NSF Materials World Network: Nonlinear Optical Metamaterials - Fabrication, Characterization, Theory
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Abstract
This NSF Materials World Network Program allows research into a new class of artificial nanophotonic materials, which make use of our ability to use nanofabrication in conjunction with intrinsic materials properties to tailor the linear and nonlinear optical response of those metamaterials. The main challenges towards a comprehensive understanding and experimental realization of nonlinear optical properties of metamaterials are that a theory of surface and bulk nonlinear optics of metamaterials is yet to be developed, and a practical means to fabricate and test such a theory are missing as well. The main goal of this research program is to achieve these milestones. The program synergistically matches three collaborators, two in the UK and one in the US, with an established record of collaboration to investigate the properties and materials strategies for fabricating these materials. The central rationale for the group is that the UK group provides strong theoretical and fabrication capabilities while the US group provides fabrication, optical testing, and materials capabilities. In addition, we will make use of local instrumentation capabilities in both the UK and the US to fabricate and test these materials. The program is constructed to enable travel to and from each country by students and to a more limited extent the professors. The research to be undertaken here has several areas of broad impact. First, it is a project, which will foster an interdisciplinary examination of the fundamental materials science of artificial metamaterials, which includes fabrication, materials physics, optical physics, and theory. Second it will enable two groups in the US and the UK, with a strong history of interactions and complementary expertise and capabilities to collaborate. This work will involve the opportunity for both graduate and undergraduate students to collaborate and travel in an international setting. Third, the program has concrete plans and procedures to seek out recruitment of diverse student collaborators. Our immediate record in this area is strong including one woman PhD student in theory and two undergraduates. Recruitment for this program will be done via four outreach talks to undergrads at Columbia in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics Departments every year via active participation in research opportunities for undergraduates and undergraduate research opportunities program at Columbia. Fourth, the project will enable students to collaborate via extended visits and shorter trips with a major National Laboratory, i.e. Brookhaven, in their new Nanocenter, which one of the PIs was the founding director, as well as the London Centre for Nanotechnology, a facility shared by the University College London and Imperial College London.
Publications
Ye F
(2010)
Subwavelength Plasmonic Lattice Solitons in Arrays of Metallic Nanowires
in Physical Review Letters
Ye F
(2011)
Subwavelength vortical plasmonic lattice solitons.
in Optics letters
Panoiu N
(2010)
Theoretical Analysis of Pulse Dynamics in Silicon Photonic Crystal Wire Waveguides
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Panoiu N
(2011)
Influence of the group-velocity on the pulse propagation in 1D silicon photonic crystal waveguides
in Applied Physics A
Kocaman S
(2011)
Zero phase delay in negative-refractive-index photonic crystal superlattices
in Nature Photonics
Kocaman S
(2012)
On-chip optical filters with designable characteristics based on an interferometer with embedded silicon photonic structures.
in Optics letters
Hsieh P
(2015)
Photon transport enhanced by transverse Anderson localization in disordered superlattices
in Nature Physics
Cao L
(2009)
Surface second-harmonic generation from scattering of surface plasmon polaritons from radially symmetric nanostructures
in Physical Review B
Biris C
(2011)
Excitation of linear and nonlinear cavity modes upon interaction of femtosecond pulses with arrays of metallic nanowires
in Applied Physics A
Description | While the main goal of this research programme has been to fabricate and investigate theoretically non-linear nanophotonic meta-materials, we are very excited that the results obtained as part of this research project have allowed us to extend the impacts of our work significantly beyond the initial set of objectives. The research programme synergistically matched three collaborators, two in the UK and one in the US, with an established record of collaboration to investigate the properties and materials strategies for fabricating non-linear optical meta-materials. As generic examples of non-linear meta-materials we have considered plasmonic meta-materials made of arrays of metallic resonators and dielectric photonic crystals made of silicon. In particular, we have developed fabrication techniques for plasmonic meta-materials and have investigated a series of linear and non-linear optical properties of the fabricated plasmonic nano-structures, including polarisation-dependent effects in plasmonic meta-surfaces, engineering of optical absorption in plasmonic meta-materials and the influence of the properties of the primary unit cell (e.g., chirality) on the second-harmonic generation in plasmonic meta-surfaces. We have also studied the optical properties of photonic crystal slab waveguides, fabricated onto the silicon-on-insulator materials platform, which within a specific range of frequencies would have negative effective index of refraction, i.e., a photonic crystal based negative index meta-material. Such highindex- contrast photonic crystals have strongly modified, tuneable dispersion properties, and thus are an excellent medium for exploring new linear and non-linear phenomena in negative index materials. To this end, we have demonstrated that such photonic crystals can be used to achieve a new type of meta-material, i.e., a meta-material with zero index of refraction. Equally important, our research programme had a strong theoretical component, too. Thus, we have developed a comprehensive theory of light propagation in photonic crystal slab waveguides made of silicon, which describes the optical pulse dynamics both in the regular and slow-light regime. Moreover, we have developed a new numerical method that allowed us to model both the surface and bulk contributions to the second-harmonic generation in plasmonic metamaterials. The numerical algorithm has been implemented in a high-performance parallel code (OPTIMET), which has been subsequently used to study the non-linear properties of several types of plasmonic structures and their applications to ultra-compact sensing devices. Our theoretical work on plasmonic nano-structures has also led to the first theoretical demonstration of the existence of sub-wavelength plasmonic lattice solitons and plasmonic vortices in one- and twodimensional arrays of metallic nanowires. The results obtained as part of this research programme have been published in a series of high-impact journals, including Nature Photonics, Physical Review Letters, Optics Letters and ACS Nano. Importantly, this research project has facilitated the establishment of several new fruitful collaborations with research groups at Columbia University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Equally important, this project has had a very strong educational component, providing ample opportunities for graduate students and post-graduate researchers to collaborate in an international setting. This collaborative work has been highly interdisciplinary, bringing together a graduate student specialising in the development of advanced high-performance computational code and device modelling, one graduate student and a post-graduate researcher whose work focused on optical characterisation of the fabricated meta-materials and two graduate students who have been involved in all the fabrication aspects of the project. |
Exploitation Route | We are currently exploring commercialization avenues of OPTIMET, a software tool for modelling linear and non-linear optical properties of photonic metamaterials. This software tool has been developed as part of this research project. Thus, we have contacted and initiated discussions with UCL Business and Photon Design (UK), Europe's leading software company for the Opto-electronics and Photonics industries. |
Sectors | Education Electronics Energy Healthcare |
Description | We are currently exploring commercialization avenues of OPTIMET, a software tool for modelling linear and non-linear optical properties of photonic metamaterials. This software tool has been developed as part of this research project. Thus, we have contacted and initiated discussions with UCL Business and Photon Design (UK), Europe's leading software company for the Opto-electronics and Photonics industries. |
Sector | Education,Electronics,Energy |
Impact Types | Societal Economic |
Title | OPTIMET-3D |
Description | Models light interaction with arbitrary distributions of nanoparticles. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Enhances our ability t investigate optical properties of photonic nanostructures. |