We develop an approach to use nanostructured plasmonic materials as a non-magnetic negative-refractive index system at optical and near-infrared frequencies. In contrast to conventional negative refraction materials, our design does not require periodicity and thus is highly tolerant to fabrication defects. Moreover, since the proposed materials are intrinsically non-magnetic, their performance is not limited to proximity of a resonance so that the resulting structure has relatively low loss. We develop the analytical description of the relevant electromagnetic phenomena and justify our analytic results via numerical solutions of Maxwell equations.
Negative-index refraction is achieved in a lamellar composite with epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG) materials stacked alternatively. Based on the effective medium approximation, simultaneously negative effective permittivity and permeability of such a lamellar composite are obtained theoretically and further proven by full-wave simulations. Consequently, the famous left-handed metamaterial comprising split ring resonators and wires is interpreted as an analogy of such an ENG-MNG lamellar composite. In addition, beyond the effective medium approximation, the propagating field squeez…
A nanofabricated regular array of coupled gold nano-pillars is employed to detect local indices of refraction of different liquids using a shift of an antisymmetric plasmon resonance peak observed in the reflection spectra. The peak spectral position is found to be a unique function of the local refractive index for a wide range of indices. We discuss possible applications of the fabricated nanostructured arrays in bio and chemical sensors.
Based on both analytical dipole model analyses and numerical simulations, we propose a concept of coherent perfect nanoabsorbers (CPNAs) for divergent beams. This concept makes use of the properties of a slab with negative refraction and small losses. The proposed CPNA device would allow focusing radiation in nanoscale regions, and hence could be applied in optical nanodevices for such diverse purposes as reading the results of quantum computation which is based on single photon qubits.
As one of the most fundamental optical phenomena, refraction between isotropic media is characterized by light bending towards the normal to the boundary when passing from a low- to a high-refractive-index medium. However, in anisotropic media, refraction is a much more exotic phenomenon. The most general case of refraction between two anisotropic media remains unexplored, particularly in natural media and at the nanoscale. Here, we visualize and comprehensively study refraction of electromagnetic waves between two strongly anisotropic (hyperbolic) media, and, importantly, we do it with the us…
We derive an approach to define the causal direction of the wavevector of modes in optical metamaterials, which in turn, determines signs of refractive index and impedance as a function of {\it real and imaginary} parts of dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability. We use the developed technique to demonstrate that the interplay between resonant response of constituents of metamaterials can be used to achieve efficient dispersion management. Finally we demonstrate broadband dispersion-less index and impedance matching in active nanowire-based negative index materials. Our work opens ne…
A fundamental building block for nanophotonics is the ability to achieve negative refraction of polaritons, because this could enable the demonstration of many unique nanoscale applications such as deep-subwavelength imaging, superlens, and novel guiding. However, to achieve negative refraction of highly squeezed polaritons, such as plasmon polaritons in graphene and phonon polaritons in boron nitride (BN) with their wavelengths squeezed by a factor over 100, requires the ability to flip the sign of their group velocity at will, which is challenging. Here we reveal that the strong coupling bet…
We present an experimental measurement of the refractive index of high density Rb vapor in a gaseous atomic nanolayer. We use heterodyne interferometry to measure the relative phase shift between two copropagating laser beams as a function of the laser detuning and infer a peak index n = 1.26 \pm 0.02, close to the theoretical maximum of 1.31. The large index has a concomitant large index gradient creating a region with steep anomalous dispersion where a sub-nanosecond optical pulse is advanced by >100 ps over a propagation distance of 390 nm, corresponding to a group index of -1x10^5, the lar…
An array of pairs of parallel gold nanorods is shown to have a negative refractive index n'=-0.3 at the optical communication wavelength of 1.5 micron. This effect results from the plasmon resonance in the pairs of nanorods for both the electric and magnetic components of light. The refractive index is retrieved from the direct phase and amplitude measurements for transmission and reflection, which are all in excellent agreement with our finite difference time domain simulations. The refraction critically depends on the phase of the transmitted wave, which emphasizes the importance of phase me…
A plasmonic nanoantenna probed by a plane-polarized optical field in a medium with no gain materials can show zero absorption or even amplification, while exhibiting maximal polarizability. This occurs through coupling to an adjacent nanoantenna in a specially designed metamolecule, which is pumped by an orthogonal optical field with phase shift. The introduced scheme is a classical counterpart of an effect known in quantum optics as enhancement of the index of refraction (EIR). In contrary to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), where the medium is rendered highly dispersive at the…
A wedge-shaped structure made of split-ring resonators (SRR) and wires is numerically simulated to evaluate its refraction behavior. Four frequency bands, namely, the stop band, left-handed band, ultralow-index band, and positive-index band, are distinguished according to the refracted field distributions. Negative phase velocity inside the wedge is demonstrated in the left-handed band and the Snell's law is conformed in terms of its refraction behaviors in different frequency bands. Our results confirmed that negative index of refraction indeed exists in such a composite metamaterial and also…
Effective refractive index of disordered all-dielectric metasurfaces consisting of gallium phosphide (GaP) spheres is studied by means of three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations at the wavelength of 532~nm. It is shown that a mixture of the high index nanoparticles with sizes close to the first magnetic and electric resonances randomly dispersed on metasurface may possess negative refraction. The dependence of the metasurface effective refractive index on the nanoparticle concentration and size is constructed. The feasibility of negative refraction at large concentra…
Negative refraction provides an attractive platform to manipulate mid-infrared and terahertz radiation for molecular sensing and thermal radiation applications. However, its implementation based on available metamaterials and plasmonic media presents challenges associated with optical losses, limited spatial confinement, and lack of active tunability in this spectral range. Here, we demonstrate gate-tunable negative refraction at mid-infrared frequencies using hybrid topological polaritons in van der Waals heterostructures with high spatial confinement. We experimentally visualize wide-angle n…
Two dimensional nanomaterials like Molybdenum disulfide have been drawing a lot of interest due to their excellent nonlinear optical response. In this research we study thermal lens formation in MoS2 nanoflakes dispersion using mode mismatched pump probe configuration. Observation of the pump and probe beam intensity patterns gave visual insights on time evolution of photothermal lens formation. Effect of MoS2 nanoflakes concentration on thermo-optic properties of dispersions were studied using thermal lens spectroscopy technique. Further, a thermo-optic refraction based technique to measure t…
Which systems are ideal to obtain negative refraction with no absorption? Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a method to suppress absorption and make a material transparent to a field of a given frequency. Such a system has been discussed in [1]; however the main limitations for negative refraction introduced are the necessity of resonant electric and magnetic dipole transitions, and the necessity of very dense media. We suggest using frequency translators in a composite system that would provide negative refraction for a range of optical frequencies while attempting to overcome…
We show that nanosphere dispersed liquid crystal (NDLC) metamaterial can be characterized in near IR spectral region as an indefinite medium whose real parts of effective ordinary and extraordinary permittivities are opposite in signs. Based on this fact we design a novel electrooptic effect: external electric field driven switch between normal refraction, negative refraction and reflection of TM incident electromagnetic wave from the boundary vacuum/NDLC. A detailed analysis of its functionality is given based on effective medium theory combined with a study of negative refraction in anisotro…
Chalcogenide glasses are exceptional materials that show a wide contrast in optical properties upon phase change and are highly researched for reconfigurable electronic and nanophotonic devices. Here, we report the first proof-of-concept demonstration of a non-volatile, switchable hyperbolic metamaterial based on a chalcogenide glass. By using the $Ge_{2}Sb_{2}Te_{5}$ (GST) alloy as one of the components of a multilayered nanocomposite structure and exploiting its phase change property, we demonstrate a hyperbolic metamaterial in which the Type-I hyperbolic dispersion $(ε_{\perp} < 0, ε_{\para…
A simple optical lens plays an important role for exploring the microscopic world in science and technology by refracting light with tailored spatially varying refractive index. Recent advancements in nanotechnology enable novel lenses, such as, superlens, hyperlens, Luneburg lens, with sub-wavelength resolution capabilities by specially designing materials' refractive indices with meta-materials and transformation optics. However, these artificially nano/micro engineered lenses usually suffer high losses from metals and are highly demanding in fabrication. Here we experimentally demonstrate f…
A new approach to producing a composite material with negative refraction index is demonstrated. It is shown that a photonic structure consisting of two dielectric materials, with positive and negative dielectric permittivities, can support electromagnetic surface waves which exhibit the unusual electromagnetic property of left-handedness (or negative refraction index). Depending on the dielectric materials, these surface waves localized at the dielectric interfaces can be either surface plasmons, or phonons. The detailed geometry of the structure determines whether this composite left-handed …
Negative reflection and negative refraction are exotic phenomena that can be achieved by platforms such as double-negative metamaterial, hyperbolic metamaterial, and phase-discontinuity metasurface. Recently, natural biaxial van der Waals (vdW) materials, which support extremely anisotropic, low-loss, and highly confined polaritons from infrared to visible regime, are emerging as promising candidates for planar reflective and refractive optics. Here, we introduce three degrees of freedom, namely interface, crystal direction, and electric tunability to manipulate the reflection and refraction o…
The specific optical nonlinearities inherent in aggregates of metal nanoparticles under pico- and nanosecond pulsed laser irradiation are studied in nanoparticle aggregates formed in silver hydrosols. The results of experimental studies of the correlation between the degree of aggregation of silver hydrosols and their nonlinear refraction index at the wavelengths 0.532 and 1.064 microns are discussed. The experiments revealed that nonlinear refraction index changes its sign at 1.064 microns as the degree of the hydrosol aggregation grows. The role of various processes occurring in resonant dom…
We have investigated nonlinear refraction in all-inorganic halide perovskites, the CsPbBr$_3$ and CsPbBr$_{1.5}$I$_{1.5}$ nanosheet and quantum dot colloids in toluene, by a novel beam deflection technique using near-resonant continuous wave lasers. The nonlinear refraction and its time-evolution measured here have originated from thermal lensing effect. Nonlinear behaviour of heat transport in terms of intensity dependent thermal diffusion rate has been observed. Effects of convective heat flow have been measured at high intensities. Quantum dots have higher nonlinear refraction as compared t…
Non-uniform metasurfaces (electrically thin composite layers) can be used for shaping refracted and reflected electromagnetic waves. However, known design approaches based on the generalized refraction and reflection laws do not allow realization of perfectly performing devices: there are always some parasitic reflections into undesired directions. In this paper we introduce and discuss a general approach to the synthesis of metasurfaces for full control of transmitted and reflected plane waves and show that perfect performance can be realized. The method is based on the use of an equivalent i…
The temporally switchable optical mode conversion is crucial for optical communication and computing applications. This research demonstrates such optically switchable mode converter driven by thermo-optic refraction. The MoS2 nanofluid is used as a medium where the thermal microlens is created by a focused laser beam (pump). The convective thermal plume generated above the focal point of the pump beam within the nanofluid acts as an astigmatic thermal lens. It is discovered that mode conversion of the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) to the Hermite-Gaussian (HG) beam (vice versa) takes place upon passi…
Time-varying metasurfaces are emerging as a powerful instrument for the dynamical control of the electromagnetic properties of a propagating wave. Here we demonstrate an efficient time-varying metasurface based on plasmonic nano-antennas strongly coupled to an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) deeply sub-wavelength film. The plasmonic resonance of the metal resonators strongly interacts with the optical ENZ modes, providing a Rabi level spitting of ~30%. Optical pumping at frequency ω induces a nonlinear polarisation oscillating at 2ω responsible for an efficient generation of a phase conjugate and a ne…
We design three-dimensional (3D) metallic nanowire media with different structures and numerically demonstrate that they can be homogeneous effective indefinite anisotropic media by showing that their dispersion relations are hyperbolic. For a finite slab, a nice fitting procedure is exploited to obtain the dispersion relations from which we retrieve the effective permittivities. The pseudo focusing for the real 3D wire medium agrees very well with the homogeneous medium having the effective permittivity tensor of the wire medium. Studies also show that in the long-wavelength limit, the hyperb…
Specially designed metal-dielectric composites can have a negative refractive index in the optical range. Specifically, it is shown that arrays of single and paired nanorods can provide such negative refraction. For pairs of metal rods, a negative refractive index has been observed at 1.5 micrometer. The inverted structure of paired voids in metal films may also exhibit a negative refractive index. A similar effect can be accomplished with metal strips in which the refractive index can reach -2. The refractive index retrieval procedure and the critical role of light phases in determining the r…
Realization of the anomalous refraction effects predicted by Huygens' metasurfaces (HMS) have required tedious and time-consuming trial-and-error numerical full-wave computations. It is shown herein that these requirements can be alleviated for transverse magnetic (TM) propagation by a periodic dielectric-based HMS consisting of an electrically thick array of cascaded Fabry-Pérot etalons. This "Fabry-Pérot HMS" (FP-HMS) is easily designed to mimic the local scattering coefficients of a standard zero-thickness HMS (ZT-HMS) which, according to homogenization theory, should result in the desired …
Institute of Micro- and Nanotechnologies, Technische Universität Ilmenau（微纳技术研究所，埃尔朗根-纽伦堡工业大学）；Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität Ilmenau（热力学与流体力学研究所，埃尔朗根-纽伦堡工业大学）
We study the effect of disorder on the effective magnetic response of composite left-handed metamaterials and their specific properties such as negative refraction. We show that relatively weak disorder in the split-ring resonators can reduce and even completely eliminate the frequency domain where the composite material demonstrates the left-handed properties. We introduce the concept of the order parameter to describe novel physics of this effect.
We investigate the capabilities of the effective non-retarded method (ENR) to explore and design nanoparticles composites with specific optical properties. We consider a composite material comprising periodically distributed metallic spheres in a dielectric host matrix. The effective macroscopic dielectric function of the composite medium is obtained by means of the ENR and is used to calculate the electromagnetic response of a slab made of such an inhomogeneous material. This response is compared with that obtained using the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker wave calculation method (KKR). We analyze the…
We propose a method for slowing down light pulses by using composites doped with metal nanoparticles. The underlying mechanism is related to the saturable absorption near the plasmon resonance in a pump-probe regime, leading to strong dispersion of the probe refractive index and significantly reduced group velocities. By using the non-collinear scheme, it is possible to realize the total fractional delay of 43 or larger values. This scheme promises simple and compact slow-light on-chip devices with tunable delay and THz bandwidth.
Optical response of artificial composite nanoscale molecules comprising a closely spaced noble metal nanoparticle and a semiconductor quantum dot have been studied theoretically. We consider a system composed of an Au particle and CdSe or CdSe/ZnSe quantum dot and predict optical bistability and hysteresis in its response, which suggests various applications, in particular, all-optical processing and optical memory.
We demonstrate a one-sided cavity on an optical nanofiber (ONF) using a composite method. The one-sided composite cavity is created by mounting an asymmetric defect mode grating on an ONF. We design the one-sided composite cavity on an ONF to enhance channeling efficiency into one side of ONF while operating from under- to critical- and over-coupling regimes using numerical simulations. Experimentally, we demonstrate coupling characteristics of the one-sided composite cavity, showing good correspondence with simulation results.
We theoretically study a novel method for all-optical delay of images based on backward four-wave mixing in composites containing metal nanoparticles. In this approach a delayed phase conjugate probe pulse is generated by the interaction of two counter-propagating pump beams and a non-collinear shaped probe pulse in the nanocomposite.The fractional delay and the reflectivity for the phase-conjugate signal pulses are studied as function of the input pump intensity. It is shown that this scheme can be used for delayed imaging combined with the elimination of optical diffraction. The advantages o…
Reflection and refraction of electromagnetic waves by artificial periodic composites (metamaterials) can be accurately modeled by an effective medium theory only if the boundary of the medium is explicitly taken into account and the two effective parameters of the medium -- the index of refraction and the impedance -- are correctly determined. Theories that consider infinite periodic composites do not satisfy the above condition. As a result, they cannot model reflection and transmission by finite samples with the desired accuracy and are not useful for design of metamaterial-based devices. As…
Hybrid lead halide perovskites, such as CH$_3$NH$_3$PbX$_3$ (X=I, Br), are direct gap semiconductors that offer many superior optoelectronic properties combined with extremely simple solution-processing fabrication methods. This makes them very attractive for use in applications like solar cells or light-emitting devices. Recently, also their nonlinear optical properties have received increased attention due to reports of high nonlinear refraction in thin films and nanoparticles. However, understanding of the underlying mechanisms is poor and limited by the lack of knowledge of fundamental par…
We demonstrate cavity QED conditions in the Purcell regime for single quantum emitters on the surface of an optical nanofiber. The cavity is formed by combining an optical nanofiber and a nanofabricated grating to create a composite photonic crystal cavity. Using this technique, significant enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate into the nanofiber guided modes is observed for single quantum dots. Our results pave the way for enhanced on-fiber light-matter interfaces with clear applications to quantum networks.
We report a novel approach to the design and implementation of a tunable cavity on an optical nanofiber (ONF). The key point is to create a composite photonic crystal cavity (CPCC), by combining an ONF and a chirped period defect mode grating. Using numerical simulations we design the CPCC with low scattering loss while tuning the cavity resonance wavelength of \pm10 nm around the designed wavelength. We experimentally demonstrate the tunability of the CPCC, showing good agreement with the simulation results. Our results lay the foundation for a versatile platform for ONF cavity-quantum-electr…
The in-plane negative refraction of high-momentum (i.e., high-k) photonic modes could enable many applications such as imaging and hyperlensing in a planar platform at deep-subwavelength scales. However, its practical implementation in experiments remains elusive so far. Here we propose a class of hyperbolic metasurfaces, which is characterized by an anisotropic magnetic sheet conductivity and can support the in-plane ultrahigh-k magnetic designer polaritons. Based on such metasurfaces, we report the first experimental observation of the all-angle negative refraction of designer polaritons at …
Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) on various materials have been extensively investigated because of their wide applications. The combination of different materials allows for greater freedom in tailoring their functions and achieving responses not possible in a homogeneous material. By utilizing a femtosecond (fs) laser to irradiate the Fe-doped Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) composite film, highly regular ultrafine nanogratings (U-nanogratings) with a period as small as 35.0 ($\pm$ 2.0) nm can be self-organized on the surface with extremely high efficiency. The period of the U-…
Extinction coefficient is fundamental to analyze radiative transport in micro/nano particle suspensions. In the traditional transmission method for measuring the extinction coefficient of particles in a cuvette, a reference system is used to compensate the influence of the cuvette and base fluid. However, the multiple reflections and refractions between the air/glass and liquid/glass interfaces cannot be sufficiently eliminated by using the reference system, and the induced measurement error increases significantly with increasing difference in refractive index between two neighboring media at…
We introduce a new, highly sensitive, and simple heterodyne optical method for imaging individual non-fluorescent nano-objects. A two orders of magnitude improvement of the signal is achieved compared to previous methods. This allows for the unprecedented detection of individual small absorptive objects such as metallic clusters (of 67 atoms) or non-luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals. The measured signals are in agreement with a calculation based on the scattering field theory from a photothermal-induced modulated index of refraction profile around the nanoparticle.
Two approaches (micro- and macro- investigations) are used to determine the dimension dependences of the optical parameters of the nanometer-scale layers of materials. It is shown that both an index of refraction and coefficient of absorption depend strongly on the thickness of the layer. In this region of thicknesses, the dimension resonance occurs, where an index of refraction has a maximum and a coefficient of absorption has a minimum. The numerical calculation of the optical parameters of some materials (Ag, Al, Fe, Ge, Si, Se, Te) have been carried out with the use of the experimental dat…
