Near-infrared strong coupling between metamaterials and epsilon-near-zero modes in degenerately doped semiconductor nanolayers

Journal Article · Thu Jan 14 00:00:00 EST 2016 · ACS Photonics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00663· OSTI ID:1240096

Campione, Salvatore ^[1]; Wendt, Joel R. ^[1]; Keeler, Gordon Arthur ^[1]; Luk, Ting S. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) modes provide a new path for tailoring light–matter interactions at the nanoscale. In this paper, we analyze a strongly coupled system at near-infrared frequencies comprising plasmonic metamaterial resonators and ENZ modes supported by degenerately doped semiconductor nanolayers. In strongly coupled systems that combine optical cavities and intersubband transitions, the polariton splitting (i.e., the ratio of Rabi frequency to bare cavity frequency) scales with the square root of the wavelength, thus favoring the long-wavelength regime. In contrast, we observe that the polariton splitting in ENZ/metamaterial resonator systems increases linearly with the thickness of the nanolayer supporting the ENZ modes. In this work, we employ an indium-tin-oxide nanolayer and observe a large experimental polariton splitting of approximately 30% in the near-infrared. As a result, this approach opens up many promising applications, including nonlinear optical components and tunable optical filters based on controlling the polariton splitting by adjusting the frequency of the ENZ mode.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1240096
• Report Number(s): SAND-2016-0643J; 618937
• Journal Information: ACS Photonics, Vol. 3, Issue 2; ISSN 2330-4022
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY