274 research outputs found
Enhanced optical Kerr effect method for a detailed characterization of the third order nonlinearity of 2D materials applied to graphene
Using an enhanced optically heterodyned optical Kerr effect method and a
theoretical description of the interactions between an optical beam, a single
layer of graphene, and its substrate, we provide experimental answers to
questions raised by theoretical models of graphene third-order nonlinear
optical response. In particular, we measure separately the time response of the
two main tensor components of the nonlinear susceptibility, we validate the
assumption that the out-of plane tensor components are small, and we quantify
the optical impact of the substrate on the measured coefficients. Our method
can be applied to other 2D materials, as it relies mainly on the small ratio
between the thickness and the wavelength.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Large nonlinear Kerr effect in graphene
Under strong laser illumination, few-layer graphene exhibits both a
transmittance increase due to saturable absorption and a nonlinear phase shift.
Here, we unambiguously distinguish these two nonlinear optical effects and
identify both real and imaginary parts of the complex nonlinear refractive
index of graphene. We show that graphene possesses a giant nonlinear refractive
index n2=10-7cm2W-1, almost nine orders of magnitude larger than bulk
dielectrics. We find that the nonlinear refractive index decreases with
increasing excitation flux but slower than the absorption. This suggests that
graphene may be a very promising nonlinear medium, paving the way for
graphene-based nonlinear photonics.Comment: Optics Letters received 12/02/2011; accepted 03/12/2012; posted
03/21/2012,Doc. ID 15912
Optical modelling of 2D materials and multilayer systems: a complete picture
Bidimensional materials are, as their name suggests, ideally viewed as having
no thickness. The advent of multilayer stacks of 2D materials and combinations
of different materials in vertical van der Waals heterostructures highlights
however that these materials have a finite thickness. In this article, we show
how volume properties of stacked 2D layers can be calculated from boundary
conditions and conversely. We introduce the layer, surrounded by vacuum, as a
kind of transfer matrix with intrinsic parameters. This provides a link between
continuous and discrete media, and a connection with the interface reflection
and transmission coefficients calculated from microscopic models. We show how
to model hybrid systems and identify in the zero-thickness limit the intrinsic
parameters of the current sheet that represents the 2D material, namely the
in-plane surface susceptibility and the out-of-plane parameter
that corresponds to a displacement susceptibility. By considering
anisotropic layers under the assumption that TE and TM modes are not coupled,
we provide a unified vision of the different models used in optical
characterization of 2D materials, including ellipsometry. We build on this to
model 3D structures layer per layer and identify their effective permittivity
and propagation constants. We show that our model fits existing ellipsometric
data with the same reliability as the existing interface models, but with the
advantage that multilayer and monolayer systems are described in a same way
Dispersive wave emission and supercontinuum generation in a silicon wire waveguide pumped around the 1550 nm telecommunication wavelength
We experimentally and numerically study dispersive wave emission, soliton
fission and supercontinuum generation in a silicon wire at telecommunication
wavelengths. Through dispersion engineering, we experimentally confirm a
previously reported numerical study [1] and show that the emission of resonant
radiation from the solitons can lead to the generation of a supercontinuum
spanning over 500 nm. An excellent agreement with numerical simulations is
observed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Anisotropy and effective medium approach in the optical response of 2D material heterostructures
2D materials offer a large variety of optical properties, from transparency
to plasmonic excitation. They can be structured and combined to form
heterostructures that expand the realm of possibility to manipulate light
interactions at the nanoscale. Appropriate and numerically efficient models
accounting for the high intrinsic anisotropy of 2D materials and
heterostructures are needed. In this article, we retrieve the relevant
intrinsic parameters that describe the optical response of a homogeneous 2D
material from a microscopic approach. Well-known effective models for vertical
heterostructure (stacking of different layers) are retrieved. We found that the
effective optical response model of horizontal heterostructures (alternating
nano-ribbons) depends of the thickness. In the thin layer model, well adapted
for 2D materials, a counter-intuitive in-plane isotropic behavior is predicted.
We confront the effective model formulation with exact reference calculations
such as ab-initio calculations for graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), as
well as corrugated graphene with larger thickness but also with classical
electrodynamics calculations that exactly account for the lateral
structuration
New materials for nonlinear optical applications : the nonlinear refractive index of colloidal PbSe quantum dots
We present a detailed study of the nonlinear optical properties of colloidal PbSe quantum dot (Q-PbSe) suspensions and thin films. The nonlinear refractive index n2 has been measured with the Z-scan technique as a function of wavelength (1.20 -- 1.75 textmum), optical intensity and nanocrystal volume fraction. The n2-spectra show negative resonances near the Q-PbSe optical transitions. We attributed the high n2 to biexciton creation within the Q-PbSe. The n2 of a close-packed thin Q-PbSe film is 6 orders of magnitude larger than values for bulk Si of GaAs at telecom wavelengths, suggesting that Q-PbSe might be a promising material for all optical signal processing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Anisotropy and effective medium approach in the optical response of two-dimensional material heterostructures
Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer a large variety of optical properties, from transparency to plasmonic excitation. They can be structured and combined to form heterostructures that expand the realm of possibility to manipulate light interactions at the nanoscale. Appropriate and numerically efficient models accounting for the high intrinsic anisotropy of 2D materials and heterostructures are needed. In this article, we retrieve the relevant intrinsic parameters that describe the optical response of a homogeneous 2D material from a microscopic approach. Well-known effective models for vertical heterostructure (stacking of different layers) are retrieved. We found that the effective optical response model of horizontal heterostructures (alternating nanoribbons) depends on the thickness. In the thin layer model, well adapted for 2D materials, a counterintuitive in-plane isotropic behavior is predicted. We confront the effective model formulation with exact reference calculations such as ab initio calculations for graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), as well as corrugated graphene with larger thickness but also with classical electrodynamics calculations that exactly account for the lateral structuration.</p
Impact of nonlocal interactions in dissipative systems: towards minimal-sized localized structures
In order to investigate the size limit on spatial localized structures in a
nonlinear system, we explore the impact of linear nonlocality on their domains
of existence and stability. Our system of choice is an optical microresonator
containing an additional metamaterial layer in the cavity, allowing the
nonlocal response of the material to become the dominating spatial process. In
that case, our bifurcation analysis shows that this nonlocality imposes a new
limit on the width of localized structures going beyond the traditional
diffraction limit.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Nematicon-driven injection of amplified spontaneous emission into an optical fiber
We investigate experimentally the interaction between amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and a soliton, which are both generated in a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (LC) cell. A light beam is injected through an optical fiber slid into the cell to form a soliton beam. ASE is then automatically collected by this self-induced waveguide and efficiently coupled into the same optical fiber, in the backward direction. We demonstrate that the presence of the soliton improves the ASE collection by one order of magnitude. We also show that the ASE is highly polarized in the plane of the LC cell and that the ASE spectrum depends on the pump stripe orientation with respect to the LC director. The origin of the spectral anisotropy of the gain curves is determined with the help of femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Electrodynamic models of 2D materials: can we match thin film and single sheet approaches?
The electromagnetic properties of 2D materials are modeled either as single
sheets with a surface susceptibility or conductivity, or as thin films of
finite thickness with an effective permittivity. Their intrinsic anisotropy,
however, has to be fully described to reliably predict the optical response of
systems based on 2D materials or to unambiguously interpret experimental data.
In the present work, we compare the two approaches within the transfer matrix
formalism and provide analytical relations between them. We strongly emphasize
the consequences of the anisotropy. In particular, we demonstrate the crucial
role of the choice of the thin film's effective thickness compared with the
parameters of the single sheet approach and therefore the computed properties
of the 2D material under study. Indeed, if the isotropic thin film model with
very low thickness is similar to an anisotropic single sheet with no
out-of-plane response, with larger thickness it matches with a single sheet
with isotropic susceptibility, in the reasonable small phase condition. We
illustrate our conclusions on extensively studied experimental quantities such
as transmittance, ellipsometry and optical contrast, and we discuss
similarities and discrepancies reported in the literature when using single
sheet or thin film models
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