Ultrafast all optical beam steering

超快全光束控制

• 批准号: NE/T014105/1
• 负责人: Euan Hendry
• 金额: $ 1.55万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT014105%2F1
• 关键词: Ultrafast; optical; beam; steering

EPSRC : Justus Bohn : EP/L015331/1Nonlinear optics is the study of the interaction of intense laser light with matter. Nonlinear optical phenomena enable a broad range of applications, such as telecommunications, beamshaping and all-optical data processing. However, most materials exhibit only an extremely weak optical nonlinearity, even under intense illumination. Consequently, long interaction lengths are needed for the build-up of nonlinear optical phenomena, and these interaction paths are usually obtained by using bulky material structures that are difficult to scale up and to integrate into nanophotonics systems. As a result, a long standing goal in the field of nonlinear optics has been the development of materials with very large nonlinear responses, whose optical properties can be dramatically changed with a low-power optical field. In addition, it is highly desirable that these materials possess a sub-picosecond time response to reach THz rates and are suitable for nanoscale integration through existing complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technologies long established in industry.Current interest is motivated by the observation that degenerate semiconductors such as tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) exhibit a huge enhancement of the non-linear optical response at telecoms wavelengths. Since these initial discoveries, it has been shown that the effect can be even further increased by utilising gold antennas on an ITO layer. This has opened the door to ultrathin nonlinear systems, with greatly reduced interaction lengths allowing for better integration into nanophotonic architectures. One of the most important applications currently being addressed with ITO is all-optical beam steering. Considering the sub-picosecond response time of the material, all-optical steering has the potential to be very fast, and if workable, could provide drastic improvements to the speed of location scanning systems. Here, ITO with properly designed nano-antenna array, offer the prospect of an ultra thin, highly efficient, all-optical beam steering platform. In this joint research project we aim to design, manufacture and characterize all optically switched beam steering samples. We will develop, optimise and fabricate nonlinear devices during my stay in Ottawa, and carry out a first characterisation in air which will allow us to establish the basic nonlinear behaviour. On returning to Exeter, we will fully characterise the angular response of the switching. We hope this will be the starting point of more complex metasurface designs that enable full beam shape control.

非线性光学是研究强激光与物质相互作用的科学。非线性光学现象使其具有广泛的应用，如电信、波束整形和全光数据处理。然而，即使在强光照射下，大多数材料也只表现出极弱的光学非线性。因此，非线性光学现象的建立需要很长的相互作用长度，而这些相互作用路径通常是通过使用难以放大和集成到纳米光子学系统中的庞大材料结构来获得的。因此，非线性光学领域的一个长期目标是开发具有非常大的非线性响应的材料，其光学性质可以通过低功率光场来显著改变。此外，人们非常希望这些材料具有亚皮秒的时间响应，达到太赫兹速率，并适合于通过现有的互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)制造技术进行纳米级集成。目前的兴趣是因为观察到简并半导体，如锡掺杂的氧化铟(ITO)，在电信波长表现出巨大的非线性光学响应增强。自从这些初步发现以来，已经表明，通过在ITO层上使用黄金天线，这种效果还可以进一步增强。这为超薄非线性系统打开了大门，极大地缩短了相互作用长度，使其能够更好地集成到纳米光子体系结构中。目前ITO正在解决的最重要的应用之一是全光波束控制。考虑到材料的亚皮秒响应时间，全光转向具有非常快的潜力，如果可行，可以大幅提高位置扫描系统的速度。在这里，ITO通过合理设计的纳米天线阵列，提供了一个超薄、高效、全光波束控制平台的前景。在这个联合研究项目中，我们的目标是设计、制造和表征所有的光开关光束导向样品。我在渥太华逗留期间，我们将开发、优化和制造非线性设备，并在空气中进行首次表征，这将使我们能够建立基本的非线性行为。回到埃克塞特后，我们将全面描述开关的角度响应。我们希望这将成为更复杂的变形表面设计的起点，从而实现全光束形状控制。

项目成果

Spatiotemporal refraction of light in an epsilon-near-zero indium tin oxide layer: frequency shifting effects arising from interfaces

• DOI: 10.1364/optica.436324
• 发表时间: 2021-12-20
• 期刊: OPTICA
• 影响因子: 10.4
• 作者: Bohn, Justus;Luk, Ting Shan;Hendry, Euan
• 通讯作者: Hendry, Euan

All-optical switching of an epsilon-near-zero plasmon resonance in indium tin oxide.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21332-y
• 发表时间: 2021-02-15
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Bohn J;Luk TS;Tollerton C;Hutchings SW;Brener I;Horsley S;Barnes WL;Hendry E
• 通讯作者: Hendry E