Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index in ε-Near-Zero Materials
Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index in ε-Near-Zero Materials
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DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.116.233901
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发表时间:
2016-06-08
影响因子:
8.6
通讯作者:
Faccio, D.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Caspani, L.;Kaipurath, R. P. M.;Faccio, D.
New propagation regimes for light arise from the ability to tune the dielectric permittivity to extremely low values. Here, we demonstrate a universal approach based on the low linear permittivity values attained in the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regime for enhancing the nonlinear refractive index, which enables remarkable light-induced changes of the material properties. Experiments performed on Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films show a sixfold increase of the Kerr nonlinear refractive index (n(2)) at the ENZ wavelength, located in the 1300 nm region. This in turn leads to ultrafast light-induced refractive index changes of the order of unity, thus representing a new paradigm for nonlinear optics.