A metasurface optical modulator using voltage-controlled population of quantum well states

Sarma, Raktim; Campione, Salvatore; Goldflam, Michael; Shank, Joshua; Noh, Jinhyun; Le, Loan T.; Lange, Michael D.; Ye, Peide D.; Wendt, Joel; Ruiz, Isaac; Howell, Stephen W.; Sinclair, Michael; Wanke, Michael C.; Brener, Igal

doi:10.1063/1.5055013

A metasurface optical modulator using voltage-controlled population of quantum well states

Journal Article · Mon Nov 12 23:00:00 EST 2018 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055013· OSTI ID:1485838

Sarma, Raktim ^[1]; ^[1]; Goldflam, Michael ^[1]; Shank, Joshua ^[1]; Noh, Jinhyun ^[2]; Le, Loan T. ^[3]; Lange, Michael D. ^[3]; Ye, Peide D. ^[2]; Wendt, Joel ^[1]; Ruiz, Isaac ^[1]; Howell, Stephen W. ^[1]; Sinclair, Michael ^[1]; Wanke, Michael C. ^[1]; ^[1]

Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Redondo Beach, CA (United States)

We present that the ability to control the light-matter interaction with an external stimulus is a very active area of research since it creates exciting new opportunities for designing optoelectronic devices. Recently, plasmonic metasurfaces have proven to be suitable candidates for achieving a strong light-matter interaction with various types of optical transitions, including intersubband transitions (ISTs) in semiconductor quantum wells (QWs). For voltage modulation of the light-matter interaction, plasmonic metasurfaces coupled to ISTs offer unique advantages since the parameters determining the strength of the interaction can be independently engineered. In this work, we report a proof-of-concept demonstration of a new approach to voltage-tune the coupling between ISTs in QWs and a plasmonic metasurface. In contrast to previous approaches, the IST strength is here modified via control of the electron populations in QWs located in the near field of the metasurface. By turning on and off the ISTs in the semiconductor QWs, we observe a modulation of the optical response of the IST coupled metasurface due to modulation of the coupled light-matter states. Because of the electrostatic design, our device exhibits an extremely low leakage current of ~6 pA at a maximum operating bias of +1 V and therefore very low power dissipation. Finally, our approach provides a new direction for designing voltage-tunable metasurface-based optical modulators.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 1485838

Report Number(s):: SAND--2018-12655J; 670031

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 113; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (39)

Ultrafast Electrically Tunable Polaritonic Metasurfaces Lee, Jongwon; Jung, Seungyong; Chen, Pai-Yen Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201400185	journal	July 2014
Ultrathin Second‐Harmonic Metasurfaces with Record‐High Nonlinear Optical Response Lee, Jongwon; Nookala, Nishant; Gomez‐Diaz, J. Sebastian Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201500723	journal	February 2016
Gate-Tunable Conducting Oxide Metasurfaces Huang, Yao-Wei; Lee, Ho Wai Howard; Sokhoyan, Ruzan Nano Letters, Vol. 16, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00555	journal	August 2016
Dynamic Reflection Phase and Polarization Control in Metasurfaces Park, Junghyun; Kang, Ju-Hyung; Kim, Soo Jin Nano Letters, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b04378	journal	December 2016
Experimental Demonstration of >230° Phase Modulation in Gate-Tunable Graphene–Gold Reconfigurable Mid-Infrared Metasurfaces Sherrott, Michelle C.; Hon, Philip W. C.; Fountaine, Katherine T. Nano Letters, Vol. 17, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00359	journal	April 2017
Field-Effect Tunable and Broadband Epsilon-Near-Zero Perfect Absorbers with Deep Subwavelength Thickness Anopchenko, Aleksei; Tao, Long; Arndt, Catherine ACS Photonics, Vol. 5, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.7b01373	journal	December 2017
Strong Coupling between Nanoscale Metamaterials and Phonons Shelton, D. J.; Brener, I.; Ginn, J. C. Nano Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl200689z	journal	May 2011
Epsilon-Near-Zero Strong Coupling in Metamaterial-Semiconductor Hybrid Structures Jun, Young Chul; Reno, John; Ribaudo, Troy Nano Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl402939t	journal	October 2013
Electrical Modulation of Fano Resonance in Plasmonic Nanostructures Using Graphene Emani, Naresh K.; Chung, Ting-Fung; Kildishev, Alexander V. Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl403253c	journal	December 2013
Electrically Tunable Metasurface Perfect Absorbers for Ultrathin Mid-Infrared Optical Modulators Yao, Yu; Shankar, Raji; Kats, Mikhail A. Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl503104n	journal	October 2014
Control of Strong Light–Matter Coupling Using the Capacitance of Metamaterial Nanocavities Benz, Alexander; Campione, Salvatore; Klem, John F. Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl504815c	journal	February 2015
Electrical Switching of Infrared Light Using Graphene Integration with Plasmonic Fano Resonant Metasurfaces Dabidian, Nima; Kholmanov, Iskandar; Khanikaev, Alexander B. ACS Photonics, Vol. 2, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/ph5003279	journal	January 2015
Giant nonlinear response from plasmonic metasurfaces coupled to intersubband transitions Lee, Jongwon; Tymchenko, Mykhailo; Argyropoulos, Christos Nature, Vol. 511, Issue 7507 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13455	journal	July 2014
Strong coupling in the sub-wavelength limit using metamaterial nanocavities Benz, A.; Campione, S.; Liu, S. Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Article No. 2882 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3882	journal	November 2013
Phased-array sources based on nonlinear metamaterial nanocavities Wolf, Omri; Campione, Salvatore; Benz, Alexander Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8667	journal	July 2015
Graphene plasmonics for tunable terahertz metamaterials Ju, Long; Geng, Baisong; Horng, Jason Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 6, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.146	journal	September 2011
Electrically Tunable Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) Metafilm Absorbers Park, Junghyun; Kang, Ju-Hyung; Liu, Xiaoge Scientific Reports, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15754	journal	November 2015
Tunneling assisted modulation of the intersubband absorption in double quantum wells Vodjdani, N.; Vinter, B.; Berger, V. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 59, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.105384	journal	July 1991
Electron transfer in voltage tunable two-color infrared photodetectors Majumdar, Amlan; Choi, K. K.; Rokhinson, L. P. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1455684	journal	April 2002
Interaction between metamaterial resonators and intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells Gabbay, Alon; Reno, John; Wendt, Joel R. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3592266	journal	May 2011
1-nm-capacitance-equivalent-thickness HfO ₂ /Al ₂ O ₃ /InGaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with low interface trap density and low gate leakage current density Suzuki, R.; Taoka, N.; Yokoyama, M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3698095	journal	March 2012
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy approach for measurements of photoluminescence and electroluminescence in mid-infrared Zhang, Y. G.; Gu, Y.; Wang, K. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4717673	journal	May 2012
Room temperature terahertz polariton emitter Geiser, Markus; Scalari, Giacomo; Castellano, Fabrizio Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4757611	journal	October 2012
Tunable metamaterials based on voltage controlled strong coupling Benz, Alexander; Montaño, Inès; Klem, John F. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4859636	journal	December 2013
Second harmonic generation from metamaterials strongly coupled to intersubband transitions in quantum wells Campione, Salvatore; Benz, Alexander; Sinclair, Michael B. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870072	journal	March 2014
Low dissipation spectral filtering using a field-effect tunable III–V hybrid metasurface Sarma, Raktim; Campione, Salvatore; Goldflam, Michael Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5042662	journal	August 2018
Negative differential photoconductance in an alternately doped multiple quantum well structure Choi, K. K.; Levine, B. F.; Bethea, C. G. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 52, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.99596	journal	June 1988
Rabi splitting of the optical intersubband absorption line of multiple quantum wellsinside a Fabry-Pérot microcavity Liu, Ansheng Physical Review B, Vol. 55, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.55.7101	journal	March 1997
Strong coupling between surface plasmon-polaritons and organic molecules in subwavelength hole arrays Dintinger, J.; Klein, S.; Bustos, F. Physical Review B, Vol. 71, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.71.035424	journal	January 2005
Giant Rabi splitting between localized mixed plasmon-exciton states in a two-dimensional array of nanosize metallic disks in an organic semiconductor Bellessa, J.; Symonds, C.; Vynck, K. Physical Review B, Vol. 80, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.033303	journal	July 2009
Electrodynamic modeling of strong coupling between a metasurface and intersubband transitions in quantum wells Campione, Salvatore; Benz, Alexander; Klem, John F. Physical Review B, Vol. 89, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.165133	journal	April 2014
Ultrastrong Coupling of the Cyclotron Transition of a 2D Electron Gas to a THz Metamaterial Scalari, G.; Maissen, C.; Turcinkova, D. Science, Vol. 335, Issue 6074 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1216022	journal	March 2012
Theory and modeling of electrically tunable metamaterial devices using inter-subband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells Gabbay, Alon; Brener, Igal Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.006584	journal	January 2012
Monolithic metallic nanocavities for strong light-matter interaction to quantum-well intersubband excitations Benz, A.; Campione, S.; Liu, S. Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.032572	journal	January 2013
Giant nonlinear response from plasmonic metasurfaces coupled to intersubband transitions Lee, J.; Argyropoulos, C.; Chen, P. -Y. CLEO: QELS_Fundamental Science, CLEO: 2014 https://doi.org/10.1364/cleo_qels.2014.fth4k.1	conference	January 2014
Interaction between Metamaterial Resonators and Inter-subband transitions in Semiconductor Quantum Wells Gabbay, Alon; Reno, John; Wendt, Joel R. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1105.3523	text	January 2011
Room temperature terahertz polariton emitter Geiser, Markus; Scalari, Giacomo; Castellano, Fabrizio arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1201.2094	text	January 2012
Electrodynamic modeling of strong coupling between a metasurface and intersubband transitions in quantum wells Campione, Salvatore; Benz, Alexander; Klem, John F. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1403.4219	text	January 2014
Experimental Demonstration of >230° Phase Modulation in Gate-Tunable Graphene-Gold Reconfigurable Mid-Infrared Metasurfaces Sherrott, Michelle C.; Hon, Philip W. C.; Fountaine, Katherine T. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1701.08221	text	January 2017

Cited By (2)

Dynamic beam steering with all-dielectric electro-optic III–V multiple-quantum-well metasurfaces Wu, Pin Chieh; Pala, Ragip A.; Kafaie Shirmanesh, Ghazaleh Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11598-8	journal	August 2019
Semiconductor infrared plasmonics Taliercio, Thierry; Biagioni, Paolo Nanophotonics, Vol. 8, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2019-0077	journal	May 2019

Similar Records

Strong Coupling in All-Dielectric Intersubband Polaritonic Metasurfaces

Journal Article · Sun Dec 20 23:00:00 EST 2020 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1765772

Flat nonlinear optics with intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces

Journal Article · Fri Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Nanophotonics · OSTI ID:2584331

Epsilon-near-zero modes for tailored light-matter interaction

Journal Article · Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physical Review Applied · OSTI ID:1236227

Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS

A metasurface optical modulator using voltage-controlled population of quantum well states

Citation Formats

References (39)

Cited By (2)

Similar Records

Related Subjects