Optical field enhancement in nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials

Nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials are proposed and demonstrated for achieving large optical field enhancement. The dependence of the enhanced electric field within the air slot on waveguide mode coupling and permittivity tensors of hyperbolic metamaterials is analyzed both numerically and analytically. Optical intensity in the metamaterial slot waveguide can be more than 25 times stronger than that in a conventional silicon slot waveguide, due to tight optical mode confinement enabled by the ultrahigh refractive indices supported in hyperbolic metamaterials. The electric field enhancement effects are also verified with the realistic metal-dielectric multilayer waveguide structure.     

Exotic properties and potential applications of quantum metamaterials

We discuss here potential venues for applications and exotic features of quantum metamaterials. We explore the coupling of conventional electromagnetic metamaterials with quantum emitters and the wave properties of quantum metamaterials obtained by tailoring their effective band structure. We discuss anomalous enhancement effects in the quantum emission properties of individual and collections of small emitters in the presence of metamaterials, as well as matter-wave cloaking and anomalous tunneling phenomena for quantum mechanical waves in artificial materials with exotic band structures.     

Advancements in high refractive index media:from quantum coherence in atomic systems to deep sub-wavelength coupling in metamaterials [Invited]

Refractive index enhancement is crucial in the fields of lithography, imaging, optical communications, solar devices, and many more. We present a review of advancements in the process of designing high refractive index metamaterials, starting from quantum coupling and photonic bandgap materials to metamaterials utilizing deep subwavelength coupling to achieve ever-high values of refractive index. A particular attention is given to experimentally verified schemes in engineering a high index of refraction. The understanding of the evolution of material design from intrinsic electronic states manipulation to meta-atoms design is not only fascinating but also a prerequisite to developing successful devices and applications.     

渔网电磁超介质左手通带的超常透射及其电场增强效应的数值研究

本文利用电磁场数值模拟方法研究了分布矩形孔阵列的"金属-电介质-金属"三明治渔网电磁超介质在其左手通带发生的超常透射现象和不同模式激发下的电场增强效应。结果证实左手通带紧邻的超常光学传输峰源于波导共振模式,利用超常传输效应可以有效降低电磁超介质的损耗,提高左手性能;波导共振模和左手通带对应的反对称磁模能够分别在孔洞和金属夹层区域激发超过11倍的增强电场,因此渔网电磁超介质结构在表面增强光谱和传感等方面也具有潜在应用价值。     

Electromagnetic enhancement in lossy optical transition metamaterials

We investigate the effect of anomalous field enhancement in metamaterials (MMs) where the effective refractive index gradually changes from positive to negative values, i.e., transition MMs. We demonstrate that considerable field enhancement can be achieved in lossy optical transition MMs that have electromagnetic material properties obtained from experimental data. The field enhancement factor is found to be polarization dependent and largely determined by the material parameters and the width of the transition layer.     

Interplay between out-of-plane magnetic plasmon and lattice resonance for modified resonance lineshape and near-field enhancement in double nanoparticles array

Two-dimensional double nanoparticle （DNP） arrays are demonstrated theoretically, supporting the interaction between out-of-plane magnetic plasmons and in-plane lattice resonances, which can be achieved by tuning the nanoparticle height or the array period due to the height-dependent magnetic resonance and the periodicity-dependent lattice resonance. The interplay between the two plasmon modes can lead to a remarkable change in resonance lineshape and an improvement on magnetic field enhancement. Simultaneous electric field and magnetic field enhancement can be obtained in the gap region between neighboring particles at two resonance frequencies as the interplay occurs, which presents “open” cavities as electromagnetic field hot spots for potential applications on detection and sensing. The results not only offer an attractive way to tune the optical responses of plasmonic nanostructure, but also provide further insight into the plasmon interactions in periodic nanostructure or metamaterials comprising multiple elements.     

Transition metamaterials with spatially separated zeros

We report analytical and numerical studies of the effect of the separation distance between zeros of dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability on the phenomena of resonant absorption and anomalous field enhancement in transition metamaterials. Our studies indicate that these phenomena are robust and strongly polarization-dependent in the presence of the spatial shift between these points. These results are likely to be important for future fundamental and applied studies in the areas of transformation, polarization, and nonlinear optics in metamaterials.     

Double topological edge states investigation in sonic metamaterials

We investigate the topologically protected sound propagation in sonic metamaterials, analogous to quantum spin hall effect (QSHE). The sonic metamaterials consist of circular rods and meta-molecules arranged in air with a honeycomb-lattice. The on-demand inversion in topological phase can be achieved by two ways of scatterer controls at locally resonant frequency and Bragg frequency. The Helmholtz resonators in the structure are contributed to the formation of subwavelength double Dirac cones which are more likely to appear due to local resonance enhancement with more number of resonators. By combining two sonic metamaterials with different topological invariants, we demonstrate the robust sound propagation and pseudospin-dependent one-way acoustic propagation at the interface. Experimental measurement of the topologically protected acoustic wave transmission matches well with the simulation result.     

Optical Möbius symmetry in metamaterials

We experimentally observed a new topological symmetry in optical composites, namely, metamaterials. While it is not found yet in nature materials, the electromagnetic M?bius symmetry discovered in metamaterials is equivalent to the structural symmetry of a M?bius strip, with the number of twists controlled by the sign change of the electromagnetic coupling between the meta-atoms. We further demonstrate that metamaterials with different coupling signs exhibit resonance frequencies that depend only on the number but not the locations of the "twists," thus confirming its topological nature. The new topological symmetry found in metamaterials may enable unique functionalities in optical materials.     

Classical analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency with a metal-superconductor hybrid metamaterial

Metamaterials are engineered materials composed of small electrical circuits producing novel interactions with electromagnetic waves. Recently, a new class of metamaterials has been created to mimic the behavior of media displaying electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Here we introduce a planar EIT metamaterial that creates a very large loss contrast between the dark and radiative resonators by employing a superconducting Nb film in the dark element and a normal-metal Au film in the radiative element. Below the critical temperature of Nb, the resistance contrast opens up a transparency window along with a large enhancement in group delay, enabling a significant slowdown of waves. We further demonstrate precise control of the EIT response through changes in the superfluid density. Such tunable metamaterials may be useful for telecommunication because of their large delay-bandwidth products.     

Plasmonic rod dimers as elementary planar chiral meta-atoms

We theoretically calculate the electromagnetic response of metallic rod dimers for the arbitrary planar arrangement of rods in the dimer. It is shown that dimers without an in-plane symmetry axis exhibit elliptical dichroism and act as "atoms" in planar chiral metamaterials. Because of a very simple geometry of the rod dimer, such planar metamaterials are much easier to fabricate than conventional split-ring or gammadion-type structures and lend themselves to a simple analytical treatment based on a coupled dipole model. Dependencies of the metamaterial's directional asymmetry on the dimer's geometry are established analytically and confirmed in numerical simulations.     

Multifold enhancement of quantum dot luminescence in plasmonic metamaterials

We report that hybridizing semiconductor quantum dots with plasmonic metamaterial leads to a multifold intensity increase and narrowing of their photoluminescence spectrum. The luminescence enhancement is a clear manifestation of the cavity quantum electrodynamics Purcell effect and can be controlled by the metamaterial's design. This observation is an essential step towards understanding loss compensation in plasmonic metamaterials with gain media and for developing metamaterial-enhanced gain media.     

The field of a point source near planar and cylindrical boundaries of a metamaterial

The properties of the two-dimensional electromagnetic fields excited by a filamentary source located near planar and cylindrical boundaries of bodies made of metamaterials with their permittivity and permeability close to minus one are considered. The subwavelength field localization effects, the phenomena associated with the resonances of surface waves, and the nonresonant field enhancement effects are investigated.     

Phase Effects of the Parametric Interaction in Metamaterials

We study the phase effects of the three-wave parametric interaction in metamaterials considering the negative refraction at the frequency of a signal wave. We analyze the efficiency of energy conversions between two direct waves with respect to the energy of the backward signal wave along with the dynamics of the signal-wave amplification in metamaterials. We show that there exist optimum values of the fundamental-wave intensity and the phase mismatch at which the efficiency of conversion is maximum. We obtain an analytic expression for the optimum value of the relative length of the metamaterial and present a numerical evaluation of the expected value for efficiency of the frequency parametric conversion in dielectric waveguides. A sufficient enhancement in the signal-wave amplification, which is possible at optimum values of the pump intensity and the metamaterial total length, leads to the parametric generation of the signal wave. Changing the frequency and power of the pump wave, one can realize a regular tuning of the frequencies of parametric converters.     

Emergence of seismic metamaterials: Current state and future perspectives

Following the advent of electromagnetic metamaterials, researchers working in wave physics have translated concepts of engineered media to acoustics, elastodynamics and diffusion processes. In elastodynamics, seismic metamaterials have emerged in the last decade for soft soils structured at the meter scale, and have been tested with full-scale experiments on holey soils. Born in the soil, seismic metamaterials have emerged from the field of tuned-resonators buried in the soil, around building's foundations or near the soil-structure interface as local seismic isolators. Forests of trees have been interpreted as above-surface resonators, and coined natural seismic metamaterials. We first review some advances made in seismic metamaterials and dress an inventory of which material parameters can be achieved and which cannot, from the effective medium theory perspective. We envision future developments of large scale auxetic metamaterials for building's foundations, above surface resonators for seismic protection and metamaterial-like transformed urbanism at the city scale.     

非线性左手材料中的二次谐波

基于电磁场理论，推导了无耗非线性左手材料中二次谐波的曼利－诺关系，及相位匹配条件下正向基波与逆向二次谐波的能量转换过程及其空间分布.验证了可将无耗非线性左手材料的入射面作为反射镜，把能量以二次谐波的形式反射.同时分别给出有限厚度介质板中基波和二次谐波的场强分布数值结果，验证了结论的正确性.最后从相位失配角度说明了相位匹配是分析非线性左手材料二次谐波的重要条件.这为研究左手材料的非线性理论奠定了基础.     

平面金属等离激元美特材料对光学Tamm态及相关激射行为的增强作用

本文对具有类EIR色散特性的平面金属等离激元美特材料(planar plasmonic metamaterials, PPM)对光学Tamm态及相关激射行为的增强作用进行了研究. 我们首先运用传输矩阵方法分析了利用PPM结构的色散来增强光学Tamm态对应模式电磁局域密度的可能性. 其次, 我们将具有类EIR特性的PPM与一维光子晶体(photonic crystal, PC)合在一起设计了一种平面等离激元美特材料-光子晶体(PPM-PC)异质结构. 研究发现, 通过在电磁局域密度最高的PPM结构中(或附近)加入增益介质, 可观察到比通常光学Tamm态更强的激射增强效应及更明显的单色性响应. 这些特性使得这种PPM-PC结构有望被应用于低阈值激光器、荧光增强等方面.     

Les matériaux magnétiques hyperfréquences à l'ère des métamatériaux

This article investigates the advances brought by metamaterials in order to obtain attractive magnetic microwave properties. Can magnetic metamaterials outperform conventional soft magnetic materials? In the case where permeability levels and bandwidth are the key figures of merit, it is acknowledged that copper-based metamaterials can exceed the performance of soft magnetic materials, but only at operating frequencies above 10 GHz. As for low frequency operation, magnetic metamaterials may also be preferred to conventional magnetic materials when requirements include excellent temperature stability or immunity to external magnetic fields. However, in many cases, metamaterials need to include certain conventional magnetic constituents in order to compete with conventional magnetic materials. Several types of metamaterials containing conventional magnetic inclusions and well suited for industrial production are presented. Last but not least, it is underlined that the investigations on metamaterials are beneficial to scientific exchanges between scientists from different areas. To cite this article: O. Acher, C. R. Physique 10 (2009).     

Controlling light with plasmonic multilayers

Recent years have seen a new wave of interest in layered media – namely, plasmonic multilayers – in several emerging applications ranging from transparent metals to hyperbolic metamaterials. In this paper, we review the optical properties of such subwavelength metal–dielectric multilayered metamaterials and describe their use for light manipulation at the nanoscale. While demonstrating the recently emphasized hallmark effect of hyperbolic dispersion, we put special emphasis to the comparison between multilayered hyperbolic metamaterials and more broadly defined plasmonic-multilayer metamaterials A number of fundamental electromagnetic effects unique to the latter are identified and demonstrated. Examples include the evolution of isofrequency contour shape from elliptical to hyperbolic, all-angle negative refraction, and nonlocality-induced optical birefringence. Analysis of the underlying physical causes, which are spatial dispersion and optical nonlocality, is also reviewed. These recent results are extremely promising for a number of applications ranging from nanolithography to optical cloaking.