Phased-array sources based on nonlinear metamaterial nanocavities

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2015-07, Vol.6 (1), p.7667-7667, Article 7667
Main Authors: Wolf, Omri, Campione, Salvatore, Benz, Alexander, Ravikumar, Arvind P., Liu, Sheng, Luk, Ting S., Kadlec, Emil A., Shaner, Eric A., Klem, John F., Sinclair, Michael B., Brener, Igal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/125
142/126
639/624/399/1098
639/766/400/385
639/925/357/1015
Arrays
Beams (radiation)
Electric fields
Harmonic functions
Heterostructures
Humanities and Social Sciences
Infrared radiation
Laboratories
Metamaterials
multidisciplinary
Optical pumping
Phased arrays
Polarization
Radio frequency
Scanning electron microscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Superposition (mathematics)
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Summary: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. Optical pumping of the nanocavity induces a localized, phase-locked, nonlinear resonant polarization that acts as a source feed for a higher-order resonance of the nanocavity. Varying the nanocavity design enables the production of beams with arbitrary shape and polarization. As an example, we demonstrate two second harmonic phased-array sources that perform two optical functions at the second harmonic wavelength (∼5 μm): a beam splitter and a polarizing beam splitter. Proper design of the nanocavity and nonlinear heterostructure will enable such phased arrays to span most of the infrared spectrum. Controlling light at scales smaller than its wavelength is attractive to manipulate light using small device footprints. Here, the authors propose a scheme to modify light on such small scales using a combination of metamaterial nanocavities coupled to nonlinear semiconductor heterostructures.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms8667