Controlling hybrid nonlinearities in transparent conducting oxides via two-colour excitation

Clerici, M. et al. (2017) Controlling hybrid nonlinearities in transparent conducting oxides via two-colour excitation. Nature Communications, 8, 15829. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms15829) (PMID:28598441) (PMCID:PMC5472708)

[img]
Preview
Text
140616.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

889kB

Abstract

Nanophotonics and metamaterials have revolutionized the way we think about optical space (ɛ,μ), enabling us to engineer the refractive index almost at will, to confine light to the smallest of the volumes, and to manipulate optical signals with extremely small footprints and energy requirements. Significant efforts are now devoted to finding suitable materials and strategies for the dynamic control of the optical properties. Transparent conductive oxides exhibit large ultrafast nonlinearities under both interband and intraband excitations. Here we show that combining these two effects in aluminium-doped zinc oxide via a two-colour laser field discloses new material functionalities. Owing to the independence of the two nonlinearities, the ultrafast temporal dynamics of the material permittivity can be designed by acting on the amplitude and delay of the two fields. We demonstrate the potential applications of this novel degree of freedom by dynamically addressing the modulation bandwidth and optical spectral tuning of a probe optical pulse.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Clerici, Professor Matteo and Faccio, Professor Daniele
Authors: Clerici, M., Kinsey, N., DeVault, C., Kim, J., Carnemolla, E., Caspani, L., Shaltout, A., Faccio, D., Shalaev, V., Boltasseva, A., and Ferrera, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:Nature Communications
Publisher:Nature Research
ISSN:2041-1723
ISSN (Online):2041-1723
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 The Authors
First Published:First published in Nature Communications 8:15829
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record

Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
727471Quantum-enhanced THz spectroscopy and imagingMatteo ClericiEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/P009697/1ENG - ENGINEERING ELECTRONICS & NANO ENG
748271EPSRC- Institutional Sponsorship 2016 - University of GlasgowJonathan CooperEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/P51133X/1VPO VICE PRINCIPAL RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE