Ultrafast Electrically Tunable Polaritonic Metasurfaces

Electrically tunable mid‐infrared metasurfaces with nanosecond response time and broad tuning range are reported. Electrical tuning is achieved by employing strong polaritonic coupling of electromagnetic modes in metallic nanoresonators with voltage‐tunable inter‐subband transitions in semiconductor heterostructures, tailored for a giant quantum‐confined Stark effect. Experimentally, a 220‐nm‐thick multi‐quantum‐well semiconductor layer is sandwiched between a ground plane and a metal layer patterned with plasmonic nanoresonators. Approximately 300 nm absorption peak tuning and over 30% absorption change are demonstrated at around 7 μm wavelength at normal incidence by changing the DC bias voltage from 0 to +5 V. Fast reflectivity modulation of the metasurface is shown with a response time less than ∼10 ns using bias voltage modulation between +2 V and +4 V. Since the bias affects the optical response at the individual nanoresonator level, this approach may be used to create metasurfaces for ultrafast electrical wavefront tuning and beam steering.

[1]  T. K. Wu.  Frequency selective surface and gridarray , 2014 .

[2]  Andrea Alù,et al.  Giant nonlinear response from plasmonic metasurfaces coupled to intersubband transitions , 2014, Nature.

[3]  Raluca Dinu,et al.  High-speed plasmonic phase modulators , 2014, Nature Photonics.

[4]  N. Yu,et al.  Flat optics with designer metasurfaces. , 2014, Nature materials.

[5]  Jing Kong,et al.  Wide wavelength tuning of optical antennas on graphene with nanosecond response time. , 2014, Nano letters.

[6]  Alexandra Boltasseva,et al.  Electrical modulation of fano resonance in plasmonic nanostructures using graphene. , 2014, Nano letters.

[7]  J. Klem,et al.  Tunable metamaterials based on voltage controlled strong coupling , 2013 .

[8]  A. Alú,et al.  Full control of nanoscale optical transmission with a composite metascreen. , 2013, Physical review letters.

[9]  C. Pfeiffer,et al.  Metamaterial Huygens' surfaces: tailoring wave fronts with reflectionless sheets. , 2013, Physical review letters.

[10]  A. Kildishev,et al.  Planar Photonics with Metasurfaces , 2013, Science.

[11]  Jing Kong,et al.  Broad electrical tuning of graphene-loaded plasmonic antennas. , 2013, Nano letters.

[12]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Gated tunability and hybridization of localized plasmons in nanostructured graphene. , 2013, ACS nano.

[13]  N I Zheludev,et al.  Electro-optical control in a plasmonic metamaterial hybridised with a liquid-crystal cell. , 2013, Optics express.

[14]  I. Brener,et al.  Theory and modeling of electrically tunable metamaterial devices using inter-subband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells. , 2012, Optics express.

[15]  Xiang Zhang,et al.  Switching terahertz waves with gate-controlled active graphene metamaterials. , 2012, Nature materials.

[16]  N. Zheludev,et al.  From metamaterials to metadevices. , 2012, Nature materials.

[17]  A. Kildishev,et al.  Broadband Light Bending with Plasmonic Nanoantennas , 2012, Science.

[18]  N. Yu,et al.  Light Propagation with Phase Discontinuities: Generalized Laws of Reflection and Refraction , 2011, Science.

[19]  H. Bechtel,et al.  Graphene plasmonics for tunable terahertz metamaterials. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[20]  C. Sirtori,et al.  Transition from strong to ultrastrong coupling regime in mid-infrared metal-dielectric-metal cavities , 2011, 1212.4439.

[21]  C. Sirtori,et al.  Ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime with polariton dots. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[22]  Ranjan Singh,et al.  Tuning the resonance in high-temperature superconducting terahertz metamaterials. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[23]  N. Zheludev,et al.  Metamaterial electro-optic switch of nanoscale thickness , 2010 .

[24]  Willie J Padilla,et al.  Infrared spatial and frequency selective metamaterial with near-unity absorbance. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[25]  N. Zheludev,et al.  Phase-change chalcogenide glass metamaterial , 2009, 0912.4288.

[26]  Byung-Gyu Chae,et al.  Memory Metamaterials , 2009, Science.

[27]  R. Rosenfeld.  Nature , 2009, Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

[28]  Wai Lam Chan,et al.  A spatial light modulator for terahertz beams , 2009 .

[29]  C. Sirtori,et al.  Strong light-matter coupling in subwavelength metal-dielectric microcavities at terahertz frequencies. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[30]  Xiao Liang,et al.  Electrically tunable negative permeability metamaterials based on nematic liquid crystals , 2007 .

[31]  安達 定雄.  Handbook on physical properties of semiconductors , 2004 .

[32]  Giorgio Biasiol,et al.  Microcavity polariton splitting of intersubband transitions. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[33]  Ben A. Munk,et al.  Frequency Selective Surfaces: Theory and Design , 2000 .

[34]  Kang L. Wang,et al.  Large Stark shifts of the local to global state intersubband transitions in step quantum wells , 1990 .

[35]  H. Taylor,et al.  Infrared phase modulators with multiple quantum wells , 1989 .

[36]  James S. Harris,et al.  Observation of Stark shifts in quantum well intersubband transitions , 1987 .