OP: Fundamental Properties and Applications of Plasmonic Metasurfaces Integrated with 2D Materials

非技术描述：这项研究的目的是开发新型人工材料，展示自然材料中尚未存在的独特光学性能。为了获得具有定制设计的光学特性的材料，必须设计出精心设计的金属、半导体和绝缘体等材料的组合。这些新的人造材料，通常被称为超材料，被制造成比光的波长薄得多的东西。这种超材料的潜在应用包括能够以非常高的速度控制和切换光的设备，以及红外传感器和光探测器。研究工作包括超材料的计算设计、材料制造和光学表征。研究小组由两名研究生组成，在夏季的几个月里，他们得到了一名本科生和一名当地高中学生的帮助。所有参与的学生都接受了现代材料制造技术、激光操作和计算机模拟方法的培训。与德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校-一家指定的西班牙裔服务机构-正在进行的协调被用来为这个项目招收暑期学生。技术描述：研究团队正在利用等离子体超表面和二维(2D)材料之间的几个独特的协同效应，通过利用亚表面的能力将光能量集中到2D材料在IR中的极端光学非线性。通过这种方式，它利用等离子体亚表面作为门控电极来设计2D材料的量子特性。这使得在等离子体-2D混合系统中实现了一种新的强光耦合机制。此外，还使用门控变表面电极来周期性地调制2D材料的化学势，从而产生用于表面石墨烯等离子体的量子布拉格反射器-这是一个连接材料科学和光学的新概念。利用第一性原理建模、先进的制造和光学表征技术，制作了等离子体亚表面，并将其与2D材料集成在一起，形成了这些新的杂化材料。探索了该系统独特的光学特性，如异常高的光学非线性和超快响应，并将其用于高效的光学谐波产生和超快非线性光学器件。

Nontechnical description: The objective of this research is to develop novel artificial materials exhibiting unique optical properties that are yet to exist in naturally occurring materials. In order to attain materials with custom-designed optical characteristics, judiciously engineered combinations of materials such as metals, semiconductors and insulators must be devised. These new artificial materials, commonly referred to as metamaterials, are fabricated to be much thinner than the wavelength of light. Potential applications of such metamaterials include devices capable of controlling and switching light at very high speeds, as well as infrared sensors and light detectors. Research efforts encompass computational design, materials fabrication, and optical characterization of the metamaterials. The research team comprises two graduate students, who are assisted during the summer months by an undergraduate student as well as a student from a local high school. All participating students receive training in modern materials fabrication techniques, laser operation, and computer simulation methods. An on-going coordination with the University of Texas at San Antonio - a designated Hispanic Serving Institution - is used to recruit summer students for this project.Technical description: The research team is exploiting several unique synergies between plasmonic metasurfaces and two-dimensional (2D) materials, by harnessing the ability of metasurfaces to concentrate optical energy to the extreme optical nonlinearities of 2D materials in the mid-IR. In this way it is utilizing plasmonic metasurfaces as gating electrodes to engineer the quantum properties of 2D materials. This enables a new regime of strong optical coupling in hybrid plasmonic-2D systems. The gating metasurface electrodes are additionally used to periodically modulate the chemical potential of the 2D material, resulting in a quantum Bragg reflector for surface graphene plasmons - a novel concept that bridges materials science and optics. Using first-principles modeling, advanced fabrication and optical characterization, plasmonic metasurfaces are fabricated and integrated with 2D materials to create these new hybrid materials. Unique optical characteristics of this system, such as anomalously high optical nonlinearities and ultrafast response, are explored and utilized for efficient optical harmonics generation as well as in ultrafast nonlinear optical devices.