Broadband and tunable enhanced chiral light-matter interactions at the visible with new ultrathin helical metamaterials

新型超薄螺旋超材料在可见光下实现宽带和可调谐增强手性光与物质相互作用

• 批准号: 2224456
• 负责人: Eva Schubert
• 金额: $ 56.7万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2026-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Broadband; tunable; enhanced; chiral; light

Nontechnical description: This project advances understanding about how light passes around edges and corners which are created by configurations of very small three-dimensional objects. The light path can be manipulated and controlled by the size and geometry of spring-like nanoobjects, leading to artificially engineered materials with unique properties and functionalities. The research team utilizes experimental and computational approaches to predict, manufacture and test new ultrathin optical nanostructures which will be arranged in configurations that are expected to support next generation optical communications and sensing technologies. Thereby the study closes a gap in the manipulation of light by using specific geometrical arrangements of nanostructures. By that, the research benefits the economy and society of the United States. The project supports undergraduate and graduate student involvement in research as a means of encouraging pursuit of advanced study and research careers in new optical materials. The research team extends the impact of this research to introduce advanced optical concepts relevant to the current project to underrepresented demographic groups in the STEM pipeline, including presentations to the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physical Sciences (WoPhys) events at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the annual outreach and Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs of the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience. Further, the investigators leverage their research findings to create one video to teach the broader public about the properties of light, current research activities for advancing optical materials, and future device technologies towards high-performance quantum optical and photonic applications.Technical description: Recent advances in nanofabrication techniques have enabled the development of optical nanoscale metamaterials to enhance electromagnetic chirality. However, current nanophotonic metamaterial designs that exhibit chiral light-matter interactions have an extremely weak and narrowband nature, are difficult to control and enhance, usually operate at infrared frequencies, and cannot be made tunable. In this project, the research team tackles these problems by designing new dielectric compact subwavelength helical metamaterials to strongly enhance and tune their chiroptical response at record-breaking levels and at the entire visible spectrum. The proposed new artificially engineered dielectric nanomaterials are expected to unlock novel ways for the efficient and coherent manipulation of the broadband chirality, spin angular momentum of photons, and transverse photon spin of incident electromagnetic waves. The new approach is anticipated to lead to directional spin-polarized radiation and unperturbed chiral edge modes along interfaces with different handedness. Low-loss all-dielectric helical metamaterials are investigated both theoretically and experimentally and applied to different exciting new applications, such as in the design of new chiral nanowaveguides and nanocavities. The structurally induced strong chiroptical response of the dielectric nanohelices is tuned to different frequencies at the visible by varying their geometry. The fundamental understanding and experimental realization of the proposed new nanomaterials is expected to be transformative to the emerging field of chiral quantum optics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

非技术描述：该项目促进了了解光如何通过边缘和角落传递的，这是通过非常小的三维对象的配置创建的。可以通过类似弹簧的纳米对象的大小和几何形状来操纵和控制光路，从而导致具有独特特性和功能的人工设计材料。研究小组利用实验和计算方法来预测，制造和测试新的超薄光学纳米结构，这些光学纳米结构将在有望支持下一代光学通信和传感技术的配置中安排。因此，该研究通过使用纳米结构的特定几何布置来缩小操纵光的差距。因此，研究对美国的经济和社会有益。该项目支持本科生和研究生参与研究，以鼓励从事新光学材料的高级研究和研究职业。研究团队扩展了这项研究的影响，以引入与当前项目相关的先进的光学概念，以使STEM管道中代表性不足的人群组成部分，包括向内布拉斯加州 - 林肯大学的体育科学妇女（Wophys）的本科妇女大会的演讲，以及Nebraska材料中的年度范围内的计划和研究经验。此外，研究人员利用他们的研究结果来创建一个视频，以向更广泛的公众讲述光线的特性，用于推进光学材料的当前研究活动以及未来的设备技术朝着高性能量子量子光学和光子应用方面的介绍。技术描述：纳米制造技术的最新进展使得能够增强光学纳米级Metamaigs的开发。但是，当前表现出手性光 - 物质相互作用的当前纳米光材料超材料设计具有极低和窄带的性质，难以控制和增强，通常以红外频率运行，无法调节。在这个项目中，研究团队通过设计新的介电紧凑型亚波长螺旋材料来解决这些问题，从而在创纪录的水平和整个可见频谱下强烈增强和调整其手律响应。提出的新的人工设计的介电介质纳米材料有望解锁新颖的方法，以实现宽带手性的有效和相干操纵，光子的自旋角动量以及入射电磁波的横向光子自旋。预计新方法会导致方向性自旋辐射辐射，并沿着不同的手界面沿界面沿界面。在理论上和实验上都研究了低损失的全型螺旋超材料，并应用于不同的令人兴奋的新应用，例如在新的手性纳米层腔和纳米腔的设计中。通过改变其几何形状，将介电纳米纤维的结构诱导的强质响应调谐到可见的不同频率。对拟议的新纳米材料的基本理解和实验实现预计将转变为手性量子光学的新兴领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。

项目成果

Unraveling the formation dynamics of metallic femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures

• DOI: 10.1016/j.optlastec.2023.110410
• 发表时间: 2023-08
• 期刊: Optics & Laser Technology
• 作者: L. K. Khorashad;A. Reicks;A. Erickson;J. Shield;D. Alexander;A. Laraoui;G. Gogos;C. Zuhlke;C. Argyropoulos

Broadband and Wide Angle Nonreciprocal Thermal Emission from Weyl Semimetal Structures

• DOI: 10.1364/josab.495725
• 发表时间: 2023-06
• 期刊: Journal of the Optical Society of America B
• 作者: A. Butler;C. Argyropoulos

Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Effects in Drift-Biased Nonreciprocal Graphene Plasmonics

漂移偏置非互易石墨烯等离子体中的增强非线性光学效应

• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c00491
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ACS Photonics
• 影响因子: 7
• 作者: Hassani Gangaraj, S. Ali;Jin, Boyuan;Argyropoulos, Christos;Monticone, Francesco
• 通讯作者: Monticone, Francesco

Hybrid graphene-plasmon gratings

• DOI: 10.1063/5.0152664
• 发表时间: 2023-06
• 期刊: Journal of Applied Physics
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: T. Guo;C. Argyropoulos