Infrared Absorption Study of Zn–S Hybrid and ZnS Ultrathin Films Deposited on Porous AAO Ceramic Support

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique to characterize the chemical structure and dynamics of various types of samples. However, the signal-to-noise-ratio drops rapidly when the sample thickness gets much smaller than penetration depth, which is proportional to wavelength. This poses serious problems in analysis of thin films. In this work, an approach is demonstrated to overcome these problems. It is shown that a standard IR spectroscopy can be successfully employed to study the structure and composition of films as thin as 20 nm, when the layers were grown on porous substrates with a well-developed surface area. In contrast to IR spectra of the films deposited on flat Si substrates, the IR spectra of the same films but deposited on porous ceramic support show distinct bands that enabled reliable chemical analysis. The analysis of Zn-S ultrathin films synthesized by atomic layer deposition (ALD) from diethylzinc (DEZ) and 1,5-pentanedithiol (PDT) as precursors of Zn and S, respectively, served as proof of concept. However, the approach presented in this study can be applied to analysis of any ultrathin film deposited on target substrate and simultaneously on porous support, where the latter sample would be a reference sample dedicated for IR analysis of this film.

Efficient Optical Reflection Modulation by Coupling Interband Transition of Graphene to Magnetic Resonance in Metamaterials

Designing powerful electromagnetic wave modulators is required for the advancement of optical communication technology. In this work, we study how to efficiently modulate the amplitude of electromagnetic waves in near-infrared region, by the interactions between the interband transition of graphene and the magnetic dipole resonance in metamaterials. The reflection spectra of metamaterials could be significantly reduced in the wavelength range below the interband transition, because the enhanced electromagnetic fields from the magnetic dipole resonance greatly increase the light absorption in graphene. The maximum modulation depth of reflection spectra can reach to about 40% near the resonance wavelength of magnetic dipole, for the interband transition to approach the magnetic dipole resonance, when an external voltage is applied to change the Fermi energy of graphene.

Multiband and Broadband Absorption Enhancement of Monolayer Graphene at Optical Frequencies from Multiple Magnetic Dipole Resonances in Metamaterials

It is well known that a suspended monolayer graphene has a weak light absorption efficiency of about 2.3% at normal incidence, which is disadvantageous to some applications in optoelectronic devices. In this work, we will numerically study multiband and broadband absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene over the whole visible spectrum, due to multiple magnetic dipole resonances in metamaterials. The unit cell of the metamaterials is composed of a graphene monolayer sandwiched between four Ag nanodisks with different diameters and a SiO₂ spacer on an Ag substrate. The near-field plasmon hybridizations between individual Ag nanodisks and the Ag substrate form four independent magnetic dipole modes, which result into multiband absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene at optical frequencies. When the resonance wavelengths of the magnetic dipole modes are tuned to approach one another by changing the diameters of the Ag nanodisks, a broadband absorption enhancement can be achieved. The position of the absorption band in monolayer graphene can be also controlled by varying the thickness of the SiO₂ spacer or the distance between the Ag nanodisks. Our designed graphene light absorber may find some potential applications in optoelectronic devices, such as photodetectors.

Electrically Tunable Fano Resonance from the Coupling between Interband Transition in Monolayer Graphene and Magnetic Dipole in Metamaterials

Fano resonance modulated effectively by external perturbations can find more flexible and important applications in practice. We theoretically study electrically tunable Fano resonance with asymmetric line shape over an extremely narrow frequency range in the reflection spectra of metamaterials. The metamaterials are composed of a metal nanodisk array on graphene, a dielectric spacer, and a metal substrate. The near-field plasmon hybridization between individual metal nanodisks and the metal substrate results into the excitation of a broad magnetic dipole. There exists a narrow interband transition dependent of Fermi energy E_f, which manifests itself as a sharp spectral feature in the effective permittivity ε_g of graphene. The coupling of the narrow interband transition to the broad magnetic dipole leads to the appearance of Fano resonance, which can be electrically tuned by applying a bias voltage to graphene to change E_f. The Fano resonance will shift obviously and its asymmetric line shape will become more pronounced, when E_f is changed for the narrow interband transition to progressively approach the broad magnetic dipole.

Engineering the Complex-Valued Constitutive Parameters of Metamaterials for Perfect Absorption

We theoretically studied how to directly engineer the constitutive parameters of metamaterials for perfect absorbers of electromagnetic waves. As an example, we numerically investigated the necessary refractive index n and extinction coefficient k and the relative permittivity ε and permeability μ of a metamaterial anti-reflection layer, which could cancel the reflection from a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) thin film on a metal substrate, within the visible wavelength range from 300 to 800 nm. We found that the metamaterial anti-reflection layer should have a negative refractive index (n < 0) for short-wavelength visible light but have a positive refractive index (n > 0) for long-wavelength visible light. The relative permittivity ε and permeability μ could be fitted by the Lorentz model, which exhibited electric and magnetic resonances, respectively.

The Coupling Effects of Surface Plasmon Polaritons and Magnetic Dipole Resonances in Metamaterials

We numerically investigate the coupling effects of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and magnetic dipole (MD) resonances in metamaterials, which are composed of an Ag nanodisk array and a SiO₂ spacer on an Ag substrate. The periodicity of the Ag nanodisk array leads to the excitation of SPPs at the surface of the Ag substrate. The near-field plasmon interactions between individual Ag nanodisks and the Ag substrate form MD resonances. When the excitation wavelengths of SPPs are tuned to approach the position of MD resonances by changing the array period of Ag nanodisks, SPPs and MD resonances are coupled together into two hybridized modes, whose positions can be well predicted by a coupling model of two oscillators. In the strong coupling regime of SPPs and MD resonances, the hybridized modes exhibit an obvious anti-crossing, resulting into an interesting phenomenon of Rabi splitting. Moreover, the magnetic fields under the Ag nanodisks are greatly enhanced, which may find some potential applications, such as magnetic nonlinearity.

Ultra-Thin Multi-Band Polarization-Insensitive Microwave Metamaterial Absorber Based on Multiple-Order Responses Using a Single Resonator Structure

We design an ultra-thin multi-band polarization-insensitive metamaterial absorber (MMA) using a single circular sector resonator (CSR) structure in the microwave region. Simulated results show that the proposed MMA has three distinctive absorption peaks at 3.35 GHz, 8.65 GHz, and 12.44 GHz, with absorbance of 98.8%, 99.7%, and 98.3%, respectively, which agree well with an experiment. Simulated surface current distributions of the unit-cell structure reveal that the triple-band absorption mainly originates from multiple-harmonic magnetic resonance. The proposed triple-band MMA can remain at a high absorption level for all polarization of both transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) modes under normal incidence. Moreover, by further optimizing the geometric parameters of the CSRs, four-band and five-band MMAs can also be obtained. Thus, our design will have potential application in detection, sensing, and stealth technology.

Toroidal Dipolar Excitation in Metamaterials Consisting of Metal nanodisks and a Dielectrc Spacer on Metal Substrate

We have investigated numerically toroidal dipolar excitation at optical frequency in metamaterials whose unit cell consists of three identical Ag nanodisks and a SiO₂ spacer on Ag substrate. The near-field plasmon hybridization between individual Ag nanodisks and substrate forms three magnetic dipolar resonances, at normal incidence of plane electromagnetic waves. The strong coupling among three magnetic dipolar resonances leads to the toroidal dipolar excitation, when space-inversion symmetry is broke along the polarization direction of incident light. The influences of some geometrical parameters on the resonance frequency and the excitation strength of toroidal dipolar mode are studied in detail. The radiated power from toroidal dipole is also compared with that from conventional electric and magnetic multipoles.

Plasma-deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon films: multiscale modelling reveals key processes

Physical and chemical mechanisms and role of plasma in the synthesis of hydrogenated amorphous silicon were studied numerically to reveal the key growth processes and, hence, to ensure a higher level of control over the film structure and properties.

Ultrathin tandem-plasmonic photovoltaic structures for synergistically enhanced light absorption

We have proposed and simulated a tandem ultra-thin silicon solar cell, in which each layer is integrated with metal nanostructures, using the FDTD method.