Picophotonic localization metrology beyond thermal fluctuations.

Despite recent tremendous progress in optical imaging and metrology1-6, there remains a substantial resolution gap between atomic-scale transmission electron microscopy and optical techniques. Is optical imaging and metrology of nanostructures exhibiting Brownian motion possible with such resolution, beyond thermal fluctuations? Here we report on an experiment in which the average position of a nanowire with a thermal oscillation amplitude of ∼150 pm is resolved in single-shot measurements with subatomic precision of 92 pm, using light at a wavelength of λ = 488 nm, providing an example of such sub-Brownian metrology with ∼λ/5,300 precision. To localize the nanowire, we employ a deep-learning analysis of the scattering of topologically structured light, which is highly sensitive to the nanowire's position. This non-invasive metrology with absolute errors down to a fraction of the typical size of an atom, opens a range of opportunities to study picometre-scale phenomena with light.

Coherently switching the focusing characteristics of all-dielectric metalenses.

Flat, gradient index, metasurface optics - in particular all-dielectric metalenses - have emerged and evolved over recent years as compact, lightweight alternative to their conventional bulk glass/crystal counterparts. Here we show that the focal properties of all-dielectric metalenses can be switched via coherent control, which is to say by changing the local electromagnetic field in the metalens plane rather than any physical or geometric property of the nanostructure or surrounding medium. The selective excitation of predominantly electric or magnetic resonant modes in the constituent cells of the metalens provides for switching, by design, of its phase profile enabling binary switching of focal length for a given lens type and, uniquely, switching between different (spherical and axicon) lens types.

Ballistic dynamics of flexural thermal movements in a nanomembrane revealed with subatomic resolution.

Flexural oscillations of freestanding films, nanomembranes, and nanowires are attracting growing attention for their importance to the fundamental physical and optical properties and device applications of two-dimensional and nanostructured (meta)materials. Here, we report on the observation of short-time scale ballistic motion in the flexural mode of a nanomembrane cantilever, driven by thermal fluctuation of flexural phonons, including measurements of ballistic velocities and displacements performed with subatomic resolution, using a free electron edge-scattering technique. Within intervals <10 µs, the membrane moves ballistically at a constant velocity, typically ~300 µm/s, while Brownian-like dynamics emerge for longer observation periods. Access to the ballistic regime provides verification of the equipartition theorem and Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics for flexural modes and can be used in fast thermometry and mass sensing during atomic absorption/desorption processes on the membrane.

Optical Control of Nanomechanical Brownian Motion Eigenfrequencies in Metamaterials.

Nanomechanical photonic metamaterials provide a wealth of active switching, nonlinear, and enhanced light-matter interaction functionalities by coupling optically and mechanically resonant subsystems. Thermal (Brownian) motion of the nanostructural components of such metamaterials leads to fluctuations in optical properties, which may manifest as noise, but which also present opportunity to characterize performance and thereby optimize design at the level of individual nanomechanical elements. We show that nanomechanical motion in an all-dielectric metamaterial ensemble of silicon-on-silicon-nitride nanowires can be controlled by light at sub-µW/µm2 intensities. Induced changes in nanowire temperature of just a few Kelvin and nonthermal optical forces generated within the structure change the few-MHz Eigenfrequencies and/or picometric displacement amplitudes of motion, and thereby metamaterial transmission. The tuning mechanism can provide active control of frequency response in photonic metadevices and may serve as a basis for bolometric, mass, and micro/nanostructural stress sensing.

Deep-Learning-Assisted Focused Ion Beam Nanofabrication.

Focused ion beam (FIB) milling is an important rapid prototyping tool for micro- and nanofabrication and device and materials characterization. It allows for the manufacturing of arbitrary structures in a wide variety of materials, but establishing the process parameters for a given task is a multidimensional optimization challenge, usually addressed through time-consuming, iterative trial-and-error. Here, we show that deep learning from prior experience of manufacturing can predict the postfabrication appearance of structures manufactured by focused ion beam (FIB) milling with >96% accuracy over a range of ion beam parameters, taking account of instrument- and target-specific artifacts. With predictions taking only a few milliseconds, the methodology may be deployed in near real time to expedite optimization and improve reproducibility in FIB processing.

Visualization of Subatomic Movements in Nanostructures.

Electron microscopy, scanning probe, and optical super-resolution imaging techniques with nanometric resolution are now routinely available but cannot capture the characteristically fast (MHz-GHz frequency) movements of micro-/nano-objects. Meanwhile, optical interferometric techniques can detect high-frequency picometric displacements but only with diffraction-limited lateral resolution. Here, we introduce a motion visualization technique, based on the spectrally resolved detection of secondary electron emission from moving objects, that combines picometric displacement sensitivity with the nanometric spatial (positional/imaging) resolution of electron microscopy. The sensitivity of the technique is quantitatively validated against the thermodynamically defined amplitude of a nanocantilever's Brownian motion. It is further demonstrated in visualizing externally driven modes of cantilever, nanomechanical photonic metamaterial, and MEMS device structures. With a noise floor reaching ∼1 pm/Hz1/2, it can provide for the study of oscillatory movements with subatomic amplitudes, presenting new opportunities for the interrogation of motion in functional structures across the materials, bio- and nanosciences.

Detection of sub-atomic movement in nanostructures.

Nanoscale objects move fast and oscillate billions of times per second. Such movements occur naturally in the form of thermal (Brownian) motion while stimulated movements underpin the functionality of nano-mechanical sensors and active nano-(electro/opto) mechanical devices. Here we introduce a methodology for detecting such movements, based on the spectral analysis of secondary electron emission from moving nanostructures, that is sensitive to displacements of sub-atomic amplitude. We demonstrate the detection of nanowire Brownian oscillations of ∼10 pm amplitude and hyperspectral mapping of stimulated oscillations of setae on the body of a common flea. The technique opens a range of opportunities for the study of dynamic processes in materials science, nanotechnology and biology.

Artificial intelligence for photonics and photonic materials.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most important new methodology in scientific research since the adoption of quantum mechanics and it is providing exciting results in numerous fields of science and technology. In this review we summarize research and discuss future opportunities for AI in the domains of photonics, nanophotonics, plasmonics and photonic materials discovery, including metamaterials.

Continuous beam steering by coherent light-by-light control of dielectric metasurface phase gradient.

Continuous and reversible tuning of the properties of optical metasurfaces, as a functionality that would enable a range of device applications, has been a focus of the metasurface research field in recent years. Tuning mechanisms proposed and demonstrated so far have generally relied upon changing the morphology of a metasurface or the intrinsic properties of its constituent materials. Here we introduce, via numerical simulation, an alternative approach to achieve continuous tuning of gradient metasurface response, and illustrate its potential application to the challenge of continuous beam steering, as required for example in LIDAR and machine vision systems. It is based upon the coherent illumination of a silicon nano-pillar metasurface with two counter-propagating beams. Control of the input beams' relative phase and intensity enables tuning of the individual nano-pillars' electromagnetic response and thereby the phase gradient of the array, which in turn steers the direction of the output beam continuously over an angular range of approximately 9 degrees.

Stoichiometric Engineering of Chalcogenide Semiconductor Alloys for Nanophotonic Applications.

A variety of alternative plasmonic and dielectric material platforms-among them nitrides, semiconductors, and conductive oxides-have come to prominence in recent years as means to address the shortcomings of noble metals (including Joule losses, cost, and passive character) in certain nanophotonic and optical-frequency metamaterial applications. Here, it is shown that chalcogenide semiconductor alloys offer a uniquely broad pallet of optical properties, complementary to those of existing material platforms, which can be controlled by stoichiometric design. Using combinatorial high-throughput techniques, the extraordinary epsilon-near-zero, plasmonic, and low/high-index characteristics of Bi:Sb:Te alloys are explored. Depending upon composition they can, for example, have plasmonic figures of merit higher than conductive oxides and nitrides across the entire UV-NIR range, and higher than gold below 550 nm; present dielectric figures of merit better than conductive oxides at near-infrared telecommunications wavelengths; and exhibit record-breaking refractive indices as low as 0.7 and as high as 11.5.

Reconfigurable Ultraviolet and High-Energy Visible Dielectric Metamaterials.

Photonic materials with tunable and switchable ultraviolet (UV) to high-energy visible (HEV) optical properties may benefit applications such as sensing, high-density optical memory, beam-steering, adaptive optics, and light modulation. Here, for the first time we demonstrate a nonvolatile switchable dielectric metamaterial operating in the UV-HEV spectral range. Nanograting metamaterials in a layered composite of low-loss ZnS/SiO2 and the chalcogenide phase-change medium germanium-antimony-telluride (Ge2Sb2Te5 or GST) exhibit reflection resonances at UV-HEV wavelengths that are substantially modified by light-induced (amorphous-crystalline) phase transitions in the chalcogenide layer. Despite the presence of the lossy GST, resonance quality factors up to Q ∼ 15 are ensured by the transparency (low losses) of ZnS/SiO2 in the UV-HEV spectral range and values of Q increase as the refractive index of Ge2Sb2Te5 decreases, upon crystallization. Notably, however, this switching leaves resonance spectral positions unchanged.

Giant Electro-Optical Effect through Electrostriction in a Nanomechanical Metamaterial.

Electrostriction is a property of all naturally occurring dielectrics whereby they are mechanically deformed under the application of an electric field. It is demonstrated here that an artificial metamaterial nanostructure comprising arrays of dielectric nanowires, made of silicon and indium tin oxide, is reversibly structurally deformed under the application of an electric field, and that this reconfiguration is accompanied by substantial changes in optical transmission and reflection, thus providing a strong electro-optic effect. Such metamaterials can be used as the functional elements of electro-optic modulators in the visible to near-infrared part of the spectrum. A modulator operating at 1550 nm with effective electrostriction and electro-optic coefficients of order 10-13 m2 V-2 and 10-6 m V-1 , respectively, is demonstrated. Transmission changes of up to 3.5% are obtained with a 500 mV control signal at a modulation frequency of ≈6.5 MHz. With a resonant optical response that can be spectrally tuned by design, modulators based on the artificial electrostrictive effect may be used for laser Q-switching and mode-locking among other applications that require modulation at megahertz frequencies.

Compositionally controlled plasmonics in amorphous semiconductor metasurfaces.

Amorphous bismuth telluride (Bi:Te) provides a composition-dependent, CMOS-compatible alternative material platform for plasmonics in the ultraviolet-visible spectral range. Thin films of the chalcogenide semiconductor are found, using high-throughput physical vapor deposition and characterization techniques, to exhibit a plasmonic response (a negative value of the real part of relative permittivity) over a band of wavelengths extending from ~250 nm to between 530 and 978 nm, depending on alloy composition (Bi:Te at% ratio). The plasmonic response is illustrated via the fabrication of subwavelength period nano-grating metasurfaces, which present strong, period-dependent plasmonic absorption resonances in the visible range, manifested in the perceived color of the nanostructured domains in reflection.

Coherent illumination spectroscopy of nanostructures and thin films on thick substrates.

Many nanophotonic and nanoelectronic devices contain nanostructures and ultrathin films on the surface of a thick, effectively semi-infinite, substrate. Here we consider a spectroscopic technique based upon coherent illumination, for characterising such samples. The method uses two counter-propagating light beams to generate specific field configurations at the substrate surface plane, which can be modulated, for example, to selectively excite and thereby discriminate between resonant modes of plasmonic nanostructures, or to measure thin films thickness with nanometre resolution. The technique offers a variety of practical applications for the coherent illumination in solid state physics, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and nano-engineering.

Ultrafast Coherent Absorption in Diamond Metamaterials.

Diamond is introduced as a material platform for visible/near-infrared photonic metamaterials, with a nanostructured polycrystalline diamond metasurface only 170 nm thick providing an experimental demonstration of coherent light-by-light modulation at few-optical-cycle (6 fs) pulse durations. "Coherent control" of absorption in planar (subwavelength-thickness) materials has emerged recently as a mechanism for high-contrast all-optical gating, with a speed of response that is limited only by the spectral width of the absorption line. It is shown here that a free-standing diamond membrane structured by focused ion beam milling can provide strong, spectrally near-flat absorption over a visible to near-infrared wavelength range that is wide enough (wider than is characteristically achievable in plasmonic metal metasurfaces) to facilitate coherent modulation of ultrashort optical pulses comprising only a few oscillations of electromagnetic field.

Fibre-optic metadevice for all-optical signal modulation based on coherent absorption.

Recently, coherent control of the optical response of thin films in standing waves has attracted considerable attention, ranging from applications in excitation-selective spectroscopy and nonlinear optics to all-optical image processing. Here, we show that integration of metamaterial and optical fibre technologies allows the use of coherently controlled absorption in a fully fiberized and packaged switching metadevice. With this metadevice, which controls light with light in a nanoscale plasmonic metamaterial film on an optical fibre tip, we provide proof-of-principle demonstrations of logical functions XOR, NOT and AND that are performed within a coherent fibre network at wavelengths between 1530 and 1565 nm. The metadevice has been tested at up to 40 gigabits per second and sub-milliwatt power levels. Since coherent absorption can operate at the single-photon level and with 100 THz bandwidth, we argue that the demonstrated all-optical switch concept has potential applications in coherent and quantum information networks.

Ultrafast All-Optical Switching of Germanium-Based Flexible Metaphotonic Devices.

Incorporating semiconductors as active media into metamaterials offers opportunities for a wide range of dynamically switchable/tunable, technologically relevant optical functionalities enabled by strong, resonant light-matter interactions within the semiconductor. Here, a germanium-thin-film-based flexible metaphotonic device for ultrafast optical switching of terahertz radiation is experimentally demonstrated. A resonant transmission modulation depth of 90% is achieved, with an ultrafast full recovery time of 17 ps. An observed sub-picosecond decay constant of 670 fs is attributed to the presence of trap-assisted recombination sites in the thermally evaporated germanium film.

Holographic free-electron light source.

Recent advances in the physics and technology of light generation via free-electron proximity and impact interactions with nanostructures (gratings, photonic crystals, nano-undulators, metamaterials and antenna arrays) have enabled the development of nanoscale-resolution techniques for such applications as mapping plasmons, studying nanoparticle structural transformations and characterizing luminescent materials (including time-resolved measurements). Here, we introduce a universal approach allowing generation of light with prescribed wavelength, direction, divergence and topological charge via point-excitation of holographic plasmonic metasurfaces. It is illustrated using medium-energy free-electron injection to generate highly-directional visible to near-infrared light beams, at selected wavelengths in prescribed azimuthal and polar directions, with brightness two orders of magnitude higher than that from an unstructured surface, and vortex beams with topological charge up to ten. Such emitters, with micron-scale dimensions and the freedom to fully control radiation parameters, offer novel applications in nano-spectroscopy, nano-chemistry and sensing.

Coherent control of light-matter interactions in polarization standing waves.

We experimentally demonstrate that standing waves formed by two coherent counter-propagating light waves can take a variety of forms, offering new approaches to the interrogation and control of polarization-sensitive light-matter interactions in ultrathin (subwavelength thickness) media. In contrast to familiar energy standing waves, polarization standing waves have constant electric and magnetic energy densities and a periodically varying polarization state along the wave axis. counterintuitively, anisotropic ultrathin (meta)materials can be made sensitive or insensitive to such polarization variations by adjusting their azimuthal angle.

Coherent control of Snell's law at metasurfaces.

It was recently demonstrated that the well-known Snell's law must be corrected for phase gradient metasurfaces to account for their spatially varying phase, leading to normal and anomalous transmission and reflection of light on such metasurfaces. Here we show that the efficiency of normal and anomalous transmission and reflection of light can be controlled by the intensity or phase of a second coherent wave. The phenomenon is illustrated using gradient metasurfaces based on V-shaped and rectangular apertures in a metal film. This coherent control effect can be exploited for wave front shaping and signal routing.