Publications by authors named "Michael B Sinclair"

Enhancing the efficiency of second-harmonic generation using all-dielectric metasurfaces to date has mostly focused on electromagnetic engineering of optical modes in the meta-atom. Further advances in nonlinear conversion efficiencies can be gained by engineering the material nonlinearities at the nanoscale, however this cannot be achieved using conventional materials. Semiconductor heterostructures that support resonant nonlinearities using quantum engineered intersubband transitions can provide this new degree of freedom.

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Optical metasurfaces were suggested as a route for engineering advanced light sources with tailored emission properties. In particular, they provide a control over the emission directionality, which is essential for single-photon sources and LED applications. Here, we experimentally study light emission from a metasurface composed of III-V semiconductor Mie-resonant nanocylinders with integrated quantum dots (QDs).

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Mie-resonant dielectric metasurfaces are excellent candidates for both fundamental studies related to light-matter interactions and for numerous applications ranging from holography to sensing to nonlinear optics. To date, however, most applications using Mie metasurfaces utilize only weak light-matter interaction. Here, we go beyond the weak coupling regime and demonstrate for the first time strong polaritonic coupling between Mie photonic modes and intersubband (ISB) transitions in semiconductor heterostructures.

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The color of light is a fundamental property of electromagnetic radiation; as such, control of the frequency is a cornerstone of modern optics. Nonlinear materials are typically used to generate new frequencies, however the use of time-variant systems provides an alternative approach. Utilizing a metasurface that supports a high-quality factor resonance, we demonstrate that a rapidly shifting refractive index will induce frequency conversion of light that is confined in the nanoresonator meta-atoms.

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A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible fabrication method for creating three-dimensional (3D) meta-films is presented. In contrast to metasurfaces, meta-films possess structural variation throughout the thickness of the film and can possess a sub-wavelength scale structure in all three dimensions. Here we use this approach to create 2D arrays of cubic silicon nitride unit cells with plasmonic inclusions of elliptical metallic disks in horizontal and vertical orientations with lateral array-dimensions on the order of millimeters.

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We study semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs) at the quantum limit experimentally using spectroscopic ellipsometry as well as theoretically using a new microscopic theory. The theory is a combination of microscopic density matrix approach for the material response and Green's function approach for the propagating electric field. Our approach predicts absorptivity of the full multilayer system and for the first time allows the prediction of in-plane and out-of-plane dielectric functions for every individual layer constructing the SHM as well as effective dielectric functions that can be used to describe a homogenized SHM.

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Light-emitting sources and devices permeate every aspect of our lives and are used in lighting, communications, transportation, computing, and medicine. Advances in multifunctional and "smart lighting" would require revolutionary concepts in the control of emission spectra and directionality. Such control might be possible with new schemes and regimes of light-matter interaction paired with developments in light-emitting materials.

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A frequency mixer is a nonlinear device that combines electromagnetic waves to create waves at new frequencies. Mixers are ubiquitous components in modern radio-frequency technology and microwave signal processing. The development of versatile frequency mixers for optical frequencies remains challenging: such devices generally rely on weak nonlinear optical processes and, thus, must satisfy phase-matching conditions.

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We experimentally demonstrated an actively tunable optical filter that controls the amplitude of reflected long-wave-infrared light in two separate spectral regions concurrently. Our device exploits the dependence of the excitation energy of plasmons in a continuous and unpatterned sheet of graphene on the Fermi-level, which can be controlled via conventional electrostatic gating. The filter enables simultaneous modification of two distinct spectral bands whose positions are dictated by the device geometry and graphene plasmon dispersion.

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This paper investigates three-dimensional cut wire pair (CWP) behavior in vertically oriented meta-atoms. We first analyze CWP metamaterial inclusions using full-wave electromagnetic simulations. The scattering behavior of the vertical CWP differs substantially from that of the planar version of the same structure.

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Article Synopsis
  • Dielectric metasurfaces utilize nanoscale dielectric resonators, allowing for advanced manipulation of electromagnetic fields and unique optical properties.* -
  • The study showcases how adjusting the size of split dielectric resonators (SDRs) enables independent tuning of magnetic and electric dipole resonances, leading to enhanced interaction between them.* -
  • The research achieves a notable outcome known as the Kerker condition, resulting in reduced backward scattering, and demonstrates that a single SDR can function as a highly effective optical nanoantenna for directional emission.*
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All-dielectric metasurfaces made from arrays of high index nanoresonators supporting strong magnetic dipole modes have emerged as a low-loss alternative to plasmonic metasurfaces. Here we use oxygen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as quantum emitters and couple them to silicon metasurfaces to study effects of the magnetic dipole modes of the constituent nanoresonators on the photoluminescence (PL) of individual SWCNTs. We find that when in resonance, the magnetic mode of the silicon nanoresonators can lead to a moderate average PL enhancement of 0.

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Article Synopsis
  • The paper focuses on new thermal sources that can control their emission spectrum and direction, which is crucial for various applications.
  • It examines the thermal emission properties of semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs) that achieve monochromatic and directional emission without needing periodic structures.
  • The findings highlight how the epsilon-near-zero effect in doped quantum wells of SHMs influences thermal emission, and it points out differences in emission properties based on polarization due to the strong anisotropy of hyperbolic metamaterials.
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Nonlinear optical phenomena in nanostructured materials have been challenging our perceptions of nonlinear optical processes that have been explored since the invention of lasers. For example, the ability to control optical field confinement, enhancement, and scattering almost independently allows nonlinear frequency conversion efficiencies to be enhanced by many orders of magnitude compared to bulk materials. Also, the subwavelength length scale renders phase matching issues irrelevant.

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Coherent superposition of light from subwavelength sources is an attractive prospect for the manipulation of the direction, shape and polarization of optical beams. This phenomenon constitutes the basis of phased arrays, commonly used at microwave and radio frequencies. Here we propose a new concept for phased-array sources at infrared frequencies based on metamaterial nanocavities coupled to a highly nonlinear semiconductor heterostructure.

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In this paper we describe a methodology for tailoring the design of metamaterial dielectric resonators, which represent a promising path toward low-loss metamaterials at optical frequencies. We first describe a procedure to decompose the far field scattered by subwavelength resonators in terms of multipolar field components, providing explicit expressions for the multipolar far fields. We apply this formulation to confirm that an isolated high-permittivity dielectric cube resonator possesses frequency separated electric and magnetic dipole resonances, as well as a magnetic quadrupole resonance in close proximity to the electric dipole resonance.

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Metallic nanocavities with deep subwavelength mode volumes can lead to dramatic changes in the behavior of emitters placed in their vicinity. This collocation and interaction often leads to strong coupling. Here, we present for the first time experimental evidence that the Rabi splitting is directly proportional to the electrostatic capacitance associated with the metallic nanocavity.

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We demonstrate experimentally signatures and dispersion control of surface plasmon polaritons from 1 to 1.8 µm using periodic multilayer metallo-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterials. The fabricated structures are comprised of smooth films with very low metal filling factor.

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Frequency-selective surfaces (FSS) are a class of metasurfaces with engineered reflectance, absorbance, and transmittance behavior. We study an array of metallic crossed dipole FSS elements in the infrared using interferometric scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM). We resolve the dependence of the near-field phase on the dimensions of the elements and compare with numerical models.

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We demonstrate, for the first time, an all-dielectric metamaterial composite in the midinfrared based on micron-sized, high-index tellurium dielectric resonators. Dielectric resonators are desirable compared to conventional metallodielectric metamaterials at optical frequencies as they are largely angular invariant, free of Ohmic loss, and easily integrated into three-dimensional volumes. Measurements and simulation provide evidence of optical magnetism, which could be used for infrared magnetic mirrors, hard or soft surfaces, and subwavelength cavities.

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The problem of designing electromagnetic metamaterials is complicated by the pseudo-infinite parameter space governing such materials. We present a general solution based on group theory for the design and optimization of the electromagnetic properties of metamaterials. Using this framework, the fundamental properties of a metamaterial design, such as anisotropy or magnetic or electrical resonances, can be elucidated based on the symmetry class into which the unit cell falls.

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Cellular autofluorescence, though ubiquitous when imaging cells and tissues, is often assumed to be small in comparison to the signal of interest. Uniform estimates of autofluorescence intensity obtained from separate control specimens are commonly employed to correct for autofluorescence. While these may be sufficient for high signal-to-background applications, improvements in detector and probe technologies and introduction of spectral imaging microscopes have increased the sensitivity of fluorescence imaging methods, exposing the possibility of effectively probing the low signal-to-background regime.

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