0000000000667872
AUTHOR
Domenico De Ceglia
Manipulating Light with Tunable Nanoantennas and Metasurfaces
The extensive progress in nanofabrication techniques enabled innovative methods for molding light at the nanoscale. Subwavelength structured optical elements and, in general, metasurfaces and metamaterials achieved promising results in several research areas, such as holography, microscopy, sensing and nonlinear optics. Still, a demanding challenge is represented by the development of innovative devices with reconfigurable optical properties. Here, we review recent achievements in the field of tunable metasurface. After a brief general introduction about metasurfaces, we will discuss two different mechanisms to implement tunable properties of optical elements at the nanoscale. In particular…
Transient guided-mode resonance metasurfaces with phase-transition materials
We investigate transient, photo-thermally induced metasurface effects in a planar thin-film multilayer based on a phase-transition material. Illumination of a properly designed multilayer with two obliquely incident and phase-coherent pulsed pumps induces a transient and reversible temperature pattern in the phase-transition layer. The deep periodic modulation of the refractive index, caused by the interfering pumps, produces a transient Fano-like spectral feature associated with a guided-mode resonance. A coupled opto-thermal model is employed to analyze the temporal dynamics of the transient metasurface and to evaluate its speed and modulation capabilities. Using near-infrared pump pulses…
Reconfigurable nonlinear response of dielectric and semiconductor metasurfaces
Abstract Optically resonant dielectric and semiconductor metasurfaces are an emerging and promising area of nanophotonics and light–matter interaction at the nanoscale. Recently, active tuning of the linear response and nonlinear effects of these components has received an increasing amount of interest. However, so far these research directions have remained separated with only few sporadic works that study their combination beginning to appear in the literature. The evolution of nonlinear metasurfaces based on dielectric and semiconductor materials toward reconfigurable and dynamic components could potentially answer the demand of integrated on-chip components that realize essential functi…
Fundamental limits for transmission modulation in VO2 metasurfaces
The interest in dynamic modulation of light by ultra-thin materials exhibiting insulator–metal phase transition, such as VO 2 , has rapidly grown due to the myriad industrial applications, including smart windows and optical limiters. However, for applications in the telecommunication spectral band, the light modulation through a thin VO 2 film is low due to the presence of strong material loss. Here, we demonstrate tailored nanostructuring of VO 2 to dramatically enhance its transmission modulation, reaching a value as high as 0.73, which is 2 times larger than the previous modulation achieved. The resulting designs, including free-topology optimization, demonstrate the fundamental limit i…
Optical limiters relying on VO2 phase transition in thin multilayer films
We propose a self-activating optical limiter device based on phase transition of vanadium dioxide in thin multilayer films. The optimal geometry reduces the transmitted power by ~ 70% and shows a recovery time of 10 ns.
Opto-thermal dynamics of thin-film optical limiters based on the VO2 phase transition
Protection of human eyes or sensitive detectors from high-intensity laser radiation is an important challenge in modern light technologies. Metasurfaces have proved to be valuable tools for such light control, but the actual possibility of merging multiple materials in the nanofabrication process hinders their application. Here we propose and numerically investigate the opto-thermal properties of plane multilayered structures with phase-change materials for optical limiters. Our structure relies on thin-film VO2 phase change material on top of a gold film and a sapphire substrate. We show how such a multi-layer structure can act as a self-activating device that exploits light-to-heat conver…