No Arabic abstract
Chiral nanophotonic devices are promising candidates for chiral molecules sensing, polarization diverse nanophotonics and display technologies. Active chiral nanophotonic devices, where the optical chirality can be controlled by an external stimulus has triggered great research interest. However, efficient modulation of the optical chirality has been challenging. Here, we demonstrate switching of the extrinsic chirality by applied magnetic fields in a magneto-plasmonic metasurface device based on a magneto-optical oxide material, Ce1Y2Fe5O12 (Ce:YIG). Thanks to the low optical loss and strong magneto-optical effect of Ce:YIG, we experimentally demonstrated a giant and continuous far-field circular dichroism (CD) modulation by applied magnetic fields from -0.65{deg} to +1.9{deg} at 950 nm wavelength under glancing incident conditions. The far field CD modulation is due to both magneto-optical circular dichroism and near-field modulation of the superchiral fields by applied magnetic fields. Finally, we demonstrate magnetic field tunable chiral imaging in millimeter-scale magneto-plasmonic metasurfaces fabricated using self-assembly. Our results provide a new way for achieving planar integrated, large-scale and active chiral metasurfaces for polarization diverse nanophotonics.
The nonlinear optical response of materials to exciting light is enhanced by resonances between the incident laser frequencies and the energy levels of the excited material. Traditionally, in molecular nonlinear spectroscopy one tunes the input laser frequencies to the molecular energy levels for highly enhanced doubly or triply resonant interactions. With metasurfaces the situation is different, and by proper design of the nanostructures, one may tune the material energy levels to match the incoming laser frequencies. Here we use multi-parameter genetic algorithm methodologies to optimize the nonlinear Four Wave Mixing response, and show that the intuitive conventional approach of trying to match the transmission spectrum to the relevant laser frequencies indeed leads to strong enhancement, but not necessarily to the optimal design. We demonstrate, experimentally and by direct nonlinear field calculations, that the near field mode distribution and spatial modes overlap are the dominant factor for optimized design.
Optically-induced magnetic resonances in non-magnetic media have unlocked magnetic light-matter interactions and led to new technologies in many research fields. Previous proposals for the levitation of nanoscale particles without structured illumination have worked on the basis of epsilon-near-zero surfaces or anisotropic materials but these carry with them significant fabrication difficulties. We report the optical levitation of a magnetic dipole over a wide range of realistic materials, including bulk metals, thereby relieving these difficulties. The repulsion is independent of surface losses and we propose an experiment to detect this force which consists of a core-shell nanoparticle, exhibiting a magnetic resonance, in close proximity to a gold substrate under plane wave illumination. We anticipate the use of this phenomenon in new nanomechanical devices.
Nanophotonic chiral antennas exhibit orders of magnitude higher circular dichroism (CD) compared to molecular systems. Merging magnetism and structural chirality at the nanometric level allows for the efficient magnetic control of the dichroic response, bringing exciting new prospects to active nanophotonic devices and magnetochirality. Here we devise macroscale enantiomeric magnetophotonic metasurfaces of plasmon and ferromagnetic spiral antennas. Mixed 2D- and 3D- chiral nanoantennas induce large CD response, where we identify reciprocal and non-reciprocal contributions. The simultaneous chiroptical and magneto-optical response in a wide spectral range with these metasurfaces delivers an attractive platform for the study of magnetochirality at the nanoscale. Exploring further this type of magnetophotonic metasurfaces allows the realization of high-sensitivity chiral sensors and prompts the design of novel macroscopic optical devices operating with polarized light.
Artificial magnetic fields are revolutionizing our ability to manipulate neutral particles, by enabling the emulation of exotic phenomena once thought to be exclusive to charged particles. In particular, pseudo-magnetic fields generated by nonuniform strain in artificial lattices have attracted considerable interest because of their simple geometrical origin. However, to date, these strain-induced pseudo-magnetic fields have failed to emulate the tunability of real magnetic fields because they are dictated solely by the strain configuration. Here, we overcome this apparent limitation for polaritons supported by strained metasurfaces, which can be realized with classical dipole antennas or quantum dipole emitters. Without altering the strain configuration, we unveil how one can tune the pseudo-magnetic field by modifying the electromagnetic environment via an enclosing photonic cavity which modifies the nature of the interactions between the dipoles. Remarkably, due to the competition between short-range Coulomb interactions and long-range photon-mediated interactions, we find that the pseudo-magnetic field can be entirely switched off at a critical cavity height for any strain configuration. Consequently, by varying only the cavity height, we demonstrate a tunable Lorentz-like force that can be switched on/off and an unprecedented collapse and revival of polariton Landau levels. Unlocking this tunable pseudo-magnetism for the first time poses new intriguing questions beyond the paradigm of conventional tight-binding physics.
Plasmonic nanostructures hold promise for the realization of ultra-thin sub-wavelength devices, reducing power operating thresholds and enabling nonlinear optical functionality in metasurfaces. However, this promise is substantially undercut by absorption introduced by resistive losses, causing the metasurface community to turn away from plasmonics in favour of alternative material platforms (e.g., dielectrics) that provide weaker field enhancement, but more tolerable losses. Here, we report a plasmonic metasurface with a quality-factor (Q-factor) of 2340 in the telecommunication C band by exploiting surface lattice resonances (SLRs), exceeding the record by an order of magnitude. Additionally, we show that SLRs retain many of the same benefits as localized plasmonic resonances, such as field enhancement and strong confinement of light along the metal surface. Our results demonstrate that SLRs provide an exciting and unexplored method to tailor incident light fields, and could pave the way to flexible wavelength-scale devices for any optical resonating application.