Resonant Gain Singularities in 1D and 3D Metal/Dielectric Multilayered Nanostructures

Ultrathin, Dynamically Controllable Circularly Polarized Emission Laser Enabled by Resonant Chiral Metasurfaces

We demonstrate a simple, low-cost, and ultracompact chiral resonant metasurface design, which, by strong local coupling to a quantum gain medium (quantum emitters), allows to implement an ultrathin metasurface laser, capable of generating tunable circularly polarized coherent lasing output. According to our detailed numerical investigations, the lasing emission can be transformed from linear to circular and switch from right- to left-handed circularly polarized (CP) not only by altering the metasurface chiral response but also by changing the polarization of a linearly polarized pump wave, thus enabling dynamic lasing-polarization control. Given the increasing interest for CP laser emission, our chiral metasurface laser design proves to be a versatile yet straightforward strategy to generate a strong and tailored CP emission laser, promising great potential for future applications in both photonics and materials science.

Molecular Plasmonics with Metamaterials

Molecular plasmonics, the area which deals with the interactions between surface plasmons and molecules, has received enormous interest in fundamental research and found numerous technological applications. Plasmonic metamaterials, which offer rich opportunities to control the light intensity, field polarization, and local density of electromagnetic states on subwavelength scales, provide a versatile platform to enhance and tune light-molecule interactions. A variety of applications, including spontaneous emission enhancement, optical modulation, optical sensing, and photoactuated nanochemistry, have been reported by exploiting molecular interactions with plasmonic metamaterials. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the developments of molecular plasmonics with metamaterials. After a brief introduction to the optical properties of plasmonic metamaterials and relevant fabrication approaches, we discuss light-molecule interactions in plasmonic metamaterials in both weak and strong coupling regimes. We then highlight the exploitation of molecules in metamaterials for applications ranging from emission control and optical modulation to optical sensing. The role of hot carriers generated in metamaterials for nanochemistry is also discussed. Perspectives on the future development of molecular plasmonics with metamaterials conclude the review. The use of molecules in combination with designer metamaterials provides a rich playground both to actively control metamaterials using molecular interactions and, in turn, to use metamaterials to control molecular processes.

Active control of dielectric singularities in indium-tin-oxides hyperbolic metamaterials

Dielectric singularities (DSs) constitute one of the most exotic features occurring in the effective permittivity of artificial multilayers called hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs). Associated to DSs, a rich phenomenology arises that justifies the ever-increasing interest profuse by the photonic community in achieving an active control of their properties. As an example, the possibility to "canalize" light down to the nanoscale as well as the capability of HMMs to interact with quantum emitters, placed in their proximity, enhancing their emission rate (Purcell effect), are worth mentioning. HMMs, however, suffer of an intrinsic lack of tunability of its DSs. Several architectures have been proposed to overcome this limit and, among them, the use of graphene outstands. Graphene-based HMMs recently shown outstanding canalization capabilities achieving λ/1660 light collimation. Despite the exceptional performances promised by these structures, stacking graphene/oxide multilayers is still an experimental challenge, especially envisioning electrical gating of all the graphene layers. In this paper, we propose a valid alternative in which indium-tin-oxide (ITO) is used as an electrically tunable metal. Here we have numerically designed and analyzed an ITO/SiO2 based HMM with a tunable canalization wavelength within the range between 1.57 and 2.74 μm. The structure feature light confinement of λ/8.8 (resolution of about 178 nm), self-focusing of the light down to 0.26 μm and Purcell factor of approximately 700. The proposed HMM nanoarchitecture could be potentially used in many applications, such as ultra-fast signal processing, high harmonic generation, lab-on-a-chip nanodevices, bulk plasmonic waveguides in integrated photonic circuits and laser diode collimators.

Gain-Assisted Giant Third-Order Nonlinearity of Epsilon-Near-Zero Multilayered Metamaterials

We investigate the third-order nonlinear optical properties of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) Au/dye-doped fused silica multilayered metamaterials in the visible spectral range for TM incident by using nonlocal effective medium theory at different incidence angles. The nonlocal response affects the permittivity of anisotropic metamaterials when the thickness of the layer cannot be much smaller than the incident wavelength. By doping pump dye gain material within the dielectric layer to compensate for the metal loss, the imaginary part of the effective permittivity is reduced to 10^-4, and the optical nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient are enhanced. The real and imaginary parts of the permittivity are simultaneously minimized when the central emission wavelength of the gain material is close to the ENZ wavelength, and the nonlinear refraction coefficient reaches the order of 10^-5 cm²/W, which is five orders of magnitude larger than that of the nonlinear response of the metamaterial without the gain medium. Our results demonstrate that a smaller imaginary part of the permittivity can be obtained by doping gain materials within the dielectric layer; it offers the promise of designing metamaterials with large nonlinearity at arbitrary wavelengths.

Inter-Cavity Coupling Strength Control in Metal/Insulator Multilayers for Hydrogen Sensing

Hydrogen (H2) sensing is crucial for modern energy storage technology, which looks to hydrogen as the most promising alternative to fossil fuels. In this respect, magnesium (Mg) offers unique possibilities, since magnesium and hydrogen easily undergo a reversible hydrogenation reaction where Mg reversibly converts into MgH2. From an optical point of view, this process produces an abrupt refractive index change, which can be exploited for sensing applications. To maximize this opportunity, we envision an architecture composed of two Ag/ITO/Mg metal/dielectric resonators facing each other and displaced by 200 nm of vacuum. This structure forms a so-called Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) multi-cavity resonator, in which the two internal Mg layers, used as tunneling coupling metals, are accessible to environmental agents. We demonstrate that the hydrogenation of the two Mg layers leads to substantial changes in the strong coupling between the cavities composing the entire resonator, with a consequent abrupt modification of the spectral response, thus enabling the sensing mechanism. One of the main advantages of the proposed system with respect to previous research is that the proposed multilayered architecture avoids the need for lithographic processes. This feature makes the proposed architecture inexpensive and wafer-to-chip scalable, considering that each kind of substrate from common glass to silicon can be used. Therefore, our sensing architecture offers great promise for applications in embedded H2 sensors.

Electrochromic Metamaterials of Metal-Dielectric Stacks for Multicolor Displays with High Color Purity

Inorganic electrochromic (EC) materials with vibrant multicolor change that are compatible with large-scale processing have been at the forefront of EC technology and are crucial in a wide range of applications, such as displays and camouflage. However, limited strategies are available to realize such inorganic materials, and challenges such as low color purity are yet to be overcome. Here, we demonstrate multilayered metal-dielectric metamaterials (MMDMs) as a new family of inorganics-based EC materials to achieve dynamic alternation among multicolors with high contrast and high color purity, which are structurally realized by significantly enhancing the confinement of the incident light in specific optical frequencies. This multilayer structure renders high reflectivity (75%), high quality factor (7.4), and a full width at half-maximum of 60 nm before coloration and presents a color gamut at least 40% wider than that of previously reported metamaterials after coloration, indicating good color quality.

A reconfigurable hyperbolic metamaterial perfect absorber

Metamaterial (MM) perfect absorbers are realised over various spectra from visible to microwave. Recently, different approaches have been explored to integrate tunability into MM absorbers. Particularly, tuning has been illustrated through electrical-, thermal-, and photo-induced changes to the permittivity of the active medium within MM absorbers. However, the intricate design, expensive nanofabrication process, and the volatile nature of the active medium limit the widespread applications of MM absorbers. Metal-dielectric stack layered hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) have recently attracted much attention due to their extraordinary optical properties and rather simple design. Herein, we experimentally realised a reconfigurable HMM perfect absorber based on alternating gold (Au) and Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST225) layers for the near-infrared (N-IR) region. It shows that a red-shift of 500 nm of the absorptance peak can be obtained by changing the GST225 state from amorphous to crystalline. The nearly perfect absorptance is omnidirectional and polarisation-independent. Additionally, the absorptance peak can be reversibly switched in just five nanoseconds by re-amorphising the GST225, enabling a dynamically reconfigurable HMM absorber. Experimental data are validated numerically using the finite-difference time-domain method. The absorber fabricated using our strategy has advantages of being reconfigurable, uncomplicated, and lithography-free over conventional MM absorbers, which may open up a new path for applications in energy harvesting, photodetectors, biochemical sensing, and thermal camouflage techniques.

Ultrabroadband Absorption Enhancement via Hybridization of Localized and Propagating Surface Plasmons

Broadband metamaterial absorbers (MAs) are critical for applications of photonic and optoelectronic devices. Despite long-standing efforts on broadband MAs, it has been challenging to achieve ultrabroadband absorption with high absorptivity and omnidirectional characteristics within a comparatively simple and low-cost architecture. Here we design, fabricate, and characterize a novel compact Cr-based MA to achieve ultrabroadband absorption in the visible to near-infrared wavelength region. The Cr-based MA consists of Cr nanorods and Cr substrate sandwiched by three pairs of SiO₂/Cr stacks. Both simulated and experimental results show that an average absorption over 93.7% can be achieved in the range of 400–1000 nm. Specifically, the ultrabroadband features result from the co-excitations of localized surface plasmon (LSP) and propagating surface plasmon (PSP) and their synergistic absorption effects, where absorption in the shorter and longer wavelengths are mainly contributed bythe LSP and PSP modes, respectively. The Cr-based MA is very robust to variations of the geometrical parameters, and angle-and polarization-insensitive absorption can be operated well over a large range of anglesunder both transverse magnetic(TM)- and transverse electric (TE)-polarized light illumination.

Non-Hermitian doping of epsilon-near-zero media

In solid-state physics, "doping" is a pivotal concept that allows controlling and engineering of the macroscopic electronic and optical properties of materials such as semiconductors by judiciously introducing small concentrations of impurities. Recently, this concept has been translated to two-dimensional photonic scenarios in connection with host media characterized by vanishingly small relative permittivity ("epsilon near zero"), showing that it is possible to obtain broadly tunable effective magnetic responses by introducing a single, nonmagnetic doping particle at an arbitrary position. So far, this phenomenon has been studied mostly for lossless configurations. In principle, the inevitable presence of material losses can be compensated via optical gain. However, taking inspiration from quantum (e.g., parity-time) symmetries that are eliciting growing attention in the emerging fields of non-Hermitian optics and photonics, this suggests considering more general gain-loss interactions. Here, we theoretically show that the photonic doping concept can be extended to non-Hermitian scenarios characterized by tailored distributions of gain and loss in either the doping particles or the host medium. In these scenarios, the effective permeability can be modeled as a complex-valued quantity (with the imaginary part accounting for the gain or loss), which can be tailored over broad regions of the complex plane. This enables a variety of unconventional optical responses and waveguiding mechanisms, which can be, in principle, reconfigured by varying the optical gain (e.g., via optical pumping). We envision several possible applications of this concept, including reconfigurable nanophotonics platforms and optical sensing, which motivate further studies for their experimental validation.

Optical axis-driven field discontinuity in a hyperbolic medium

The altering permittivity tensor of a hyperbolic medium from diagonal to off-diagonal by the constructive manipulation of the optical axis (also called tilted hyperbolic medium) has attracted much interest recently. Here, the electromagnetic field solutions of waves interacting with a tilted hyperbolic medium are established. Detailed calculations reveal that when a transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave is incident from a tilted hyperbolic medium to a dielectric medium, tangential components of electric fields are expected to be discontinuous at the interface. Extraordinary surface voltages are induced at the inner boundary of the tilted hyperbolic medium, which prevents the reflection of electromagnetic waves. This alternative behavior of induced extraordinary surface voltages enriches the understanding of continuity across the boundary and provides a novel perspective for their realizations among multiple experimental platforms.

Graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterial as a switchable reflection modulator

A tunable graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterial is designed and numerically investigated in the mid-infrared frequencies. Theoretical analysis proves that by adjusting the chemical potential of graphene from 0.2 eV to 0.8 eV, the reflectance can be blue-shifted up to 2.3 µm. Furthermore, by modifying the number of graphene monolayers in the hyperbolic metamaterial stack, we are able to shift the plasmonic resonance up to 3.6 µm. Elliptic and type II hyperbolic dispersions are shown for three considered structures. Importantly, a blue/red-shift and switching of the reflectance are reported at different incident angles in TE/TM modes. The obtained results clearly show that graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterials with reversibly controlled tunability may be used in the next generation of nonlinear tunable and reversibly switchable devices operating in the mid-IR range.

A comprehensive optical analysis of nanoscale structures: from thin films to asymmetric nanocavities

A simple and robust method able to evaluate and predict, with high accuracy, the optical properties of single and multi-layer nanostructures is presented. The method was implemented using a COMSOL Multiphysics simulation platform and it has been validated by four case studies with increasing numerical complexities: (i) a single thin layer (20 nm) of Ag deposited on a glass substrate; (ii) a metamaterial composed of five bi-layers of Ag/ITO (indium tin oxide), with a thickness of 20 nm each; (iii) a system based on a three-material unit cell (AZO/ITO/Ag), but without any thickness periodicity (AZO stands for Al2O3/zinc oxide); (iv) an asymmetric nanocavity (thin-ITO/Ag/thick-ITO/Ag). A thorough study of this latter configuration reveals peculiar metamaterial effects that can widen the actual scenario in nanophotonic applications. Numerical results have been compared with experimental data provided by real ellipsometric measurements performed on the above mentioned ad hoc fabricated nanostructures. The obtained agreement is excellent, suggesting this research as a valid design approach to realize multi-band metamaterials able to work in a broad spectral range.

A Semi-Classical View on Epsilon-Near-Zero Resonant Tunneling Modes in Metal/Insulator/Metal Nanocavities

Metal/Insulator/Metal nanocavities (MIMs) are highly versatile systems for nanometric light confinement and waveguiding, and their optical properties are mostly interpreted in terms of surface plasmon polaritons. Although classic electromagnetic theory accurately describes their behavior, it often lacks physical insight, leaving some fundamental aspects of light interaction with these structures unexplored. In this work, we elaborate a quantum mechanical description of the MIM cavity as a double barrier quantum well. We identify the square of the imaginary part κ of the refractive index ñ of the metal as the optical potential and find that MIM cavity resonances are suppressed if the ratio n/κ exceeds a certain limit, which shows that low n and high κ values are desired for strong and sharp cavity resonances. Interestingly, the spectral regions of cavity mode suppression correspond to the interband transitions of the metals, where the optical processes are intrinsically non-Hermitian. The quantum treatment allows to describe the tunnel effect for photons and reveals that the MIM cavity resonances can be excited by resonant tunneling via illumination through the metal, without the need of momentum matching techniques such as prisms or grating couplers. By combining this analysis with spectroscopic ellipsometry on experimental MIM structures and by developing a simple harmonic oscillator model of the MIM for the calculation of its effective permittivity, we show that the cavity eigenmodes coincide with low-loss zeros of the effective permittivity. Therefore, the MIM resonances correspond to epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) eigenmodes that can be excited via resonant tunneling. Our approach provides a toolbox for the engineering of ENZ resonances throughout the entire visible range, which we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically. In particular, we apply our quantum mechanical approach to asymmetric MIM superabsorbers and use it for configuring broadly tunable refractive index sensors. Our work elucidates the role of MIM cavities as photonic analogues to tunnel diodes and opens new perspectives for metamaterials with designed ENZ response.

Antimicrobial Effects of Chemically Functionalized and/or Photo-Heated Nanoparticles

Antibiotic resistance refers to when microorganisms survive and grow in the presence of specific antibiotics, a phenomenon mainly related to the indiscriminate widespread use and abuse of antibiotics. In this framework, thanks to the design and fabrication of original functional nanomaterials, nanotechnology offers a powerful weapon against several diseases such as cancer and pathogenic illness. Smart nanomaterials, such as metallic nanoparticles and semiconductor nanocrystals, enable the realization of novel drug-free medical therapies for fighting against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In the light of the latest developments, we highlight the outstanding capabilities of several nanotechnology-inspired approaches to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Chemically functionalized silver and titanium dioxide nanoparticles have been employed for their intrinsic toxicity, which enables them to exhibit an antimicrobial activity while, in a different approach, photo-thermal properties of metallic nanoparticles have been theoretically studied and experimentally tested against several temperature sensitive (mesophilic) bacteria. We also show that it is possible to combine a highly localized targeting with a plasmonic-based heating therapy by properly functionalizing nanoparticle surfaces with covalently linked antibodies. As a perspective, the utilization of properly engineered and chemically functionalized nanomaterials opens a new roads for realizing antibiotic free treatments against pathogens and related diseases.

Hyperbolic Meta-Antennas Enable Full Control of Scattering and Absorption of Light

We introduce a novel concept of hybrid metal-dielectric meta-antenna supporting type II hyperbolic dispersion, which enables full control of absorption and scattering of light in the visible/near-infrared spectral range. This ability lies in the different nature of the localized hyperbolic Bloch-like modes excited within the meta-antenna. The experimental evidence is corroborated by a comprehensive theoretical study. In particular, we demonstrate that two main modes, one radiative and one non-radiative, can be excited by direct coupling with the free-space radiation. We show that the scattering is the dominating electromagnetic decay channel, when an electric dipolar mode is induced in the system, whereas a strong absorption process occurs when a magnetic dipole is excited. Also, by varying the geometry of the system, the relative ratio of scattering and absorption, as well as their relative enhancement and/or quenching, can be tuned at will over a broad spectral range, thus enabling full control of the two channels. Importantly, both radiative and nonradiative modes supported by our architecture can be excited directly with far-field radiation. This is observed to occur even when the radiative channels (scattering) are almost totally suppressed, thereby making the proposed architecture suitable for practical applications. Finally, the hyperbolic meta-antennas possess both angular and polarization independent structural integrity, unlocking promising applications as hybrid meta-surfaces or as solvable nanostructures.

Planar Double-Epsilon-Near-Zero Cavities for Spontaneous Emission and Purcell Effect Enhancement

The enhancement of the photophysical response of fluorophores is a crucial factor for photonic and optoelectronic technologies that involve fluorophores as gain media. Recent advances in the development of an extreme light propagation regime, called epsilon-near-zero (ENZ), provide a promising approach in this respect. In this work, we design metal/dielectric nanocavities to be resonant with the absorption and emission bands of the employed fluorophores. Using CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanocrystal films as light emitters, we study the spontaneous emission and decay rate enhancement induced by a specifically tailored double-epsilon-near-zero (double ENZ) structure. We experimentally demonstrate the existence of two ENZ wavelengths, by directly measuring their dielectric permittivity via ellipsometric analysis. The double ENZ nature of this plasmonic nanocavity has been exploited to achieve both surface plasmon enhanced absorption (SPEA) and surface plasmon coupled emission (SPCE), inducing a significant enhancement of both the spontaneous emission and the decay rate of the perovskite nanocrystal film that is placed on top of the nanocavity. Finally, we discuss the possibility of tailoring the two ENZ wavelengths of this structure within the visible spectrum simply by finely designing the thickness of the two dielectric layers, which enables resonance matching with a broad variety of dyes. Our device design is appealing for many practical applications, ranging from sensing to low threshold amplified spontaneous emission, since we achieve a strong PL enhancement with structures that allow for straightforward fluorophore deposition on a planar surface that keeps the fluorophores exposed and accessible.

Enhanced Second Harmonic Generation by Mode Matching in Gain-assisted Double-plasmonic Resonance Nanostructure

We theoretically study the gain-assisted double plasmonic resonances to enhance second harmonic generation (SHG) in a centrosymmetric multilayered silver-dielectric-gold-dielectric (SDGD) nanostructure. Introducing gain media into the dielectric layers can not only compensate the dissipation and lead to giant amplification of surface plasmons (SPs), but also excite local quadrupolar plasmon which can boost SHG by mode matching. Specifically, as the quadrupolar mode dominates SHG in our nanostructure, under the mode matching condition, the intensity of second harmonic near-field can be enhanced by 4.43 × 10² and 1.21 × 10⁵ times when the super-resonance is matched only at the second harmonic (SH) frequency or fundamental frequency, respectively. Moreover, the intensity of SHG near-field is enhanced by as high as 6.55 × 10⁷ times when the nanostructure is tuned to double super-resonances at both fundamental and SH frequencies. The findings in this work have potential applications in the design of nanosensors and nanolasers.