Self-organization of frozen light in near-zero-index media with cubic nonlinearity

Harnessing collisional nonlinearity for enhanced harmonic generation by ultraviolet plasmonic nanoparticles

We investigate the contribution of inelastic electron collisions to nonlinear (NL) dynamics in ultraviolet plasmonic nanoparticles, exploring their potential for harmonic generation. Employing the Landau weak coupling formalism to model radiation-driven electron dynamics in sodium and aluminum, we account for both electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering processes by a set of hydrodynamic equations, which we solve perturbatively to obtain third-order NL susceptibilities. Furthermore, we model high harmonic generation enhanced by localized surface plasmons in nanospheres composed of such poor metals, demonstrating their efficient operation for extreme ultraviolet generation. Our investigation reveals that plasmonic nanospheres composed of sodium and aluminum produce a large field intensity enhancement of ≃103-105, boosting the harmonic generation process. Our findings indicate that poor metals hold great promise for advanced extreme ultraviolet nano-sources with potential applications in nano-spectroscopy.

Formula Graph Self-Attention Network for Representation-Domain Independent Materials Discovery

The success of machine learning (ML) in materials property prediction depends heavily on how the materials are represented for learning. Two dominant families of material descriptors exist, one that encodes crystal structure in the representation and the other that only uses stoichiometric information with the hope of discovering new materials. Graph neural networks (GNNs) in particular have excelled in predicting material properties within chemical accuracy. However, current GNNs are limited to only one of the above two avenues owing to the little overlap between respective material representations. Here, a new concept of formula graph which unifies stoichiometry-only and structure-based material descriptors is introduced. A self-attention integrated GNN that assimilates a formula graph is further developed and it is found that the proposed architecture produces material embeddings transferable between the two domains. The proposed model can outperform some previously reported structure-agnostic models and their structure-based counterparts while exhibiting better sample efficiency and faster convergence. Finally, the model is applied in a challenging exemplar to predict the complex dielectric function of materials and nominate new substances that potentially exhibit epsilon-near-zero phenomena.

Negative Refraction in Time-Varying Strongly Coupled Plasmonic-Antenna-Epsilon-Near-Zero Systems

Time-varying metasurfaces are emerging as a powerful instrument for the dynamical control of the electromagnetic properties of a propagating wave. Here we demonstrate an efficient time-varying metasurface based on plasmonic nano-antennas strongly coupled to an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) deeply subwavelength film. The plasmonic resonance of the metal resonators strongly interacts with the optical ENZ modes, providing a Rabi level spitting of ∼30%. Optical pumping at frequency ω induces a nonlinear polarization oscillating at 2ω responsible for an efficient generation of a phase conjugate and a negative refracted beam with a conversion efficiency that is more than 4 orders of magnitude greater compared to the bare ENZ film. The introduction of a strongly coupled plasmonic system therefore provides a simple and effective route towards the implementation of ENZ physics at the nanoscale.

Combining ε-Near-Zero Behavior and Stopped Light Energy Bands for Ultra-Low Reflection and Reduced Dispersion of Slow Light

We investigate media which exhibits epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) behavior while simultaneously sustaining stopped light energy bands which contain multiple points of zero group velocity (ZGV). This allows the merging of state-of-the-art phenomena that was hitherto attainable in media that demonstrated these traits separately. Specifically, we demonstrate the existence of Ferrell-Berreman (FB) modes within frequency bands bounded by points of ZGV with the goal to improve the coupling efficiency and localization of light in the media. The FB mode is formed within a double layer, thin-film stack where at subwavelength thicknesses the structure exhibits a very low reflection due to ENZ behavior. In addition, the structure is engineered to promote a flattened frequency dispersion with a negative permittivity able to induce multiple points of ZGV. For proof-of-concept, we propose an oxide-semiconductor-oxide-insulator stack and discuss the useful optical properties that arise from combining both phenomena. A transfer matrix (TM) treatment is used to derive the reflectivity profile and dispersion curves. Results show the ability to reduce reflection below 0.05% in accordance with recent experimental data while simultaneously exciting a polariton mode exhibiting both reduced group velocity and group velocity dispersion (GVD).

Control of gain/absorption in tunable hyperbolic metamaterials

In this paper, the possibility of shaping the gain/absorption spectrum in tunable hyperbolic metamaterial (THMM) composed of subsequent layers of graphene and active/passive material by external biasing is demonstrated. For the first time it has been shown that resonance transitions between different dispersion regimes, i.e., Type I HMM→elliptic, elliptic→Type II HMM, elliptic→Type I HMM, are accompanied by interesting optical effects, such as anisotropic effective gain/absorption enhancement or electromagnetic transparency, all controllable by external voltage. We believe that this kind of tunable metamaterial could lay the foundation for a new class of active/passive media with controllable gain/absorption or electromagnetic transparency.

All-optical modulation in wavelength-sized epsilon-near-zero media

We investigate the interaction of two pulses (pump and probe) scattered by a nonlinear epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) slab whose thickness is comparable with the ENZ wavelength. We show that when the probe has a narrow spectrum localized around the ENZ wavelength, its transmission is dramatically affected by the intensity of the pump. Conversely, if the probe is not in the ENZ regime, its propagation is not noticeably affected by the pump. Such all-optical modulation is due to the oversensitive character of the ENZ regime, and it is so efficient that it even occurs in a wavelength thick slab.

Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index in ε-Near-Zero Materials

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 ε-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.

Graphene-Based Active Random Metamaterials for Cavity-Free Lasing

Manipulating and controlling the optical energy flow inside random media is a research frontier of photonics and the basis of novel laser designs. Here, we show that a metamaterial consisting of randomly dispersed graphene nanoflakes embedded within an optically pumped gain medium (rhodamine 6G) can operate as a cavity-free laser thanks to its extraordinarily low threshold for saturable absorption. The emitted light is self-organized into a well-determined spatial pattern, which depends on the graphene flake density and can be externally controlled through the optical pump. We provide different examples of tunable laser operation ranging from stable single-mode to chaoticlike behavior. Our metamaterial design holds great potential for the optical control of light amplification, as well as for the development of single-mode beam-engineered cavity-free lasers.