Optimized moth-eye anti-reflective structures for As2S3 chalcogenide optical fibers

Decay Rates of Plasmonic Elliptical Nanostructures via Effective Medium Theory

This paper investigates the spontaneous decay rate of elliptical plasmonic nanostructures. The refractive index was analyzed using the effective medium theory (EMT). Then, the polarizability, spontaneous radiative, non-radiative decay rate, and electric field enhancement factor were characterized for the targeted elliptical nanostructures at different aspect ratios. All of the optical analyses were analyzed at different distances between the excited fluorescent coupled atom and the plasmonic nanostructure (down to 100 nm). This work is promising in selecting the optimum elliptical nanostructure according to the required decay rates for optical conversion efficiency control in energy harvesting for solar cells and optical sensing applications.

Optically transparent microwave absorber based on water-based moth-eye structures

We propose an approach to realize an optically transparent microwave absorber based on water-based moth-eye metamaterial structures. The absorber is made of a periodic array of properly shaped glass caps infiltrated with distilled water. Analytical calculations and numerical simulations show that the water-based metamaterial absorbs electromagnetic waves over a wide spectral band ranging from 4GHz to well above 120GHz, showing absorption levels close to 100% for incident radiation that ranges from normal to grazing angles, for both TE and TM polarizations. Yet, the structure is optically transparent, offering exciting opportunities in a variety of civil and military applications, such as for camouflage and shielding systems and in energy harvesting structures.

Moth-eye shaped on-demand broadband and switchable perfect absorbers based on vanadium dioxide

Two biomimetic, moth-eye structure, perfect absorbers in the visible and near infrared regions are introduced and investigated. The moth-eye structure is made up of vanadium oxide (VO₂), which is a phase change material that changes from an insulator state to a metallic state at around 85 °C. The VO₂ structure sits on top of a sapphire (Al₂O₃) dielectric spacer layer, above a gold (Au) back reflector. Two perfect absorbers are designed, one with perfect absorption over an ultra-broadband range between 400 and 1,600 nm, for both the insulating and metallic phases, while the second can switch between being a perfect absorber or not in the range 1,000 and 1,600 nm. The absorption profiles and electric and magnetic fields are examined and discussed to provide insight into how absorbers function in the four different situations.

Nanoimprinting and tapering of chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers for cascaded supercontinuum generation

Improved long-wavelength transmission and supercontinuum (SC) generation is demonstrated by antireflective (AR) nanoimprinting and tapering of chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Using a SC source input spanning from 1 to 4.2 μm, the total transmission of a 15 μm core diameter PCF was improved from ∼53% to ∼74% by nanoimprinting of AR structures on both input and output facets of the fiber. Through a combined effect of reduced reflection and redshifting of the spectrum to 5 μm, the relative transmission of light >3.5  μm in the same fiber was increased by 60.2%. Further extension of the spectrum to 8 μm was achieved using tapered fibers. The spectral broadening dynamics and output power were investigated using different taper parameters and pulse repetition rates.

Efficient coupling of a quantum cascade laser to a few-mode chalcogenide fiber

We report efficient coupling of a quantum cascade laser (QCL) into step-index chalcogenide fibers (As ₂S ₃). Mechanically robust and low-loss chalcogenide fibers were fabricated using a hybrid, multi-material thermal drawing process. With suitable free-space optics, more than 160 mW of optical power was coupled into the fiber with predominantly single-mode excitation. Antireflection coatings on the fiber facets enabled 88.9% transmission with strong core confinement. By accurately tailoring the core diameter and antireflection-coating thickness, these fibers offer a versatile platform for high-power and low-loss transmission across the infrared spectrum. This work introduces an attractive alternative to the use of hollow-core fibers or multimode solid-core fibers for diffraction-limited infrared beam delivery.

Realization of perfect selective absorber based on multipole modes in all-dielectric moth-eye structure

Perfect absorbers play crucial roles in optical functional devices. Among various types of absorbers, moth-eye structures are known for their excellent absorbing efficiency. In this paper, we apply an electromagnetic multipole expansion method to treat an isolated all-dielectric moth-eye structure as a large particle and calculate various electric and magnetic multipole modes within the moth-eye structure. In periodical array, the multipole modes within each particle interact with each other. These constructive or destructive interactions cause shifts in the multipole resonant peaks. The multipole modes inside the particle array introduce reflecting peaks for loss-less materials. The absorption enhancement inside moth-eye structures can be attributed to the electric field enhancement resulting from these electric and magnetic multipole modes. Based on our theoretical study, we propose a near-ideal selective absorber based on moth-eye array, which achieves near 100% absorption within wavelength range from 400 nm to 1500 nm while achieving near 0% absorption over about 1700 nm.

Ultra-broadband, polarization-independent, wide-angle absorption in impedance-matched metamaterials with anti-reflective moth-eye surfaces

We computationally study periodic impedance-matched metal-dielectric metamaterials and the advantage of imprinting moth-eye surfaces on them. Impedance-matched metamaterials are known to act as strong, polarization-independent, broadband absorbers. However, in the infrared region far from the metal's plasma frequency, the reflection from metal layers dominates over the absorption. Using anti-reflective moth-eye surfaces we show that it is possible to obtain absorption independent of polarization or incidence angle, over an exceptionally broad frequency range from 400 nm to 6 μm.

Broadband near-infrared antireflection coatings fabricated by three-dimensional direct laser writing

Three-dimensional direct laser writing via two-photon polymerization is used to fabricate anti-reflective structured surfaces (ARSSs) composed of subwavelength conicoid features optimized to operate over a wide bandwidth in the near-infrared range from 3700  cm^-1 to 6600  cm^-1 (2.7-1.52 μm). Analytic Bruggemann effective medium calculations are used to predict nominal geometric parameters such as the fill factor of the constitutive conicoid features of the anti-reflective structured surfaces (ARSSs) presented here. The performance of the ARSSs was investigated experimentally using infrared reflection and transmission measurements. An enhancement of the transmittance by 1.35%-2.14% over a broadband spectral range from 3700  cm^-1 to 6600  cm^-1 (2.7-1.52 μm) was achieved. We further report on finite-element-based reflection and transmission data using three-dimensional (3D) model geometries for comparison. A good agreement between experimental results and the finite-element-based numerical analysis is observed once as-fabricated deviations from the nominal conicoid forms are included in the model. 3D direct laser writing is demonstrated here as an efficient method for the fabrication and optimization of ARSSs designed for the infrared spectral range.