discussed.
Alignment-free ultra-broadband parametric frequency conversion in lead-halide perovskites
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)（奥地利科学技术研究所）；International Laser Centre（国际激光中心）；RCQI, Institute of Physics SAS（斯洛伐克科学院物理研究所量子凝聚态与量子信息研究中心）；King Abdullah University of Science and Technology（阿卜杜拉国王科技大学）；School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学材料科学与工程学院）；Center for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies (CREST), Division of Physical Science and Engineering (PSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology（阿卜杜拉国王科技大学物理科学与工程学部可再生能源与储能技术研究中心）
We demonstrate how broadband angular selectivity can be achieved with stacks of one-dimensionally periodic photonic crystals, each consisting of alternating isotropic layers and effective anisotropic layers, where each effective anisotropic layer is constructed from a multilayered metamaterial. We show that by simply changing the structure of the metamaterials, the selective angle can be tuned to a broad range of angles; and, by increasing the number of stacks, the angular transmission window can be made as narrow as desired. As a proof of principle, we realize the idea experimentally in the m…
Dual-polarization control of broadband nonreciprocal thermal radiation by combining local and nonlocal metasurfaces
The University of Hong Kong（香港大学）；State Key Laboratory of Optical Quantum Materials, The University of Hong Kong（香港大学光学量子材料国家重点实验室）；Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, MOE Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学机械工程学院动力机械工程教育部重点实验室工程热物理研究所）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学电气与计算机工程系）；Key Laboratory of Terahertz Solid State Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海微系统与信息技术研究所太赫兹固态技术重点实验室）；National Engineering Research Center of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（电子科技大学电磁辐射控制材料国家工程研究中心）
Observation of Photon Bunching in Broadband Multimode Thermal Light Enabled by Temporal Imaging
University of Warsaw（华沙大学）；Paderborn University（帕德博恩大学）；Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 8523 – PhLAM – Physique des Lasers Atomes et Molécules（里尔大学，法国国家科学研究中心，联合研究实验室8523 - 激光物理、原子和分子物理学）；Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Ulm（乌尔姆大学量子光学研究所）
Optical surface waves, highly localized modes bound to the surface of media, enable manipulation of light at nanoscale, thus impacting a wide range of areas in nanoscience. By applying metamaterials, artificially designed optical materials, as contacting media at the interface, we can significantly ameliorate surface wave propagation and even generate new types of waves. Here, we demonstrate that high aspect ratio (1:20) grating structures with plasmonic lamellas in deep nanoscale trenches function as a versatile platform supporting both surface and volume infrared waves. The surface waves exh…
Impedance mismatch between free space and absorptive materials is a fundamental issue plaguing the pursue of high-efficiency light absorption. In this work, we design and numerically demonstrate a type of non-resonant impedance-matched optical metasurfaces exhibiting ultra-broadband reflectionless absorption based on anomalous Brewster effect, which are donated as optical Brewster metasurfaces here. Interestingly, such Brewster metasurfaces exhibit a unique type of extreme angular-asymmetry: a transition between perfect transparency and perfect absorption appears when the sign of the incident …
We report on the relative length fluctuation of two fixed-spacer Fabry-Perot cavities with mirrors fabricated from silica/tantala dielectric coatings on fused silica substrates. By locking a laser to each cavity and reading out the beat note $\hatν = ν_1 - ν_2$ of the transmitted beams, we find that, for frequencies from 10 Hz to 1 kHz, the amplitude spectral density of beat note fluctuation is $\sqrt{S_\hatν(f)} = (0.5\,\mathrm{Hz})/f^{1/2}$. By careful budgeting of noise sources contributing to the beat note, we find that our measurement is consistent with the fluctuation in this band being …
The miniaturization of infrared gas sensors is largely hindered by expensive and bulky laser sources as well as the use of optical filters. In this work, we propose a dual-band, directional thermal emitter based on compact W-Si-Cu metasurfaces to address this issue. This metasurface emitter is designed to support two nondispersive magnetic polariton modes that exhibit distinct directional thermal emission profiles, thus enabling dual-band detection without the need of optical filters. Specifically, we evaluate the feasibility of such dual-band filterless detection by adapting the metasurface e…
Here, we demonstrate a new type of 3-dB coupler that has an ultra-broadband operational range starting from 1300 nm to 1600 nm with low fabrication sensitivity. Overall device size is 800 micron including in/out S-bend waveguides. The coupler is an asymmetric non-uniform directional coupler that consists of two tapered waveguides. One of the coupler arms is shifted by 130 micron in the propagation direction, which reduces the phase mismatch between the odd and even mode of the coupled system resulting in a better wavelength-flattened response compared to a not shifted coupler. Moreover, compar…
We report the experimental demonstration of coherent control with high power, broadband squeezed vacuum. Although incoherent and exhibiting the statistics of a thermal noise, broadband squeezed vacuum is shown to induce certain two-photon interactions as a coherent ultrashort pulse with the same spectral bandwidth. Utilizing pulse-shaping techniques we coherently control the sum-frequency generation of broadband squeezed vacuum over a range of two orders of magnitude. Coherent control of two-photon interactions with broadband squeezed vacuum can potentially obtain spectral resolutions and exti…
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…
We report a novel technique for launching broadband laser light into liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). It uniquely offers self-alignment and self-stabilization via optomechanical trapping of a fused silica nanospike, fabricated by thermally tapering and chemically etching a single mode fiber into a tip diameter of 350 nm. We show that a trapping laser, delivering ~300 mW at 1064 nm, can be used to optically align and stably maintain the nanospike at the core center. Once this is done, a broadband supercontinuum beam (~575 to 1064 nm) can be efficiently and close to ach…
