Sub-picosecond steering of ultrafast incoherent emission from semiconductor metasurfaces

The ability to dynamically steer sub-picosecond pulses from a monolithically integrated source is a critical milestone for the fields of nanophotonics and ultrafast optics. Reconfigurable dielectric metasurfaces have demonstrated the potential to exert dynamic control over the properties of light at...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature photonics 2023-07, Vol.17 (7), p.588-593
Main Authors: Iyer, Prasad P., Karl, Nicholas, Addamane, Sadhvikas, Gennaro, Sylvain D., Sinclair, Michael B., Brener, Igal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/125
639/301/1019/1015
639/624/1020/1089
639/624/400/584
Applied and Technical Physics
Dynamic control
Emissions
Emissions control
Holography
Light
Light emission
Light sources
Metasurfaces
New technology
Optics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Picosecond pulses
Quantum dots
Quantum Physics
Reconfiguration
Remote sensing
Spatial light modulators
Steering
Wavelength
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The ability to dynamically steer sub-picosecond pulses from a monolithically integrated source is a critical milestone for the fields of nanophotonics and ultrafast optics. Reconfigurable dielectric metasurfaces have demonstrated the potential to exert dynamic control over the properties of light at sub-wavelength scales using spatial phase engineering. However, active manipulation of incoherent light sources remains a challenge, as current phase-sensitive metasurfaces developed for coherent sources cannot be directly applied. Here we theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate sub-picosecond steering of ultrafast incoherent emission from a light-emitting metasurface over a 70° range. We utilize a monolithic III–V (GaAs) metasurface with embedded (InAs quantum dot) light sources positioned on a reflective Bragg (AlAs/Al 0.3 Ga 0.7 As) mirror to achieve a large optically induced phase change near the emission wavelength (1.25 μm). We use a spatial light modulator to structure a strong optical pump (800 nm) and project it onto the resonant metasurface to create reconfigurable spatial momentum profiles that dynamically steer the ultrafast (140 fs) quantum dot emission. Such dynamic spatiotemporal control of incoherent sources can enable new technologies for high-speed communications, holography and remote sensing. Researchers demonstrate sub-picosecond steering of ultrafast incoherent emission from a light-emitting metasurface. The steering is achieved over a 70° range.
ISSN:1749-4885
1749-4893
DOI:10.1038/s41566-023-01172-6