Highly efficient terahertz photoconductive metasurface detectors operating at microwatt-level gate powers

Deep learning model for dynamic color design of all-dielectric metasurfaces

Silicon nanostructure colors have rapidly developed in recent years, offering high resolution and a broad color gamut that traditional pigments cannot achieve. The reflected colors of metasurfaces are determined by the geometric structure of the unit cell and the refractive index matching layer parameters. It is evident that the design of specific colors involves numerous parameters, making it challenging to achieve through conventional calculations. Therefore, the tandem network instead of conventional electromagnetic simulation is natural. The forward part of the network incorporates feature cross terms to improve accuracy, enabling high-precision predictions of structural colors based on structural parameters. The average color difference between the predicted and actual color values in the L,a,b color space is 1.38. The network has been proven to accurately predict the refractive index and height of the refractive index matching layer during the dynamic tuning process. Additionally, the issue of the inverse network converging to incorrect solutions was addressed by leveraging the characteristics of the activation function. The results show that the color difference between the colors designed by the inverse network compared to the actual colors in the L,a,b color spaces is only 2.22, which meets the requirements for commercial applications.

Terahertz Pulse Generation with Binary Phase Control in Nonlinear InAs Metasurface

The effect of terahertz (THz) pulse generation has revolutionized broadband coherent spectroscopy and imaging at THz frequencies. However, THz pulses typically lack spatial structure, whereas structured beams are becoming essential for advanced spectroscopy applications. Nonlinear optical metasurfaces with nanoscale THz emitters can provide a solution by defining the beam structure at the generation stage. We develop a nonlinear InAs metasurface consisting of nanoscale optical resonators for simultaneous generation and structuring of THz beams. We find that THz pulse generation in the resonators is governed by optical rectification. It is more efficient than in ZnTe crystals, and it allows us to control the pulse polarity and amplitude, offering a platform for realizing binary-phase THz metasurfaces. To illustrate this capability, we demonstrate an InAs metalens, which simultaneously generates and focuses THz pulses. The control of spatiotemporal structure using nanoscale emitters opens doors for THz beam engineering and advanced spectroscopy and imaging applications.

Nonlinear and ultrafast all-dielectric metasurfaces at the center for integrated nanotechnologies

Metasurfaces control optical wavefronts via arrays of nanoscale resonators laid out across a surface. When combined with III-V semiconductors with strong optical nonlinearities, a variety of nonlinear effects such as harmonic generation and all-optical modulation can be enabled and enhanced at the nanoscale. This review presents our research on engineering and boosting nonlinear effects in ultrafast and nonlinear semiconductor metasurfaces fabricated at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. We cover our recent works on parametric generation of harmonic light via direct and cascaded processes in GaAs-metasurfaces using Mie-like optical resonances or symmetric-protected bound state in the continuum, and then describe the recent advances on harmonic generation in all-dielectric metasurfaces coupled to intersubband transitions in III-V semiconductor heterostructures. The review concludes on the potential of metasurfaces to serve as the next platform for on-chip quantum light generation.