Chirality, essential for distinguishing molecular enantiomers, impacts various scientific fields. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, which measures differential absorption of circularly polarized light, is limited by weak chiral-optical interactions, yielding minimal signals. Superchiral metasurfaces, enhancing optical chirality, offer improved CD signal and interaction with chiral molecules, necessitating advanced development for accurate analysis. This study presents a novel two-stage design methodology for optimizing superchiral metasurfaces, employing a neural network-based optimizer and adjoint topology optimization for enhanced optical chirality density. The results provide a platform for sensitive CD spectroscopy, facilitating fast optimization of metasurface unit cells for better chiral molecule analysis.
We numerically study several metasurfaces which include ferro-electric material, such as lithium niobate (LN) and explore their ability to control the phase, amplitude and polarisation of light. For each of these parameters, ideally we would like to be able to control them independently, without affecting others. We study metasurfaces containing silicon resonators on LN substrates as well as the patterned LN metasurfaces. We find that the amplitude and polarisation modulation are relatively easy to achieve in a single metasurface, however the best phase modulation we were able to achieve is approximately 70 degrees, in a metasurface which maintains high transmission amplitude at over 90%.
All-dielectric metasurfaces have exceptional potential for next-generation tunable optical systems, which are promising for applications in sensing, ranging, and imaging. One attractive way to achieve tunability is by infiltrating dielectric metasurfaces with liquid crystals due to the large tunability that can be achieved. Here, we introduce a fully controllable 3D active tuning of dielectric metasurfaces that include liquid crystals, where an external magnetic field effectively controls molecular reorientation. This approach offers new opportunities for realizing dynamically reconfigurable metadevices without the usual limitations imposed by fixed boundary conditions induced by molecular pre-alignment, which cannot be changed.
Future remote imaging systems promise spectroscopic functionalities extending well beyond the visible wavelengths. This allows real-time spectral information to be gathered from multiple wavelength bands which is highly attractive for numerous remote sensing spectroscopy/imaging applications and aids target recognition. This paper briefly presents a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based electrically tuneable adaptive filter technology developed for the technologically important infrared (IR) bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and reports on the progress towards extension to the significantly longer wavelength THz band. The demonstrated concepts focus on merging MEMSenabled dynamic modulation with the spectral sensitivity and selectivity of metamaterials, as well as on the possibility of adopting the rapidly evolving 3D printing technologies.
Control of terahertz waves offers a profound platform for next-generation sensing, imaging, and information communications. However, all conventional terahertz components and systems suffer from bulky design, sensitivity to imperfections, and transmission loss. We propose and experimentally demonstrate on-chip integration and miniaturization of topological devices, which may address many existing drawbacks of the terahertz technology. We design and fabricate topological devices based on valley-Hall photonic structures that can be employed for various integrated components of on-chip terahertz systems. We demonstrate valley-locked asymmetric energy flow and mode conversion with topological waveguide, multiport couplers, wave division, and whispering gallery mode resonators. Our devices are based on topological membrane metasurfaces, which are of great importance for developing on-chip photonics and bring many features into terahertz technology.
Metamaterials are engineered structures designed to interact with electromagnetic radiation. The common understanding in the scientific community is that, a typical metamaterial operates within a particular frequency range that is determined by the metamaterials’ dimensions. In this paper, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate that a metamaterial can be functional in more than one frequency region. We propose an advanced design that can interact with both THz and near-infrared (NIR) frequencies concurrently. Moreover, our novel metamaterial can work independently of the input polarisation in both wavelength regions. We designed and fabricated meander line resonators with 300 nm linewidth distributed over 16.26 μm area and experimentally demonstrate a structure that can simultaneously interact with NIR and THz frequencies with a high miniaturisation factor. This dual-band photonic metamaterials can be used as an advanced device in applications such as sensing, imaging, filtering, modulation, and absorption.
High performance tunable absorbers for terahertz (THz) frequencies will be crucial in advancing applications such as single-pixel imaging and spectroscopy. Metamaterials provide many new possibilities for manipulating electromagnetic waves at the subwavelength scale. Due to the limited response of natural materials to terahertz radiation, metamaterials in this frequency band are of particular interest.
The realization of a high-performance tunable (THz) absorber based on microelectromechanical system (MEMS) is challenging, primarily due to the severe mismatch between the actuation range of most MEMS (on the order of 1-10 microns) and THz wavelengths on the order of 100-1000 microns. Based on a metamaterial design that has an electromagnetic response that is extremely position sensitive, we combine meta-atoms with suspended at membranes that can be driven electrostatically. This is demonstrated by using near-field coupling of the meta-atoms to create a substantial change in the resonant frequency.
The devices created in this manner are among the best-performing tunable THz absorbers demonstrated to date, with an ultrathin device thickness ( 1/50 of the working wavelength), absorption varying between 60% and 80% in the initial state when the membranes remain suspended, and with a fast switching speed ( 27 us). In the snap-down state, the resonance shifts by γ >200% of the linewidth (14% of the initial resonance frequency), and the absorption modulation measured at the initial resonance can reach 65%.
The resonant high-index nanostructures open opportunities for control many optical effects via optically-induced electric and magnetic Mie resonances, mostly localized inside the structures. Especial interest such nanostructures represent for quantum emitters placed inside, that makes possible enhancement of quantum source emission through resonant coupling to localized modes. We have proposed the concept of active dielectric nanoantennas based on nanodiamonds with embedded NV-centers. The study of theoretically dependence of optical properties of this system on the spectral position of the resonant modes has demonstrated that that at some sizes of the diamond spherical particles and certain position of the dipole in the sphere the Purcell factor can achieve the value of 30. We have demonstrated experimentally that the photoluminescence properties of the NV-centers can be controlled via scattering resonances and observed a decrease of the NV-centers lifetime in the studied diamond particles, as compared to nonresonant nanodiamonds. These results are in a good agreement with our theoretical calculations for the average Purcell factor for multiple NV-centers within a nanoparticle. The simplicity of the proposed concept compared to existing photonic cavity systems and applicability for a wide range of color centers in diamond make active diamond nanoantenna an effective tool for creating controllable emitting elements in the visible range for future nanophotonic devices.
KEYWORDS: Technologies and applications, Current controlled current source, Electromagnetism, Resonators, Control systems, Metamaterials, Wavefronts, Polarization control, Microwave radiation, Flexible displays
Metasurfaces represent the most promising class of metamaterials for real applications, whereby arbitrary wavefront and polarisation control can be achieved using just a single sub-wavelength layer. Therefore, allowing tunability over their capabilities is the next step to consolidate them as technology devices for light control. In our work we propose a new platform for creating tunable microwave devices based on gradient metasurfaces. Our study shows that the integration of a patterned elastic substrate in the design of functional metasurfaces is an effective approach to enable control over their electromagnetic properties.
To demonstrate the new platform, we propose, design and experimentally realize a novel tuning mechanism that controls the focal length of an electromagnetic metasurface lens by exploiting the degree of freedom provided by the flexible substrate, which enables continuous elongation of the system. When such a metasurface is uniaxially stretched, the distance between embedded electromagnetic resonators increases, producing a change in the phase profile created by these resonators, and this leads to a change of the focal distance of the lens. Thus, the flexible metasurface displays a functionality that can be continuously controlled by unidirectional mechanical loading. We fully characterize the spherical-like aberration phenomenon which accompanies the tuning process. Finally, our study reveals that an equidistant separation between the resonators leads to reduced device performance of the operational metasurface and, therefore, the utilization of other degrees of freedom is mandatory if the efficiency needs to be preserved.
Metamaterials are subwavelength man-made plasmonic or dielectric structures designed to realize specific effects on the electromagnetic radiation interacting with the material. Here we aim to rotate the polarization of an incident terahertz beam using chiral metamaterials, while suppressing the circular dichroism which induces ellipticity of the output beam. An incident linearly polarized wave can be decomposed into left-circularly and right-circularly polarized waves, and the difference in propagation phase will result in rotation of the plane of polarization. Since chiral structures couple electric and magnetic fields, they are often implemented in complex geometries such as spirals or bi-layered plasmonic structures, which can achieve carefully balanced responses to the two fields. The important feature of the bi-layered plasmonic structure is the cross-coupling between the resonances of the two layers. It is precisely this coupling between the layers that induces currents in the structures that are mutually dependent producing chirality within the structure. By coupling a metallic structure to its complement, we are able to achieve strong transmission in the region of maximum polarization rotation, and relatively low ellipticity of the output state. Three different structures were fabricated for this work that will be referred to as: the plain crosses, crossed arrowheads, and crossed arcs, pictured in the figure below. The terahertz responses of the structures were compared using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and numerical simulations using CST Microwave Studio software.
We study the radiation patterns produced by a dipole placed at the surface of a nanofiber and oriented perpendicular to it, either along the radial (r-oriented) or azimuthal (Φ-oriented) directions. We find that the dipole induces an effective circular cavity-like leaky mode in the nanofiber. The first radiation peak of the Φ-oriented dipole contributes only to TE radiation modes, while the radiation of the r-oriented dipole is composed of both TE and TM radiation modes, with relative contribution depending on the refractive index of the nanofiber. We reveal that the field pattern of the first resonance of a Φ-oriented dipole is associated with a magnetic dipole mode and strong magnetic response of an optical nanofiber.
We demonstrate the use of liquid crystal infiltration of fishnet structures for the realization of highly tunable and
nonlinear optical metamaterials. We show that fishnet metamaterials infiltrated with nematic liquid crystals can exhibit
strong nonlinear response at moderate laser powers. We also show that this nonlinear response arises due to the
molecular orientation of the liquid crystal molecules and can be therefore be fine-tuned with an electric field, opening
new opportunities for electrically tunable nonlinear metamaterials.
We revisited the problem of the existence of plasmonic modes guided by metal-dielectric-metal slot waveguides. For the case of lossless slot waveguides, we classify the guided modes in the structure with the metal dispersion and found that, in a certain parameter range, three different guided modes coexist at a fixed frequency, two (symmetric and antisymmetric) forward propagating modes and the third, backward propagating antisymmetric mode. We study the properties of the forward and backward plasmonic guided modes in the presence of realistic losses, and discuss the importance of evanescent modes in lossy structures.
We discuss a novel tuning method based on continuous adjustment of metamaterial lattice parameters. This
method provides for remarkable tuning of transmission characteristics through a subtle displacement of metamaterial
layers. While the effective medium theory predicts correctly the general tuning characteristics, it turns
out that the particular tuning pattern is determined by the peculiarities of near-field interaction between the
metamaterial elements. We describe the modes of this interaction and provide qualitative explanations to the
performance observed numerically and experimentally.
Artificial structures with periodically modulated index of refraction such as photonic crystals offer novel ways of controlling light propagation due to the existence of a range of forbidden frequencies corresponding to a photonic bandgap. We discuss physical phenomena which do not allow for the existence of complete electromagnetic band gaps in dielectric structures with variation of the refractive index in one spatial dimension. We also demonstrate that the limitations imposed on one-dimensional dielectric structures can be removed by using the so-called left-handed materials, and that such a structure can posses a full photonic band gap.
We analyze nonlinear properties of microstructured materials with
negative refraction, the so-called left-handed metamaterials. We
demonstrate that the hysteresis-type dependence of the magnetic
permeability on the field intensity allows changing the material
properties from left- to right-handed and back. We predict also
that nonlinear left-handed metamaterials can support both TE- and
TM-polarized self-trapped localized beams, spatial electromagnetic
solitons. Such solitons appear as single- and multi-hump beams,
being either symmetric or antisymmetric, and they can exist due to
the hysteresis-type magnetic nonlinearity and the effective
domains of negative magnetic permeability.
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