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Coherent control of the intensity and polarization of light interacting with plasmonic metasurfaces: 100 THz bandwidth quantum level all-optical data processing and novel spectroscopic applications

Coherent control of the intensity and polarization of light interacting with plasmonic metasurfaces: 100 THz bandwidth quantum level all-optical data processing and novel spectroscopic applications
Coherent control of the intensity and polarization of light interacting with plasmonic metasurfaces: 100 THz bandwidth quantum level all-optical data processing and novel spectroscopic applications
According to the fundamental Huygens superposition principle, light beams traveling in a linear medium will pass though one another without mutual disturbance. Indeed, the field of photonics is based on the premise that controlling light signals with light requires intense laser fields to facilitate beam interactions in nonlinear media, where the superposition principle can be broken.

Here we challenge this wisdom and demonstrate that two coherent beams of light of arbitrarily low intensity can interact on a metamaterial layer of nanoscale thickness in such a way that one beam modulates the other.

On the basis of this approach we demonstrate that polarization effects due to absorption, anisotropy and chirality affecting an electromagnetic wave propagating through a thin slab of material can be controlled by another wave, and illustrate spectroscopic applications of these phenomena.

We also show that that the coherently controlled redistribution of energy in plasmonic metamaterials can deliver various forms of optical switching and demonstrate small-signal amplifier, summator and invertor functions. We show that these devices can operate down to single photon level and deliver a modulation bandwidth up to 100 THz.
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
MacDonald, K.F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Fang, X.
96b4b212-496b-4d68-82a4-06df70f94a86
Plum, E.
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Tsai, D.P.
ac188460-c076-41ee-bce4-7aa873f757e3
Faccio, D.
439c72fc-1a71-41c2-bc41-f610ab3ddfb5
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
MacDonald, K.F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Fang, X.
96b4b212-496b-4d68-82a4-06df70f94a86
Plum, E.
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Tsai, D.P.
ac188460-c076-41ee-bce4-7aa873f757e3
Faccio, D.
439c72fc-1a71-41c2-bc41-f610ab3ddfb5

Zheludev, N.I., MacDonald, K.F., Fang, X., Plum, E., Tsai, D.P. and Faccio, D. (2015) Coherent control of the intensity and polarization of light interacting with plasmonic metasurfaces: 100 THz bandwidth quantum level all-optical data processing and novel spectroscopic applications. 7th International Conference on Surface Plasmon Photonics (SPP7), Jerusalem, Israel. 30 May - 04 Jun 2015.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Other)

Abstract

According to the fundamental Huygens superposition principle, light beams traveling in a linear medium will pass though one another without mutual disturbance. Indeed, the field of photonics is based on the premise that controlling light signals with light requires intense laser fields to facilitate beam interactions in nonlinear media, where the superposition principle can be broken.

Here we challenge this wisdom and demonstrate that two coherent beams of light of arbitrarily low intensity can interact on a metamaterial layer of nanoscale thickness in such a way that one beam modulates the other.

On the basis of this approach we demonstrate that polarization effects due to absorption, anisotropy and chirality affecting an electromagnetic wave propagating through a thin slab of material can be controlled by another wave, and illustrate spectroscopic applications of these phenomena.

We also show that that the coherently controlled redistribution of energy in plasmonic metamaterials can deliver various forms of optical switching and demonstrate small-signal amplifier, summator and invertor functions. We show that these devices can operate down to single photon level and deliver a modulation bandwidth up to 100 THz.

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More information

Published date: May 2015
Venue - Dates: 7th International Conference on Surface Plasmon Photonics (SPP7), Jerusalem, Israel, 2015-05-30 - 2015-06-04
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 378803
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378803
PURE UUID: 343eb303-0020-4563-9274-466d872f5204
ORCID for N.I. Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636
ORCID for K.F. MacDonald: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3877-2976
ORCID for X. Fang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1735-2654
ORCID for E. Plum: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1552-1840

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Jul 2015 16:02
Last modified: 12 Dec 2021 03:55

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Contributors

Author: N.I. Zheludev ORCID iD
Author: K.F. MacDonald ORCID iD
Author: X. Fang ORCID iD
Author: E. Plum ORCID iD
Author: D.P. Tsai
Author: D. Faccio

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