Control of ultrafast hot electron dynamics in epsilon-near-zero conductive oxide thin films.

The dynamics of nonlinear optical processes in epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are primarily governed by hot electron relaxation with a sub-picosecond response. However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive understanding of the ultrafast electron dynamics in nonlinear TCO ENZ materials. This study investigates the effects of laser peak power and ENZ mode excitation on hot electron relaxation in TCOs.

Hollow core optical fiber enabled by epsilon-near-zero material.

Hollow core optical fibers of numerous guiding mechanisms have been studied in the past decades for their advantages on guiding light in air core. This work demonstrates a new hollow core optical fiber based on a different guiding mechanism, which confines light with a cladding made of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material through total internal reflection. We show that the addition of a layer of ENZ material coating (e.

Field enhancement of epsilon-near-zero modes in realistic ultrathin absorbing films.

Using electrodynamical description of the average power absorbed by a conducting film, we present an expression for the electric-field intensity enhancement (FIE) due to epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) polariton modes. We show that FIE reaches a limit in ultrathin ENZ films inverse of second power of ENZ losses. This is illustrated in an exemplary series of aluminum-doped zinc oxide nanolayers grown by atomic layer deposition.

Enhanced Spontaneous Emission of Monolayer MoS on Epitaxially Grown Titanium Nitride Epsilon-Near-Zero Thin Films.

Room-temperature photoluminescence enhancement of molybdenum disulfide (MoS) monolayers on epitaxial titanium nitride (TiN) thin films grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy as well as magnetron-sputtered TiN films is observed by a confocal laser scanning microscope with excitation wavelengths covering the transition of TiN's macroscopic optical properties from dielectric to plasmonic. The photoluminescence enhancement increases as TiN becomes more metallic, and strong enhancement is obtained at the excitation wavelengths equal to or longer than the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) wavelength of TiN films. A good agreement is observed between measured and calculated enhancements.

Gate-tunable optical filter based on conducting oxide metasurface heterostructure.

A gate-tunable plasmonic optical filter incorporating a subwavelength patterned metal-insulator-metal metasurface heterostructure is proposed. An additional thin transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layer is embedded in the insulator layer to form a double metal-oxide-semiconductor configuration. Heavily n-doped indium tin oxide (ITO) is employed as the TCO material, whose optical property can be electrically tuned by the formation of a thin active epsilon-near-zero layer at the ITO-oxide interfaces.

Gate-Tunable Plasmon-Induced Transparency Modulator Based on Stub-Resonator Waveguide with Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials.

We demonstrate an electrically tunable ultracompact plasmonic modulator with large modulation strength (>10 dB) and a small footprint (~1 μm in length) via plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) configuration. The modulator based on a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) slot waveguide structure consists of two stubs embedded on the same side of a bus waveguide forming a coupled system. Heavily n-doped indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the semiconductor in the MOS waveguide.

Bloch surface wave enhanced biosensor for the direct detection of Angiopoietin-2 tumor biomarker in human plasma.

Quantitative detection of angiogenic biomarkers provides a powerful tool to diagnose cancers in early stages and to follow its progression during therapy. Conventional tests require trained personnel, dedicated laboratory equipment and are generally time-consuming. Herein, we propose our developed biosensing platform as a useful tool for a rapid determination of Angiopoietin-2 biomarker directly from patient plasma within 30 minutes, without any sample preparation or dilution.

Excitation of epsilon-near-zero resonance in ultra-thin indium tin oxide shell embedded nanostructured optical fiber.

We report a novel optical waveguide design of a hollow step index fiber modified with a thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO). We show an excitation of highly confined waveguide mode in the proposed fiber near the wavelength where permittivity of ITO approaches zero. Due to the high field confinement within thin ITO shell inside the fiber, the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) mode can be characterized by a peak in modal loss of the hybrid waveguide.

Effect of thickness disorder on the performance of photonic crystal surface wave sensors.

We investigated experimentally and numerically the robustness of optical sensors based on Bloch waves at the surface of periodic one-dimensional photonic crystals. The distributions of sensor characteristics caused by the fabrication uncertainties in dielectric layer thicknesses have been analyzed and robustness criteria have been set forth and discussed. We show that the performance of the surface wave sensors is sufficiently robust with respect to the changes of the photonic crystal layer thicknesses.

Angularly resolved ellipsometric optical biosensing by means of Bloch surface waves.

In label-free biosensing, a continuous improvement of the limit of detection is necessary to resolve the small change of the surface refractive index produced by interacting biomolecules at a very small concentration. In the present work, optical sensors based on one-dimensional photonic crystals supporting Bloch surface waves are proposed and adopted for label-free optical biosensing. We describe the implementation of an angularly resolved ellipsometric optical sensing scheme based on Bloch surface waves sustained by tantala/silica multilayers.

Optimization of angularly resolved Bloch surface wave biosensors.

Bloch surface wave (BSW) sensors to be used in biochemical analytics are discussed in angularly resolved detection mode and are compared to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors. BSW supported at the surface of a dielectric thin film stack feature many degrees of design freedom that enable tuning of resonance properties. In order to obtain a figure of merit for such optimization, the measurement uncertainty depending on resonance width and depth is deduced from different numerical models.

Combining label-free and fluorescence operation of Bloch surface wave optical sensors.

We report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of optical sensors based on Bloch surface waves propagating at the truncation edge of one-dimensional photonic crystals. The sensors can be simultaneously operated in both a label-free mode, where small refractive index changes at the surface are detected, and a fluorescence mode, where the fluorescence from a novel heptamethyne dye label in the proximity of the surface is collected. The two modes operate in the near-infrared spectral range with the same configuration of the optical reading apparatus.

A full ellipsometric approach to optical sensing with Bloch surface waves on photonic crystals.

We report on the investigation on the resolution of optical sensors exploiting Bloch surface waves sustained by one dimensional photonic crystals. A figure of merit is introduced to quantitatively assess the performance of such sensors and its dependency on the geometry and materials of the photonic crystal. We show that the figure of merit and the resolution can be improved by adopting a full ellipsometric phase-sensitive approach.