All-Oxide Metasurfaces Formed by Synchronized Local Ionic Gating.

Ionic gating of oxide thin films has emerged as a novel way of manipulating the properties of thin films. Most studies are carried out on single devices with a three-terminal configuration, but, by exploring the electrokinetics during the ionic gating, such a configuration with initially insulating films leads to a highly non-uniform gating response of individual devices within large arrays of the devices. It is shown that such an issue can be circumvented by the formation of a uniform charge potential by the use of a thin conducting underlayer. This synchronized local ionic gating allows for the simultaneous manipulation of the electrical, magnetic, and/or optical properties of large arrays of devices. Designer metasurfaces formed in this way from SrCoO2.5 thin films display an anomalous optical reflection of light that relies on the uniform and coherent response of all the devices. Beyond oxides, almost any material whose properties can be controlled by the addition or removal of ions via gating can form novel metasurfaces using this technique. These findings provide insights into the electrokinetics of ionic gating and a wide range of applications using synchronized local ionic gating.

Voigt Exceptional Points in an Anisotropic ZnO-Based Planar Microcavity: Square-Root Topology, Polarization Vortices, and Circularity.

Voigt points represent propagation directions in anisotropic crystals along which optical modes degenerate, leading to a single circularly polarized eigenmode. They are a particular class of exceptional points. Here, we report the fabrication and characterization of a dielectric, anisotropic optical microcavity based on nonpolar ZnO that implements a non-Hermitian system and mimics the behavior of Voigt points in natural crystals. We prove the exceptional-point nature by monitoring the complex-square-root topology of the mode eigenenergies (real and imaginary parts) around the Voigt points. Polarization state analysis shows that these artificially engineered Voigt points behave as vortex cores for the linear polarization and sustain chiral modes. Our findings apply to any planar microcavity with broken cylindrical symmetry and, thus, pave the way for exploiting exceptional points in widespread optoelectronic devices such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and resonant cavity light emitting diodes.

Applicability of the constitutive equations for the determination of the material properties of optically active materials.

For the description of the optical response of optically active media, different constitutive equations have been proposed and are still used in literature. Here, we demonstrate on potassium titanyl phosphate (KTiOPO4) by means of ellipsometry that only the symmetric constitutive equation describes the observed spectra properly and allows the unique determination of the gyration tensor.

Low-Temperature PLD-Growth of Ultrathin ZnO Nanowires by Using Zn x Al1-x O and Zn x Ga1-x O Seed Layers.

ZnO nanowires (NWs) are used as building blocks for a wide range of different devices, e.g. light emitters, resonators, and sensors. Integration of the NWs into such structures requires a high level of NWs' diameter control. Here, we present that the doping concentration of Zn x Al1-x O and Zn x Ga1-x O seed layers has a strong impact on the NW growth and allows to tune the diameter of the NWs by two orders of magnitude down to less than 7 nm. These ultrathin NWs exhibit a well-oriented vertical growth and thus are promising for the investigation of quantum effects. The doping of the ZnO seed layers has also an impact on the deposition temperature which can be reduced down to T≈400∘C. This temperature is much smaller than those typically used for the fabrication of NWs by pulsed laser deposition. A comparison of the NWs indicates a stronger impact of the Ga doping on the NW growth than for the Al doping which we attribute to an impact of the size of the dopants. The optical properties of the NWs were investigated by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy which revealed a high crystalline quality. For the thin nanowires, the emission characteristic is mainly determined by the properties of the surface near region.

Raman tensor elements of ß-Ga2O3.

The Raman spectrum and particularly the Raman scattering intensities of monoclinic ß-Ga2O3 are investigated by experiment and theory. The low symmetry of ß-Ga2O3 results in a complex dependence of the Raman intensity for the individual phonon modes on the scattering geometry which is additionally affected by birefringence. We measured the Raman spectra in dependence on the polarization direction for backscattering on three crystallographic planes of ß-Ga2O3 and modelled these dependencies using a modified Raman tensor formalism which takes birefringence into account. The spectral position of all 15 Raman active phonon modes and the Raman tensor elements of 13 modes were determined and are compared to results from ab-initio calculations.

Contacting ZnO Individual Crystal Facets by Direct Write Lithography.

Many advanced electronic devices take advantage of properties developed at the surface facets of grown crystals with submicrometer dimensions. Electrical contacts to individual crystal facets can make possible the investigations of facet-dependent properties such as piezoelectricity in ZnO or III-nitride crystals having noncentrosymmetric structure. However, a lithography-based method for developing contacts to individual crystal facets with submicrometer size has not yet been demonstrated. In this report we study the use of electron beam-induced deposition (EBID), a direct write lithography method, for contacting individual facets of ZnO pillars within an electron microscope. Correlating structural and in situ deposition and electrical data, we examine proximity effects during the EBID and evaluate the process against obtaining electrically insulated contact lines on neighboring and diametrically opposite ZnO facets. Parameters such as incident beam energy geometry and size of the facets were investigated with the view of minimizing unwanted proximity broadening effects. Additionally, we show that the EBID direct write method has the required flexibility, resolution, and minimized proximity deposition for creating prototype devices. The devices were used to observe facet-dependent effects induced by mechanical stress on single ZnO pillar structures.

Raman Tensor Formalism for Optically Anisotropic Crystals.

We present a formalism for calculating the Raman scattering intensity dependent on the polarization configuration for optically anisotropic crystals. It can be applied to crystals of arbitrary orientation and crystal symmetry measured in normal incidence backscattering geometry. The classical Raman tensor formalism cannot be used for optically anisotropic materials due to birefringence causing the polarization within the crystal to be depth dependent. We show that in the limit of averaging over a sufficiently large scattering depth, the observed Raman intensities converge and can be described by an effective Raman tensor given here. Full agreement with experimental results for uniaxial and biaxial crystals is demonstrated.

Carrier density driven lasing dynamics in ZnO nanowires.

We report on the temporal lasing dynamics of high quality ZnO nanowires using the time-resolved micro-photoluminescence technique. The temperature dependence of the lasing characteristics and of the corresponding decay constants demonstrate the formation of an electron-hole plasma to be the underlying gain mechanism in the considered temperature range from 10 K to 300 K. We found that the temperature-dependent emission onset-time ([Formula: see text]) strongly depends on the excitation power and becomes smallest in the lasing regime, with values below 5 ps. Furthermore, the observed red shift of the dominating lasing modes in time is qualitatively discussed in terms of the carrier density induced change of the refractive index dispersion after the excitation laser pulse. This theory is supported by extending an existing model for the calculation of the carrier density dependent complex refractive index for different temperatures. This model coincides with the experimental observations and reliably describes the evolution of the refractive index after the excitation laser pulse.