Direct laser-written optomechanical membranes in fiber Fabry-Perot cavities.

Integrated micro- and nanophotonic optomechanical experiments enable the manipulation of mechanical resonators on the single phonon level. Interfacing these structures requires elaborate techniques limited in tunability, flexibility, and scaling towards multi-mode systems. Here, we demonstrate a cavity optomechanical experiment using 3D-laser-written polymer membranes inside fiber Fabry-Perot cavities. Vacuum coupling rates of g0/2π ≈ 30 kHz to the fundamental megahertz mechanical mode are reached. We observe optomechanical spring tuning of the mechanical resonator frequency by tens of kilohertz exceeding its linewidth at cryogenic temperatures. The direct fiber coupling, its scaling capabilities to coupled resonator systems, and the potential implementation of dissipation dilution structures and integration of electrodes make it a promising platform for fiber-tip integrated accelerometers, optomechanically tunable multi-mode mechanical systems, and directly fiber-coupled systems for microwave to optics conversion.

Near-Field Observation of the Photonic Spin Hall Effect.

The photonic spin Hall effect, referring to the spatial separation of photons with opposite spins due to spin-orbit interactions, has enabled potential for various spin-sensitive applications and devices. Here, using scattering-type near-field scanning optical microscopy, we observe spin-orbit interactions introduced by a subwavelength semiring antenna integrated in a plasmonic circuit. Clear evidence of unidirectional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons is obtained by direct comparison of the amplitude- and phase-resolved near-field maps of the plasmonic nanocircuit under excitation with photons of opposite spin states coupled to a plasmonic nanoantenna. We present details of the antenna design and experimental methods to investigate the spatial variation of complex electromagnetic fields in a spin-sensitive plasmonic circuit. The reported findings offer valuable insights into the generation, characterization, and application of the photonic spin Hall effect in photonic integrated circuits for future and emerging spin-selective nanophotonic systems.

Observation of a Topological Edge State Stabilized by Dissipation.

Robust states emerging at the boundary of a system constitute a hallmark for topological band structures. Other than in closed systems, topologically protected states can occur even in systems with a trivial band structure, if exposed to suitably modulated losses. Here, we study the dissipation-induced emergence of a topological band structure in a non-Hermitian one-dimensional lattice system, realized by arrays of plasmonic waveguides with tailored loss. We obtain direct evidence for a topological edge state that resides in the center of the band gap. By tuning dissipation and hopping, the formation and breakdown of an interface state between topologically distinct regions is demonstrated.

Broadband optical Ta2O5 antennas for directional emission of light.

Highly directive antennas with the ability of shaping radiation patterns in desired directions are essential for efficient on-chip optical communication with reduced cross talk. In this paper, we design and optimize three distinct broadband traveling-wave tantalum pentoxide antennas exhibiting highly directional characteristics. Our antennas contain a director and reflector deposited on a glass substrate, which are excited by a dipole emitter placed in the feed gap between the two elements. Full-wave simulations in conjunction with global optimization provide structures with an enhanced linear directivity as high as 119 radiating in the substrate. The high directivity is a result of the interplay between two dominant TE modes and the leaky modes present in the antenna director. Furthermore, these low-loss dielectric antennas exhibit a near-unity radiation efficiency at the operational wavelength of 780 nm and maintain a broad bandwidth. Our numerical results are in good agreement with experimental measurements from the optimized antennas fabricated using a two-step electron-beam lithography, revealing the highly directive nature of our structures. We envision that our antenna designs can be conveniently adapted to other dielectric materials and prove instrumental for inter-chip optical communications and other on-chip applications.

Observation of the Wannier-Stark ladder in plasmonic waveguide arrays.

Evanescently coupled waveguides are a powerful platform to study and visualize the wave dynamics in tight-binding systems. Here, we investigate the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons in arrays of dielectric loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides with a propagation constant gradient acting as an effective external potential. Using leakage radiation microscopy, we observe in real-space for single site excitation a periodic breathing of the wave packet and an oscillatory motion in the case of Gaussian excitation of multiple waveguides. The corresponding momentum-resolved spectra are composed of sets of equally spaced modes. We interpret these observations as the plasmonic analogs of Bloch oscillations and the Wannier-Stark ladder, respectively.

Converting single photons from an InAs/GaAs quantum dot into the ultraviolet: preservation of second-order correlations.

Wavelength conversion at the single-photon level is required to forge a quantum network from distinct quantum devices. Such devices include solid-state emitters of single or entangled photons, as well as network nodes based on atoms or ions. Here we demonstrate the conversion of single photons emitted from a III-V semiconductor quantum dot at 853 nm via sum frequency conversion to the wavelength of the strong transition of Yb+ ions at 370 nm. We measure the second-order correlation function of both the unconverted and the converted photon and show that the single-photon character of the quantum dot emission is preserved during the conversion process.

In3SbTe2 as a programmable nanophotonics material platform for the infrared.

The high dielectric optical contrast between the amorphous and crystalline structural phases of non-volatile phase-change materials (PCMs) provides a promising route towards tuneable nanophotonic devices. Here, we employ the next-generation PCM In3SbTe2 (IST) whose optical properties change from dielectric to metallic upon crystallization in the whole infrared spectral range. This distinguishes IST as a switchable infrared plasmonic PCM and enables a programmable nanophotonics material platform. We show how resonant metallic nanostructures can be directly written, modified and erased on and below the meta-atom level in an IST thin film by a pulsed switching laser, facilitating direct laser writing lithography without need for cumbersome multi-step nanofabrication. With this technology, we demonstrate large resonance shifts of nanoantennas of more than 4 µm, a tuneable mid-infrared absorber with nearly 90% absorptance as well as screening and nanoscale "soldering" of metallic nanoantennas. Our concepts can empower improved designs of programmable nanophotonic devices for telecommunications, (bio)sensing and infrared optics, e.g. programmable infrared detectors, emitters and reconfigurable holograms.

Observation of topological transport quantization by dissipation in fast Thouless pumps.

Quantized dynamics is essential for natural processes and technological applications alike. The work of Thouless on quantized particle transport in slowly varying potentials (Thouless pumping) has played a key role in understanding that such quantization may be caused not only by discrete eigenvalues of a quantum system, but also by invariants associated with the nontrivial topology of the Hamiltonian parameter space. Since its discovery, quantized Thouless pumping has been believed to be restricted to the limit of slow driving, a fundamental obstacle for experimental applications. Here, we introduce non-Hermitian Floquet engineering as a new concept to overcome this problem. We predict that a topological band structure and associated quantized transport can be restored at driving frequencies as large as the system's band gap. The underlying mechanism is suppression of non-adiabatic transitions by tailored, time-periodic dissipation. We confirm the theoretical predictions by experiments on topological transport quantization in plasmonic waveguide arrays.

High-Resolution Quantitative Phase Imaging of Plasmonic Metasurfaces with Sensitivity down to a Single Nanoantenna.

Optical metasurfaces have emerged as a new generation of building blocks for multifunctional optics. Design and realization of metasurface elements place ever-increasing demands on accurate assessment of phase alterations introduced by complex nanoantenna arrays, a process referred to as quantitative phase imaging. Despite considerable effort, the widefield (nonscanning) phase imaging that would approach resolution limits of optical microscopy and indicate the response of a single nanoantenna still remains a challenge. Here, we report on a new strategy in incoherent holographic imaging of metasurfaces, in which unprecedented spatial resolution and light sensitivity are achieved by taking full advantage of the polarization selective control of light through the geometric (Pancharatnam-Berry) phase. The measurement is carried out in an inherently stable common-path setup composed of a standard optical microscope and an add-on imaging module. Phase information is acquired from the mutual coherence function attainable in records created in broadband spatially incoherent light by the self-interference of scattered and leakage light coming from the metasurface. In calibration measurements, the phase was mapped with the precision and spatial background noise better than 0.01 and 0.05 rad, respectively. The imaging excels at the high spatial resolution that was demonstrated experimentally by the precise amplitude and phase restoration of vortex metalenses and a metasurface grating with 833 lines/mm. Thanks to superior light sensitivity of the method, we demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge the widefield measurement of the phase altered by a single nanoantenna while maintaining the precision well below 0.15 rad.

Near-field study on the transition from localized to propagating plasmons on 2D nano-triangles.

In this manuscript we report on a near field study of two-dimensional plasmonic gold nano-triangles using electron energy loss spectroscopy in combination with scanning transmission electron microscopy, as well as discontinuous Galerkin time-domain computations. With increasing nano-triangle size, we observe a transition from localized surface plasmons on small nano-triangles to non-resonant propagating surface plasmon polaritons on large nano-triangles. Furthermore we demonstrate that nano-triangles with a groove cut can support localized as well as propagating plasmons in the same energy range.

Directional Emission from Dielectric Leaky-Wave Nanoantennas.

An important source of innovation in nanophotonics is the idea to scale down known radio wave technologies to the optical regime. One thoroughly investigated example of this approach are metallic nanoantennas which employ plasmonic resonances to couple localized emitters to selected far-field modes. While metals can be treated as perfect conductors in the microwave regime, their response becomes Drude-like at optical frequencies. Thus, plasmonic nanoantennas are inherently lossy. Moreover, their resonant nature requires precise control of the antenna geometry. A promising way to circumvent these problems is the use of broadband nanoantennas made from low-loss dielectric materials. Here, we report on highly directional emission from hybrid dielectric leaky-wave nanoantennas made of Hafnium dioxide nanostructures deposited on a glass substrate. Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots deposited in the nanoantenna feed gap serve as a local light source. The emission patterns of hybrid nanoantennas with different sizes are measured by Fourier imaging. We find for all antenna sizes a highly directional emission, underlining the broadband operation of our design.

Reflective Metasurfaces for Incoherent Light To Bring Computer Graphics Tricks to Optical Systems.

The normal mapping technique is widely used in computer graphics to visualize three-dimensional (3D) objects displayed on a flat screen. Taking advantage of optical properties of metasurfaces, which provide a highly efficient approach for manipulation of incident light wavefront, we have designed a metasurface to implement diffuse reflection and used the concept of normal mapping to control its scattering properties. As a proof of principle, we have fabricated and characterized a flat diffuse metasurface imitating lighting and shading effects of a 3D cube. The 3D image is displayed directly on the illuminated metasurface and it is brighter than a standard white paper by up to 2.4 times. The designed structure performs equally well under coherent and incoherent illumination. The normal mapping approach based on metasurfaces can complement traditional optical engineering methods of surface profiling and gradient refractive index engineering in the design of 3D security features, high-performance planar optical diffusers, novel optical elements, and displays.

Second harmonic generation spectroscopy on hybrid plasmonic/dielectric nanoantennas.

Plasmonic nanoantennas provide unprecedented opportunities to concentrate light fields in subwavelength-sized volumes. By placing a nonlinear dielectric nanoparticle in such a hot spot, one can hope to take advantage of both the field enhancement provided by nanoantennas and the large, nonlinear optical susceptibility of dielectric nanoparticles. To test this concept, we combine gold gap nanoantennas with second-order, nonlinear zinc sulfide nanoparticles, and perform second harmonic generation (SHG) spectroscopy on the combined hybrid dielectric/plasmonic nanoantennas as well as on the individual constituents. We find that SHG from the bare gold nanoantennas, even though it should be forbidden due to symmetry reasons, is several orders of magnitude larger than that of the bare zinc sulfide nanoparticles. Even stronger second harmonic signals are generated by the hybrid dielectric/plasmonic nanoantennas. Control experiments with nanoantennas containing linear lanthanum fluoride nanoparticles reveal; however, that the increased SHG efficiency of the hybrid dielectric/plasmonic nanoantennas does not depend on the nonlinear optical susceptibility of the dielectric nanoparticles but is an effect of the modification of the dielectric environment. The combination of a hybrid dielectric/plasmonic nanoantenna, which is only resonant for the incoming pump light field, with a second nanoantenna, which is resonant for the generated second harmonic light, allows for a further increase in the efficiency of SHG. As the second nanoantenna mediates the coupling of the second harmonic light to the far field, this double-resonant approach also provides us with control over the polarization of the generated light.

High repetition rate femtosecond double pass optical parametric generator with more than 2 W tunable output in the NIR.

We demonstrate a highly efficient double pass optical parametric generator based on periodically poled MgO-doped congruent LiNbO3. More than two watts of tunable near-IR radiation (1370-1650 nm) are generated by directly pumping the system with 550 fs pulses from a 42 MHz repetition rate passively mode-locked Yb:KGW oscillator. Pulse durations below 200 fs were achieved without further compression techniques. The system is extremely efficient, compact, cost effective, easy to align and easy to operate, which makes it an interesting alternative to more complex optical parametric oscillators or optical parametric amplifiers.

Manipulation of Airy surface plasmon beams.

We demonstrate experimentally the manipulation of Airy surface plasmon beams in a linear potential. For this purpose, we fabricate dielectric-loaded plasmonic structures with a graded refractive index by negative-tone gray-scale electron beam lithography. Using such carefully engineered potentials, we show that the bending of an Airy surface plasmon beam can be fully reversed by the potential.

From isolated metaatoms to photonic metamaterials: evolution of the plasmonic near-field.

Metamaterials are artificial media which can provide optical properties not available from natural materials. These properties often result from the resonant excitation of plasmonic modes in the metallic building blocks ("metaatoms") of the metamaterial. Electromagnetic interactions between the metaatoms significantly modify the resonances of the individual metaatoms and influence the optical properties of the whole metamaterial. To better understand these interactions, we study in this Letter the evolution of the plasmonic near-field in the course of the transition from an isolated metaatom, in our case a split-ring resonator (SRR), to a photonic metamaterial via electron energy-loss spectroscopy. For small SRR ensembles, we observe the formation of discrete optical bright and dark modes due to coupling of the metaatoms. Large SRR arrays reveal a quasi-continuum of modes in the interior and distinct edge modes at the boundaries of the array. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations.

Quantitative experimental determination of scattering and absorption cross-section spectra of individual optical metallic nanoantennas.

Antennas convert propagating radiation to localized electromagnetic energy and to heat. To unambiguously separate between these two aspects, one needs to quantitatively determine the antenna scattering and absorption cross-section spectra. By using a spatial modulation technique combined with a common-path interferometer and lithographically fabricated individual gold nanoantennas, we experimentally determine the scattering and absorption cross-section spectra of different optical antennas simultaneously and quantitatively for the first time.

Second-harmonic optical spectroscopy on split-ring-resonator arrays.

Previous second-harmonic-generation experiments on metallic split-ring-resonator arrays have been performed at fixed fundamental laser center frequency. Here, we perform nonlinear optical spectroscopy on a first set of samples, revealing pronounced resonances. Furthermore, to clarify the role of higher-order split-ring resonances, we perform additional experiments on a second set of samples in which the fundamental split-ring-resonator resonance frequencies are lithographically tuned, whereas the higher-order resonances are fixed. We find that the higher-order resonances merely reabsorb the second-harmonic generation, revealing the fundamental split-ring resonance as the nonlinear source.

Arrays of Ag split-ring resonators coupled to InGaAs single-quantum-well gain.

We study arrays of silver split-ring resonators operating at around 1.5-µm wavelength coupled to an MBE-grown single 12.7-nm thin InGaAs quantum well separated only 4.8 nm from the wafer surface. The samples are held at liquid-helium temperature and are pumped by intense femtosecond optical pulses at 0.81-µm center wavelength in a pump-probe geometry. We observe much larger relative transmittance changes (up to about 8%) on the split-ring-resonator arrays as compared to the bare quantum well (not more than 1-2%). We also observe a much more rapid temporal decay component of the differential transmittance signal of 15 ps for the case of split-ring resonators coupled to the quantum well compared to the case of the bare quantum well, where we find about 0.7 ns. These observations are ascribed to the evanescent coupling of the split-ring resonators to the quantum-well gain. All experimental results are compared with a recently introduced analytical toy model that accounts for this evanescent coupling, leading to excellent overall qualitative agreement.

Near-field optical experiments on low-symmetry split-ring-resonator arrays.

Effective symmetric and antisymmetric eigenmodes of coupled plasmonic resonances play a crucial role in many photonic metamaterials. Recently, we discussed a particular arrangement of metallic split-ring resonators that is planar, hence enabling direct experimental access to the different eigenmodes via near-field optical microscopy. In this Letter, corresponding optical experiments are presented and compared with simple theoretical modeling, providing a direct confirmation of our previous, more indirect conclusions.