1,721,137 research outputs found
Nonlinear and switchable metamaterials for optical data processing
No full textThe next photonic revolution will be fuelled by a dependence on 'metamaterials' - radically new types of artificial electromagnetic media with unusual and useful functionalities achieved via structuring on the sub-wavelength scale. The Centre for Photonic Metamaterials at the University of Southampton is developing a new generation of switchable and active nanostructured photonic media offering ground-breaking solutions for telecoms, energy and light generation, imaging, lithography, data storage, sensing, and security and defence applications. Here, we review a number of photonic metamaterial approaches to all-optical signal modulation and switching on the nanoscale
Active switchable and nonlinear photonic metamaterials
No full textThe next photonic revolution will be fuelled by a dependence on metamaterials - radically new types of artificial electromagnetic media with unusual and useful functionalities achieved via structuring on the sub-wavelength scale. By advancing the physics of the generation and manipulation of light in nanostructures, such media offer ground-breaking solutions for telecoms, energy and light generation, imaging, lithography, data storage, sensing, and security and defence applications.We report on recent results in the development of active, switchable and nonlinear metamaterials surpassing natural media as platforms for optical data processing, including phase-change, opto-mechanical and coherently controlled 'meta-devices'
Active plasmonics: current status
No full textTechniques for active modulation and control of plasmonic signals in future highly-integrated nanophotonic devices have advanced rapidly in recent years, with recent innovations extending performance into the terahertz frequency and femtojoule-per-bit switching energy domains. As thoughts turn towards the development of practical device structures, key technologies are compared in this review and prospects are assessed for the future development of the field
Developments in nonlinear and switchable photonic metamaterials
No full textPhotonic metamaterials are now established not only as a paradigm for the development of media with new and unusual electromagnetic properties achieved via sub-wavelength structuring but also as a device platform wherein the structuring of plasmonic metals and hybridization with active media brings new functionalities and responses that can be nonlinear, tuneable, or switchable. We present recent experimental advances in the development of functional photonic metamaterials, describing the dramatic enhancement of ultrafast optical nonlinearities in nanostructured plasmonic metamaterials
Nanostructured photonic metamaterial at Southampton: recent results and future research direction
No full textNonlinear and switchable plasmonic metamaterials
No full textThe next stage of photonic technological revolution will be the development of active, controllable and nonlinear metamaterials surpassing natural media as platforms for optical data processing with THz bandwidth and quantum information applications. We report an overview on our recent results on achieving new functionalities in nanostructured photonic metamaterials containing nonlinear and active media such as NEMS switchable metamaterials, hybrid metamaterials containing chalcogenide glass, carbon nanotubes, graphene, semiconductor quantum dots and report on exciting plasmonic properties of superconducting and toroidal metamaterials and on using metamaterials for digitally controlled light localization
Light absorption by interference of radiation in a metamaterial - an anti-LASER
No full textWe demonstrate for the first time that a planar photonic metamaterial (a single layer of nanostructured metal less than one tenth of a wavelength thick) can, via a coherent interaction, resonantly absorb all of the light incident on it.The coherent absorption phenomenon described here is a metamaterial analogue of the recently reported optical cavity 'coherent perfect absorption' phenomenon - the time-reversed counterpart of conventional lasing. It is a narrowband phenomenon arising from the tailored interplay of interference and absorption between counter-propagating beams in a dissipative medium and was recently demonstrated experimentally in a bulk optical resonator [Wan, et al., Science 331, 889 (2011)].Here we show that a similar effect may be observed in a single sub-wavelength metallic metamaterial film exploiting plasmonic resonant absorption. We experimentally demonstrate coherent perfect absorption in a 50 nm thick gold metamaterial at a wavelength of 633 nm and show that the level of absorption can be coherently controlled by adjusting the mutual phase of the interfering beams.The metamaterial coherent perfect absorber is the time-reversed counterpart of the 'lasing spaser' (a coherent source of optical radiation fuelled by plasmonic oscillations) and may serve applications in optical modulators, transducers, switches or sensors
Cathodoluminescence readout of high-density nanoparticle phase change memory
No full textFor the first time we demonstrate that information can be written in the structural phase of gallium nanoparticles within an array by a focused electron beam and read-out via measurements of cathodoluminescent emission
Proximity interactions of free-electrons with metamaterials and plasmonic nanostructures
No full textWe introduce an optical fiber platform to interrogate the proximity interaction between free electron evanescent fields and photonic nanostructures at optical frequencies. Conically profiled optical fiber tips are functionalized with nano-gratings, thin silver film on nano-gratings, and metamaterials for the detection, amplification, and controlled coupling of electron evanescent fields
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