No Arabic abstract
Guided-wave plasmonic circuits are promising platforms for sensing, interconnection, and quantum applications in the sub-diffraction regime. Nonetheless, the loss-confinement trade-off remains a collective bottleneck for plasmonic-enhanced optical processes. Here, we report a unique plasmonic waveguide that can alleviate such trade-off and improve the efficiencies of plasmonic-based emission, light-matter-interaction, and detection simultaneously. Through different bias configurations, record experimental attributes such as normalized Purcell factor approaching 10^4, 10-dB amplitude modulation with <1 dB insertion loss and fJ-level switching energy, and photodetection sensitivity and internal quantum efficiency of -54 dBm and 6.4 % respectively can be realized within the same amorphous-based plasmonic structure. The ability to support multiple optoelectronic phenomena while providing performance gains over existing plasmonic and dielectric counterparts offers a clear path towards reconfigurable, monolithic plasmonic circuits.
Motivated by the recent growing demand in dynamically-controlled flat optics, we take advantage of a hybrid phase-change plasmonic metasurface (MS) to effectively tailor the amplitude, phase, and polarization responses of the incident beam within a unique structure. Such a periodic architecture exhibits two fundamental modes; pronounced counter-propagating short-range surface plasmon polariton (SR-SPP) coupled to the Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) alloy as the feed gap, and the propagative surface plasmon polariton (PR-SPP) resonant modes tunneling to the GST nanostripes. By leveraging the multistate phase transition of alloy from amorphous to the crystalline, which induces significant complex permittivity change, the interplay between such enhanced modes can be drastically modified. Accordingly, in the intermediate phases, the proposed system experiences a coupled condition of operational over-coupling and under-coupling regimes leading to an inherently broadband response. We wisely addressing each gate-tunable meta-atom to achieve robust control over the reflection characteristics, wide phase agility up to 315? or considerable reflectance modulation up to 60%, which facilitate a myriad of on-demand optical functionalities in the telecommunication band. Based on the revealed underlying physics and electro-thermal effects in the GST alloy, a simple systematic approach for realization of an electro-optically tunable multifunctional metadevice governing anomalous reflection angle control (e.g., phased array antenna), near-perfect absorption (e.g., modulator), and polarization conversion (e.g., wave plate) is presented. As a promising alternative to their passive counterparts, such high-speed, non-volatile MSs offer an smart paradigm for reversible, energy-efficient, and programmable optoelectronic devices such as holograms, switches, and polarimeters.
Molecular chirality is a geometric property that is of great importance in chemistry, biology, and medicine. Recently, plasmonic nanostructures that exhibit distinct chiroptical responses have attracted tremendous interest, given their ability to emulate the properties of chiral molecules with tailored and pronounced optical characteristics. However, the optical chirality of such human-made structures is in general static and cannot be manipulated postfabrication. Herein, different concepts to reconfigure the chiroptical responses of plasmonic nano- and micro-objects are outlined. Depending on the utilized strategies and stimuli, the chiroptical signature, the 3D structural conformation, or both can be reconfigured. Optical devices based on plasmonic nanostructures with reconfigurable chirality possess great potential in practical applications, ranging from polarization conversion elements to enantioselective analysis, chiral sensing, and catalysis.
Selective configuration control of plasmonic nanostructures using either top-down or bottom-up approaches has remained challenging in the field of active plasmonics. We demonstrate the realization of DNA-assembled reconfigurable plasmonic metamolecules, which can respond to a wide range of pH changes in a programmable manner. This programmability allows for selective reconfiguration of different plasmonic metamolecule species coexisting in solution through simple pH tuning. This approach enables discrimination of chiral plasmonic quasi-enantiomers and arbitrary tuning of chiroptical effects with unprecedented degrees of freedom. Our work outlines a new blueprint for implementation of advanced active plasmonic systems, in which individual structural species can be programmed to perform multiple tasks and functions in response to independent external stimuli.
Plasmonic nanoantennas allow for enhancing the spontaneous emission, altering the emission polarization, and shaping the radiation pattern of quantum emitters. A critical challenge for the experimental realizations is positioning a single emitter into the hotspot of a plasmonic antenna with nanoscale accuracy. We demonstrate a dynamic light-matter interaction nanosystem enabled by the DNA origami technique. A single fluorophore molecule can autonomously and unidirectionally walk into the hotspot of a plasmonic nanoantenna along a designated origami track. Successive fluorescence intensity increase and lifetime reduction are in situ monitored using single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, while the fluorophore walker gradually approaches and eventually enters the plasmonic hotspot. Our scheme offers a dynamic platform, which can be used to develop functional materials, investigate intriguing light-matter interaction phenomena, and serve as prototype system for examining theoretical models.
Recent advances in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have enabled a new generation of programmable many-mode interferometers (PMMIs) realized by cascaded Mach Zehnder Interferometers (MZIs) capable of universal linear-optical transformations on N input-output optical modes. PMMIs serve critical functions in photonic quantum information processing, quantum-enhanced sensor networks, machine learning and other applications. However, PMMI implementations reported to date rely on thermo-optic phase shifters, which limit applications due to slow response times and high power consumption. Here, we introduce a large-scale PMMI platform, based on a 200 mm CMOS process, that uses aluminum nitride (AlN) piezo-optomechanical actuators coupled to silicon nitride (SiN) waveguides, enabling low-loss propagation with phase modulation at greater than 100 MHz in the visible to near-infrared wavelengths. Moreover, the vanishingly low holding-power consumption of the piezo-actuators enables these PICs to operate at cryogenic temperatures, paving the way for a fully integrated device architecture for a range of quantum applications.