Fluorinated and Non-Fluorinated Electro-Optic Copolymers: Determination of the Time and Temperature Stability of the Induced Electro-Optic Coefficient

Organic fluorinated materials demonstrate their excellent electro-optic properties and versatility for technological applications. The partial substitution of hydrogen with fluorine in carbon-halides bounds allows the reduction of absorption losses at the telecommunication wavelengths. In these interesting compounds, the electro-optic coefficient was typically induced by a poling procedure. The magnitude and the time stability of the coefficient is an important issue to be investigated in order to compare copolymer species. Here, a review of different measurement techniques (such as nonlinear ellipsometry, second harmonic generation, temperature scanning and isothermal relaxation) was shown and applied to a variety of fluorinated and non-fluorinated electro-optic compounds

Addressable refraction and curved soliton waveguides using electric interfaces

A great deal of interest over the years has been directed to the optical space solitons for the possibility of realizing 3D waveguides with very low propagation losses. A great limitation in their use for writing complex circuits is represented by the impossibility of making curved structures. In the past, solitons in nematic liquid crystals, called nematicons, were reflected on electrical interfaces, and recently on photorefractive spatial solitons as well. In the present work we investigate refraction and total reflection of spatial solitons with saturable electro-optic nonlinearity, such as the photorefractive ones, on an electric wall acting as a reflector. Using a custom FDTD code, the propagation of a self-confined beam was analyzed as a function of the applied electric bias. The electrical reflector has been simulated by applying different biases in two adjacent volumes. We have observed both smaller and larger angles of refraction, up to the critical π/2-refraction condition and then total reflection. The radii of curvature of the associated guides can be varied from centimeters down to hundreds of microns. The straight guides showed losses down to 0.07 dB/cm as previously observed, while the losses associated with single curves were estimated down to 0.2 dB

Chiral near-field manipulation in Au-GaAs hybrid hexagonal nanowires

We demonstrate the control of enhanced chiral field distribution at the surface of hybrid metallo-dielectric nanostructures composed of self-assembled vertical hexagonal GaAs-based nanowires having three of the six sidewalls covered with Au. We show that weakly-guided modes of vertical GaAs nanowires can generate regions of high optical chirality that are further enhanced by the break of the symmetry introduced by the gold layer. Changing the angle of incidence of a linearly polarized plane wave it is possible to tailor and optimize the maps of the optical chirality in proximity of the gold plated walls. The low cost feasibility of the sample combined to the simple control by using linearly polarized light and the easy positioning of chiral molecules by functionalization of the gold plates make our proposed scheme very promising for enhanced enantioselective spectroscopy applications

Self-Phase-Matched Second-Harmonic and White-Light Generation in a Biaxial Zinc Tungstate Single Crystal

Second-order nonlinear optical materials are used to generate new frequencies by exploiting second-harmonic generation (SHG), a phenomenon where a nonlinear material generates light at double the optical frequency of the input beam. Maximum SHG is achieved when the pump and the generated waves are in phase, for example through birefringence in uniaxial crystals. However, applying these materials usually requires a complicated cutting procedure to yield a crystal with a particular orientation. Here we demonstrate the first example of phase matching under the normal incidence of SHG in a biaxial monoclinic single crystal of zinc tungstate. The crystal was grown by the micro-pulling-down method with the (102) plane perpendicular to the growth direction. Additionally, at the same time white light was generated as a result of stimulated Raman scattering and multiphoton luminescence induced by higher-order effects such as three-photon luminescence enhanced by cascaded third-harmonic generation. The annealed crystal offers SHG intensities approximately four times larger than the as grown one; optimized growth and annealing conditions may lead to much higher SHG intensities

Midinfrared thermal emission properties of finite arrays of gold dipole nanoantennas

We studied the far-field thermal emission properties of finite arrays of resonant gold dipole nanoantennas at equilibrium temperature. We numerically investigated the transition from the super-Planckian emission of the single resonant antenna to the sub-Planckian emission inherent to infinite periodic arrays. Increasing the number of unit cells of the array, the overall size of the system increases, and the relative emissivity quickly converges to values lower than the unity. Nevertheless, if the separation between nanoantennas in the array is small compared to the wavelength, the near-field interaction makes the emission of each unit cell multipolar. This opens the doors for additional tailoring of the emitted power and directionality of thermal radiation

Chiral light intrinsically couples to extrinsic/pseudo-chiral metasurfaces made of tilted gold nanowires

xtrinsic or pseudo-chiral (meta)surfaces have an achiral structure, yet they can give rise to circular dichroism when the experiment itself becomes chiral. Although these surfaces are known to yield differences in reflected and transmitted circularly polarized light, the exact mechanism of the interaction has never been directly demonstrated. Here we present a comprehensive linear and nonlinear optical investigation of a metasurface composed of tilted gold nanowires. In the linear regime, we directly demonstrate the selective absorption of circularly polarised light depending on the orientation of the metasurface. In the nonlinear regime, we demonstrate for the first time how second harmonic generation circular dichroism in such extrinsic/pseudo-chiral materials can be understood in terms of effective nonlinear susceptibility tensor elements that switch sign depending on the orientation of the metasurface. By providing fundamental understanding of the chiroptical interactions in achiral metasurfaces, our work opens up new perspectives for the optimisation of their properties

School of Photonics 2016: “Plasmonics and nano-optics”

The aim of the Cortona School of Plasmonics and Nano-Optics is to bring together early-career scientists in the field of photonics, interested in the study of light at the nanoscale to present and discuss the latest research and future directions of the field in an open atmosphere, and help developing the community of plasmonics and nano-optics. Scientific topics will include, near-field bio-sensing, extreme field enhancement, wave-shaping by metasurfaces, nanoscale quantum-optics, single-emitter spectroscopy, and magneto plasmonics. This programme will be complemented by hands-on tutorials on emerging experimental techniques and theoretical methods

Evaluation of the negative refractive index by beam deviation measurements

Here we present an easy experimental method that allows the characterization of the negative refractive index of a isotropic metamaterial in the visible spectral region. The method is based on the measurement of the deviation of a light beam passing through the metamaterial as a function of the incident angle. The theoretical expression was derived in the case of negative refraction. It was shown that such a method can be used also in the realistic case of a thin metamaterial deposited on a thick substrate