Light-matter interaction is crucial in many application domains of nanophotonics, including biosensing, trapping at the nanoscale, nonlinear optics, and lasing. Many approaches, mainly based on photonic and plasmonic resonant structures, have been investigated to enhance and tailor the interaction, but those based on all-dielectric metasurfaces have several unique advantages: low loss, easy excitation and readout, possibility of engineering the optical field distribution with many degrees of freedom, and electric tuning. Here we show that properly designed all-dielectric metasurfaces can support silicon-slot quasi-bound states in the continuum modes resonating in the near-infrared, strongly confining light in air and, consequently, enhancing light-matter interaction. Some samples of the designed metasurface have been fabricated in a silicon-on-sapphire wafer by e-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. The optical characterization of the chip has confirmed the excitation of the quasi-bound state in the continuum resonant modes, with measured Q-factor values exceeding 700.
All-dielectric metasurfaces have attracted increasing attention due to their negligible losses and sharper resonances compared to their metallic counterparts. In this work, we numerically studied the optical performance of a novel alldielectric metasurface based on complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs), in which ultrathin slots were periodically etched in a thin silicon layer. The proposed CSRR metasurface exhibits two multipolar resonances in the near-infrared (NIR) window. Moreover, a quasi-bound state in the continuum (quasi-BIC) with an ultra-high quality factor can be excited by breaking the symmetry of the structure. Taking advantage of the high-quality factor quasi-BIC mode and its sensitivity to the superstrate medium refractive index (S = Δλres/Δn), we design an ultra-high figure of merit (FoM = S/FWHM) refractive index sensor for biomedical applications. By three-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM), we evaluate the sensitivity of the sensing device to the variation of the superstrate refractive index in the range 1.31-1.33, which is typical for aqueous solutions. Our simulations reveal that a sensitivity of S ~ 155 nm RIU-1 and an extraordinary FoM ~ 387500 RIU-1 can be achieved using the ultra-narrow quasi-BIC resonance in the CSRR metasurface structure. The proposed approach opens new paths to develop flat biochemical sensors with high accuracy and real-time performance.
In this work, a novel method to obtain all-dielectric toroidal response metasurfaces in the W-band and THz range is demonstrated. Two designs are proposed, a symmetric and asymmetric disk metasurface. The first design is intended to corroborate the theoretical analysis, demonstrating the excitation of a strong toroidal mode resonance at 93.2 GHz. Then, the second design is used to demonstrate that symmetry-breaking variations in the disk dimensions, could lead to birefringent metasurfaces, affecting the polarization of the impinging light. Two structures are designed, a polarization beam splitter and a polarization converter. Such devices are difficult to obtain at the target frequency range with low absorption, so they could be of particular interest for the next generation of 5G communications and THz devices.
Different electro-optical modulator designs based on electromagnetically induced transparency are proposed. A conductor–gap–silicon input waveguide is coupled to microrings-on-disks on each side. A low voltage modulating signal is applied to the modulator in a push-pull configuration, which changes the refractive index of the embedded layer of the electro-optical polymer. The proposed microrings-on-disks and cascaded microring modulators with submicron radii can efficiently modulate the light wave with moderate propagation losses. The microring-on-disk modulator achieved ultrasmall capacitance, 1.06 fF, and low power consumption, 2.12 fJ/bit. Both modulators have low insertion losses and high extinction ratios.
We introduce a compact plasmonic resonator that is capable of generating a Fano resonance in the transmission spectrum. The Fano resonance is observed with its unique lineshape. The proposed design is simple, compact, easy to fabricate and can be easily developed for different applications. The device structure is made of a gold layer, a metalinsulator- metal waveguide, and a rectangular cavity. As an application to the proposed plasmonic resonator, we introduce a gas sensor which is operational at the near infrared spectral range. The sensor possesses a high sensitivity of 1500nm/RIU at the telecom wavelength 1.55μm. FDTD simulation tools were conducted for the optimization of the device structure and obtaining the results.
In this work, we present an electro-optical modulator based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Our modulator employs a conductor-gap-silicon (CGS) microring resonator on each side of the input waveguide in a pushpull configuration utilizing an embedded electro-optical polymer (EOP). CGS waveguides support hybrid plasmonic modes offering a sound trade-off between mode confinement and propagation loss. The modulator is designed and analyzed using 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. To have a high quality resonator, the rings are designed to have moderate waveguide propagation losses and a sub-micron radius of R = 805 nm. With an exact capacitance of just 1.06 fF per single microring resonator and applied voltage of 2 V, the exact energy consumption is estimated to be 4.24 fJ/bit. To the best of our knowledge, this figure represents 40% less power consumption in comparison with different modulators structures. The ultra-small capacitance of the proposed modulator and the instantaneous response of the used polymer make our design suitable for high bit rate applications. At the wavelength of -1550 nm-, the insertion loss is 0.34 dB and the extinction ratio is 10.23 dB.
In this work we design and theoretically investigate optical switches based on long-range plasmonic directional couplers, which are controlled via the electro-optic effect of nematic liquid crystal layers. Employed numerical tools include a fully-anisotropic finite-element-method, the eigenmode-expansion method, and a rigorous finite-element based calculation of the liquid-crystal molecular reorientation. Both horizontal and vertical configurations are assessed, providing a comparison in terms of key-performance characteristics, such as coupling length, switching voltage, insertion losses, and crosstalk. These tunable plasmonic devices are envisaged as ultra-low power consumption switching elements in integrated platforms for optical inter-chip interconnects.
A 1D photonic crystal slab based on preferential etching of commercially available silicon-on-insulator wafers is
presented. Compared to dry etching, anisotropic wet etching is more tolerant to errors as it is self-stopping on
crystallographic {111} planes and it produces a more precise geometry with symmetries and homothetic properties, with
surface roughness close to 1 nm. The resulting grooves are infiltrated by low viscosity liquid crystal having large
positive optical anisotropy. The use of slanted grooves provides advantages: first of all the complete filling of slanted
grooves is simplified when compared to vertical walls structures. Furthermore alignment is significantly facilitated.
Indeed the liquid crystal molecules tend to align with their long axis along the submicron grooves. Therefore by forcing
reorientation out of a rest position, the liquid crystal presents a choice of refractive indices to the propagating optical
field. The liquid crystal behavior is simulated by a finite element method, and coupled to a finite difference time domain
method. We investigate different photonic crystal configurations. Large tunability of bandgap edge for TE polarization is
demonstrated when switching the liquid crystal with an applied voltage. We have also studied the use of the same device
geometry as a very compact microfluidic refractometric sensor.
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