Deep Optical Switching on Subpicosecond Timescales in an Amorphous Ge Metamaterial

Lemasters, Robert; Shcherbakov, Maxim R.; Yang, Guoce; Song, Jia; Lian, Tianquan; Harutyunyan, Hayk; Shvets, Gennady

doi:10.1002/adom.202100240

Deep Optical Switching on Subpicosecond Timescales in an Amorphous Ge Metamaterial

Journal Article · Tue May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Advanced Optical Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202100240· OSTI ID:1865280

Lemasters, Robert ^[1]; ^[2]; Yang, Guoce ^[3]; Song, Jia ^[3]; Lian, Tianquan ^[3]; Harutyunyan, Hayk ^[3]; Shvets, Gennady ^[2]

Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States); Dept of Physics, Emory University
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)

Active nanostructured optical components show promise as potential building blocks for novel light-based computing and data processing architectures. However, nanoscale all-optical switches that have low activation powers and high-contrast ultrafast switching have been elusive so far. Here, pump–probe measurements performed on amorphous-Ge-based micro-resonator metasurfaces that exhibit strong resonant modes in the mid-infrared are reported. Relative change is observed in transmittance of ΔT/T ≈ 1 with picosecond (down to τ ≈ 0.5 ps) free carrier relaxation rates, obtained with very low pump fluences of 50 μJ cm^–2. In this work, these observations are attributed to efficient free carrier promotion, affecting light transmittance via high quality-factor optical resonances, followed by an increased electron–phonon scattering of free carriers due to the amorphous crystal structure of Ge. Full-wave simulations based on a permittivity model that describes free-carrier damping through crystal structure disorder find excellent agreement with the experimental data. These findings offer an efficient and robust platform for all-optical switching at the nanoscale.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0020101; SC0008798

OSTI ID:: 1865280

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1851152
OSTI ID: 1785814

Journal Information:: Advanced Optical Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Optical Materials Journal Issue: 15 Vol. 9; ISSN 2195-1071

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
all-optical switching
amorphous germanium
high-q optical resonances
metamaterials
metasurfaces
pump–probe measurements
ultrafast optics
ultrafast processes

Deep Optical Switching on Subpicosecond Timescales in an Amorphous Ge Metamaterial

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