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We demonstrate that the influence of Kerr effect on valley-Hall topological transport in graphene metasurfaces can be used to implement an all-optical switch. In particular, by taking advantage of the large Kerr coefficient of graphene, the index of refraction of a topologically-protected graphene metasurface can be tuned via a pump beam, which results in an optically controllable frequency shift of the photonic bands of the metasurface. This spectral variation can in turn be readily employed to control and switch the propagation of an optical signal in certain waveguide modes of the graphene metasurface. Importantly, our theoretical and computational analysis reveals that the threshold pump power needed to optically switch ON/OFF the signal is strongly dependent on the group velocity of the pump mode, especially when the device is operated in the slow-light regime. This study could open up new routes towards active photonic nanodevices whose underlying functionality stems from their topological characteristics.

We study the nonlinear optical properties of heterojunctions made of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) consisting of two segments with either the same or different topological properties. By utilizing a quantum mechanical approach that incorporates distant-neighbor interactions, we demonstrate that the presence of topological interface states significantly enhances the second- and third-order nonlinear optical response of GNR heterojunctions that are created by merging two topologically inequivalent GNRs. Specifically, GNR heterojunctions with topological interface states display third-order harmonic hyperpolarizabilities that are more than two orders of magnitude larger than those of their similarly sized counterparts without topological interface states, whereas the second-order harmonic hyperpolarizabilities exhibit a more than ten-fold contrast between heterojunctions with and without topological interface states. Additionally, we find that the topological state at the interface between two topologically distinct GNRs can induce a noticeable red-shift of the quantum plasmon frequency of the heterojunctions. Our results reveal a general and profound connection between the existence of topological states and an enhanced nonlinear optical response of graphene nanostructures and possible other photonic systems., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2023.)

We present a detailed study of the nonlinear optical properties of newly developed subwavelength diamond-fin waveguides, along with an analysis of soliton generation and pulse spectral broadening in these structures. Our rigorous mathematical model includes all the key linear and nonlinear optical effects that govern the pulse dynamics in these diamond waveguides. As a relevant application of our investigations, we demonstrate how these waveguides can be employed to efficiently generate frequency combs in the visible spectral domain.

Topological photonics has revolutionized our understanding of light propagation, providing a robust way to manipulate light. So far, most of studies in this field are focused on designing a static photonic structure. Developing a dynamic photonic topological platform to switch multiple topological functionalities at ultrafast speed is still a great challenge. Here we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a reprogrammable plasmonic topological insulator, where the topological propagation route can be dynamically changed at nanosecond-level switching time, leading to an experimental demonstration of ultrafast multi-channel optical analog-digital converter. Due to the innovative use of electric switches to implement the programmability of plasmonic topological insulator, each unit cell can be encoded by dynamically controlling its digital plasmonic states while keeping its geometry and material parameters unchanged. Our reprogrammable topological plasmonic platform is fabricated by the printed circuit board technology, making it much more compatible with integrated photoelectric systems. Furthermore, due to its flexible programmability, many photonic topological functionalities can be integrated into this versatile topological platform., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Topologically protected plasmonic modes located inside topological bandgaps are attracting increasing attention, chiefly due to their robustness against disorder-induced backscattering. Here, we introduce a bilayer graphene metasurface that possesses plasmonic topological valley interface modes when the mirror symmetry of the metasurface is broken by horizontally shifting the lattice of holes of the top layer of the two freestanding graphene layers in opposite directions. In this configuration, light propagation along the domain-wall interface of the bilayer graphene metasurface shows unidirectional features. Moreover, we have designed a molecular sensor based on the topological properties of this metasurface using the fact that the Fermi energy of graphene varies upon chemical doping. This effect induces strong variation of the transmission of the topological guided modes, which can be employed as the underlying working principle of gas sensing devices. Our work opens up new ways of developing robust integrated plasmonic devices for molecular sensing.

We study topologically protected four-wave mixing (FWM) interactions in a plasmonic metasurface consisting of a periodic array of nanoholes in a graphene sheet, which exhibits a wide topological bandgap at terahertz frequencies upon the breaking of time reversal symmetry by a static magnetic field. We demonstrate that due to the significant nonlinearity enhancement and large life time of graphene plasmons in specific configurations, a net gain of FWM interaction of plasmonic edge states located in the topological bandgap can be achieved with a pump power of less than 10 nW. In particular, we find that the effective nonlinear edge-waveguide coefficient is about γ ≃ 1.1 × 10 13 W -1 m -1 , i.e., more than 10 orders of magnitude larger than that of commonly used, highly nonlinear silicon photonic nanowires. These findings could pave a new way for developing ultralow-power-consumption, highly integrated, and robust active photonic systems at deep-subwavelength scale for applications in quantum communications and information processing., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).)

Frequency upconversion for single photons at telecom wavelengths is important to simultaneously meet the different wavelength requirements for long-distance communications and quantum memories in a quantum nodal network. It also enables the detection for the telecom "flying qubit" photons with silicon-based efficient single-photon detectors with low dark count (DC) rates. Here, we demonstrate the frequency upconversion of attenuated single photons, using a low-loss titanium-indiffused periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide, pumped with a readily available erbium-doped fiber amplifier in the L-band. Internal and conversion efficiencies up to 84.4% and 49.9% have been achieved, respectively. The DC rates are suppressed down to 44 kHz at 13.9% end-to-end quantum efficiency (including full conversion and detection), enabled by our long-wavelength pump configuration and narrow 3.5-GHz bandpass filtering.

We demonstrate that the effective 3rd-order nonlinear susceptibility of a graphene sheet can be enhanced by more than 2 orders of magnitude by patterning it into a graphene metasurface. In addition, to gain deeper physical insights into this phenomenon, we introduce a versatile homogenization method, which is subsequently used to characterize quantitatively this nonlinearity enhancement effect by calculating the effective linear and nonlinear susceptibility of graphene metasurfaces. The accuracy of the proposed homogenization method is demonstrated by comparing its predictions to those obtained from the Kramers-Kronig relations. This work may open new opportunities to explore novel physics pertaining to nonlinear optical interactions in graphene metasurfaces.

We demonstrate that stimulated Raman amplification can be enhanced by more than four orders of magnitude in a silicon metasurface consisting of a periodic distribution of specially engineered photonic crystal (PhC) cavities in a silicon PhC slab waveguide. In particular, by designing the PhC cavities so as they possess two optical modes separated by the Raman frequency of silicon, one can achieve large optical field enhancement at both the pump and Stokes frequencies. As a consequence, the effective Raman susceptibility of the nonlinear metasurface, calculated using a novel homogenization technique, is significantly larger than the intrinsic Raman susceptibility of silicon. Implications to technological applications of our theoretical study are discussed, too.

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) from nanoparticles made of centrosymmetric materials provides an effective tool to characterize many important properties of photonic structures at the subwavelength scale. Here we study the relative contribution of surface and bulk effects to SHG for plasmonic and dielectric nanostructures made of centrosymmetric materials in both dispersive and non-dispersive regimes. Our calculations of the far-fields generated by the nonlinear surface and bulk currents reveal that the size of the nanoparticle strongly influences the amount and relative contributions of the surface and bulk SHG effects. Importantly, our study reveals that, whereas for plasmonic nanoparticles the surface contribution is always dominant, the bulk and surface SHG effects can become comparable for dielectric nanoparticles, and thus they both should be taken into account when analyzing nonlinear optical properties of all-dielectric nanostructures.

We investigate surface modes in plasmonic Bragg fibers composed of nanostructured coaxial cylindrical metal-dielectric multilayers. We demonstrate that the existence of surface modes is determined by the sign of the spatially averaged permittivity of the plasmonic Bragg fiber, ε¯. Specifically, localized surface modes occur at the interface between the cylindrical core with ε¯<0 and the outermost uniform dielectric medium, which is similar to the topologically protected plasmonic surface modes at the interface between two different one-dimensional planar metal-dielectric lattices with opposite signs of the averaged permittivity. Moreover, when increasing the number of dielectric-metal rings, the propagation constant of surface modes with different azimuthal mode numbers is approaching that of surface plasmon polaritons formed at the corresponding planar metal/dielectric interface. Robustness of such surface modes of plasmonic Bragg fibers is demonstrated as well.

Graphene gratings provide a promising route towards the miniaturization of THz metasurfaces and other photonic devices, chiefly due to remarkable optical properties of graphene. In this paper, we propose novel graphene nanostructures for passive and active control of the polarization state of THz waves. The proposed devices are composed of two crossed graphene gratings separated by an insulator spacer. Because of specific linear and nonlinear properties of graphene, these optical metasurfaces can be utilized as ultrathin polarization converters operating in the THz frequency domain. In particular, our study shows that properly designed graphene polarizers can effectively select specific polarization states, their thickness being about a tenth of the operating wavelength and size more than 80× smaller than that of similar metallic devices. Equally important, we demonstrate that the nonlinear optical properties of graphene can be utilized to actively control the polarization state of generated higher harmonics.

A computational approach to evaluate the bit-error ratio (BER) in silicon photonic systems employing high-order phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation formats is presented. Specifically, the investigated systems contain a silicon based optical interconnect, namely a strip silicon photonic waveguide or a silicon photonic crystal waveguide, and direct-detection receivers suitable to detect PSK and amplitude-shaped PSK signals. The superposition of a PSK signal and complex additive white Gaussian noise passes through the optical interconnect and subsequently through two detection-branch receivers. To model the signal propagation in the silicon optical interconnects we used a modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which incorporates all relevant linear and nonlinear optical effects and the mutual interaction between free-carriers and the optical field. Finally, the BER is calculated by applying a frequency-domain approach based on the Karhunen-Loève series expansion method. Our computational studies of the BER reveal that the optical power, type of PSK modulation, waveguide length, and group-velocity are key factors characterizing the system BER, their influence on BER being more significant in a photonic system with larger nonlinearity. In particular, our analysis shows that the system performance is affected to a much larger extent when the signal propagates in the slow-light regime, despite the fact that this regime allows for a significantly reduced length of optical interconnects.

Intriguing and unusual physical properties of graphene offer remarkable potential for advanced, photonics-related technological applications, particularly in the area of nonlinear optics at the deep-subwavelength scale. In this study, we use a recently developed numerical method to illustrate an efficient mechanism that can lead to orders of magnitude enhancement of the third-harmonic generation in graphene diffraction gratings. In particular, we demonstrate that by taking advantage of the geometry dependence of the resonance wavelength of localized surface-plasmon polaritons of graphene ribbons and discs one can engineer the spectral response of graphene gratings so that strong plasmonic resonances exist at both the fundamental frequency and third-harmonic (TH). As a result of this double-resonant mechanism for optical near-field enhancement, the intensity of the TH can be increased by more than six orders of magnitude.This article is part of the themed issue 'New horizons for nanophotonics'., (© 2017 The Author(s).)

We address the topological properties of one-dimensional plasmonic superlattices composed of alternating metallic and dielectric layers. We reveal that the Zak phase of such plasmonic lattices is determined by the sign of the spatial average of their permittivity, ε¯, and as such the topology and their associated interfacial (edge) states are extremely robust against structural disorder. Our study shows that the topologically protected interfacial modes occurring at the interface between two plasmonic lattices with opposite signs of ε¯ can be viewed as the generalization of the conventional surface plasmon polaritons existing at metallic-dielectric interfaces.

Lasers based on monolayer (ML) transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductor crystals have the potential for low threshold operation and a small device footprint; however, nanophotonic engineering is required to maximize the interaction between the optical fields and the three-atom-thick gain medium. Here, we develop a theoretical model to design a direct bandgap optically pumped nanophotonic integrated laser. Our device utilizes a gap-surface-plasmon optical mode to achieve subwavelength optical confinement and consists of a high-index GaP nanowire atop an ML MoS 2 film on an Ag substrate. The optical field and material medium are analyzed using a three dimensional finite-difference time-domain method and a first-principles calculation based on the density functional theory, respectively. The nanolaser is designed to have a threshold of ∼0.6  μW under quasi-continuous wave operation on an excitonic transition at room temperature.

3D chirality is shown to be unnecessary for introducing strong circular dichroism for harmonic generations. Specifically, near-unity circular dichroism for both second-harmonic generation and third-harmonic generations is demonstrated on suitably designed ultrathin plasmonic metasurfaces with only 2D planar chirality. The study opens up new routes for designing chip-type biosensing platform, which may allow for highly sensitive detection of bio- and chemical molecules with weak chirality., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

We present an in-depth analysis of the resonant intermixing between optical orbital and spin angular momentum of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams, mediated by chiral clusters made of silicon nanospheres. In particular, we establish a relationship between the spin and orbital quantum numbers characterizing the LG beam and the order q of the rotation symmetry group 𝒞q of the cluster of nanospheres for which resonantly enhanced coupling between the two components of the optical angular momentum is observed. Thus, similar to the case of diffraction grating-mediated transfer of linear momentum between optical beams, we demonstrate that clusters of nanospheres that are invariant to specific rotation transformations can efficiently transfer optical angular momentum between LG beams with different quantum numbers. We also discuss the conditions in which the resonant interaction between LG beams and a chiral cluster of nanospheres leads to the generation of superchiral light.

We perform a comparative study of the Anderson localization of light beams in disordered layered photonic nanostructures that, in the limit of periodic layer distribution, possess either a Dirac point or a Bragg gap in the spectrum of the wavevectors. In particular, we demonstrate that the localization length of the Anderson modes increases when the width of the Bragg gap decreases, such that in the vanishingly small bandgap limit, namely when a Dirac point is formed, even extremely high levels of disorder are unable to localize the optical modes residing near the Dirac point. A comparative analysis of the key features of the propagation of Anderson modes formed in the Bragg gap or near the Dirac point is also presented. Our findings could provide valuable guidelines in assessing the influence of structural disorder on the functionality of a broad array of optical nanodevices.

We present an in-depth study of four-wave mixing (FWM) of optical pulses in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. Our analysis is based on a rigorous model that includes all relevant linear and nonlinear optical effects and their dependence on the group velocity, as well as the influence of free carriers on pulse dynamics. In particular, we reveal key differences between FWM in the slow- and fast-light regimes and how they are related to the physical parameters of the pulses and waveguide. Finally, we illustrate how these results can be used to design waveguides with optimized FWM conversion efficiency.

We demonstrate that plasmonic helical gratings consisting of metallic nanowires imprinted with helical grooves or ridges can be used efficiently to generate plasmonic vortices with radius much smaller than the operating wavelength. In our proposed approach, these helical surface gratings are designed so that plasmon modes with different azimuthal quantum numbers (topological charge) are phase-matched, thus allowing one to generate optical plasmonic vortices with arbitrary topological charge. The general principles for designing plasmonic helical gratings that facilitate efficient generation of such plasmonic vortices are derived and their applicability to the conversion of plasmonic vortices with zero angular momentum into plasmonic vortices with arbitrary angular momentum is illustrated in several particular cases. Our analysis, based both on the exact solutions for the electromagnetic field propagating in the helical plasmonic grating and a coupled-mode theory, suggests that even in the presence of metal losses the fundamental mode with topological charge m = 0 can be converted to plasmon vortex modes with topological charge m = 1 and m = 2 with a conversion efficiency as large as 60%. The plasmonic nanovortices introduced in this study open new avenues for exciting applications of orbital angular momentum in the nanoworld.

We theoretically investigate the fluorescence enhancement of a molecule placed in a variable (4 - 20 nm) gap of a plasmonic dimer, with different dye molecules as well as different nanoparticle geometries, using a fully vectorial three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (3D FDTD) method. This work extends previous studies on molecular fluorescence in the vicinity of metal interfaces and single nanoparticles and shows how the radiative emission of a molecule can be further enhanced by engineering the geometry of a plasmonic structure. Through the use of rigorous 3D FDTD calculations, in conjunction with analytic guidance based on temporal coupled-mode (TCM) theory, we develop a design procedure for antennae assemblies that is useful both for general understanding of molecule-metal structure interaction and experimental efforts in plasmon-enhanced molecular spectroscopy.

We present a theoretical analysis supported by comprehensive numerical simulations of quasi-phase-matched four-wave mixing (FWM) of ultrashort optical pulses that propagate in weakly width-modulated silicon photonic nanowire gratings. Our study reveals that, by properly designing the optical waveguide such that the interacting pulses copropagate with the same group velocity, a conversion efficiency enhancement of more than 15 dB, as compared to a uniform waveguide, can readily be achieved. We also analyze the dependence of the conversion efficiency and FWM gain on the pulse width, time delay, walk-off parameter, and grating modulation depth.

Circularly polarized light is incident on a nanostructured chiral meta-surface. In the nanostructured unit cells whose chirality matches that of light, superchiral light is forming and strong optical second harmonic generation can be observed., (© 2014 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

We present a comprehensive analysis of pulse compression in adiabatically tapered silicon photonic wire waveguides (Si-PhWWGs), both at telecom (λ ∼ 1.55 μm) and mid-IR (λ ≳ 2.1 μm) wavelengths. Our theoretical and computational study is based on a rigorous model that describes the coupled dynamics of the optical field and photogenerated free carriers, as well as the influence of the physical and geometrical parameters of the Si-PhWWGs on these dynamics. We consider both the soliton and non-soliton pulse propagation regimes, rendering the conclusions of this study relevant to a broad range of experimental settings and practical applications. In particular, we show that by engineering the linear and nonlinear optical properties of Si-PhWWGs through adiabatically varying their width, one can achieve more than 10× pulse compression in millimeter-long waveguides. The inter-dependence between the pulse characteristics and compression efficiency is also discussed.

Nonlinear Optics has continued to develop over the last few years at an extremely fast pace, with significant advances being reported in nonlinear optical metamaterials, optical signal processing, quantum optics, nonlinear optics at subwavelength scale, and biophotonics. These exciting new developments have generated significant potential for a broad spectrum of technological applications in which nonlinear-optical processes play a central role.

We demonstrate that the surface second-harmonic generation can lead to the formation of nonlinear plasmonic whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) in microcavities made of metallic nanowires. Since these WGMs are excited by induced surface nonlinear dipoles, they can be generated even when they are not coupled to the radiation continuum. Consequently, the quality factor of these nonlinear modes can be as large as the theoretical limit imposed by the optical losses in the metal. Remarkably, our theoretical analysis shows that nonlinear plasmonic WGMs are characterized by fractional azimuthal modal numbers. This suggests that the plasmonic cavities investigated here can be used to generate multicolor optical fields with fractional angular momentum. Applications to plasmonic sensors are also discussed.

We study the generation of parabolic self-similar optical pulses in tapered Si photonic nanowires (Si-PhNWs) at both telecom (λ=1.55 μm) and mid-infrared (λ=2.2 μm) wavelengths. Our computational study is based on a rigorous theoretical model, which fully describes the influence of linear and nonlinear optical effects on pulse propagation in Si-PhNWs with arbitrarily varying width. Numerical simulations demonstrate that, in the normal dispersion regime, optical pulses evolve naturally into parabolic pulses upon propagation in millimeter-long tapered Si-PhNWs, with the efficiency of this pulse-reshaping process being strongly dependent on the spectral and pulse parameter regime in which the device operates, as well as the particular shape of the Si-PhNWs.

Coupling between tunable broadband modes of an array of plasmonic metamolecules and a vibrational mode of carbonyl bond of poly(methyl methacrylate) is shown experimentally to produce a Fano resonance, which can be tuned in situ by varying the polarization of incident light. The interaction between the plasmon modes and the molecular resonance is investigated using both rigorous electromagnetic calculations and a quantum mechanical model describing the quantum interference between a discrete state and two continua. The predictions of the quantum mechanical model are in good agreement with the experimental data and provide an intuitive interpretation, at the quantum level, of the plasmon-molecule coupling.

We experimentally demonstrate quasi-phase-matched (QPM) four-wave-mixing (FWM) in silicon (Si) nanowire waveguides with sinusoidally modulated width. We perform discrete wavelength conversion over 250 nm, and observe 12 dB conversion efficiency (CE) enhancement for targeted wavelengths more than 100 nm away from the edge of the 3-dB conversion bandwidth. The QPM process in Si nanowires is rigorously modeled, with results explaining experimental observations. The model is further used to investigate the dependence of the CE on key device parameters, and to introduce devices that facilitate wavelength conversion between the C-band and mid-IR. Devices based on a superposition of sinusoidal gratings are investigated theoretically, and are shown to provide CE enhancement over the entire C-band. Width-modulation is further shown to be compatible with zero-dispersion-wavelength pumping for broadband wavelength conversion. The results indicate that QPM via width-modulation is an effective technique for extending the spectral domain of efficient FWM in Si waveguides.

We demonstrate chip-scale flat-top filters at near-IR wavelengths using negative index photonic crystal based Mach-Zehnder interferometers. Supported by full three-dimensional numerical simulations, we experimentally demonstrate a new approach for engineering high-pass, low-pass, bandpass, and band-reject filters, based on designing the photonic band diagram both within the bandgap frequency region and away from it. We further show that our approach can be used to design filters that have tunable multilevel response for different sections of the spectrum and for different polarizations. This configuration enables deterministic control of the bandwidth and the rejection ratio of filters for integrated photonic circuits.

We show by theory and experiment that silicon-dioxide-cladding gratings for Fabry-Pérot cavities on silicon-on-insulator channel ("wire") waveguides provide a low-refractive-index perturbation, which is required for several important integrated photonics components. The underlying refractive index perturbation of these gratings is significantly weaker than that of analogous silicon gratings, leading to finer control of the coupling coefficient κ. Our Fabry-Pérot cavities are designed using the transfer-matrix method (TMM) in conjunction with the finite element method (FEM) for calculating the effective index of each waveguide section. Device parameters such as coupling coefficient, κ, Bragg mirror stop band, Bragg mirror reflectivity, and quality factor Q are examined via TMM modeling. Devices are fabricated with representative values of distributed Bragg reflector lengths, cavity lengths, and propagation losses. The measured transmission spectra show excellent agreement with the FEM/TMM calculations.

We demonstrate experimentally that by engineering the structural asymmetry of the primary unit cell of a symmetrically nanopatterned metallic film the optical transmission becomes strongly dependent on the polarization of the incident wave. By considering a specific plasmonic structure consisting of square arrays of nanoscale asymmetric cruciform apertures we show that the enhanced optical anisotropy is induced by the excitation inside the apertures of localized surface plasmon resonances. The measured transmission spectra of these plasmonic arrays show a transmission maximum whose spectral location can be tuned by almost 50% by simply varying the in-plane polarization of the incident photons. Comprehensive numerical simulations further prove that the maximum of the transmission spectra corresponds to polarization-dependent surface plasmon resonances tightly confined in the two arms of the cruciform aperture. Despite this, there are isosbestic points where the transmission, reflection, and absorption spectra are polarization-independent, regardless of the degree of asymmetry of the apertures.

We demonstrate that dark plasmon modes of cavity-shaped plasmonic structures made of metallic nanowires can be excited by local dipoles induced via second-harmonic generation. The optical properties of these plasmonic cavity modes are thoroughly characterized by using a numerical method that provides a complete description of the optical field at both the fundamental frequency and the second harmonic. In particular, we show that the optical properties of these plasmonic cavity modes are strongly dependent on the geometry of the plasmonic cavity and the material parameters of its constituents. This enhanced sensitivity of dark plasmonic cavity modes to the surrounding dielectric environment can find applications in plasmonic sensing. Specifically, this novel approach to sensing reveals that detection limits of 10(-5) refractive index units can readily be achieved by using wavelength-sized plasmonic devices.

Computational studies are used to show that the crystalline structure of Si causes the waveguide Kerr effective nonlinearity, γ, to vary by 10% for in-plane variation of the orientation of a silicon nanowire waveguide (SiNWG) fabricated on a standard silicon-on-insulator wafer. Our analysis shows that this angular dependence of γ can be employed to form a nonlinear Kerr grating in dimensionally uniform SiNWGs based on either ring resonators or cascaded waveguide bends. The magnitude of the nonlinear index variation in these gratings is found to be sufficient for phase matching in four-wave mixing and other optical parametric processes.

We present a theoretical study of vortical plasmonic lattice solitons, which form in two-dimensional arrays of metallic nanowires embedded into nonlinear media with both focusing and defocusing Kerr nonlinearities. Their existence, stability, and subwavelength spatial confinement are investigated in detail.

We have applied the surface-sensitive nonlinear optical technique of magnetization-induced second harmonic generation (MSHG) to plasmonic, magnetic nanostructures made of Ni. We show that surface plasmon contributions to the MSHG signal can reveal the direction of the magnetization. Both the plasmonic and the magnetic nonlinear optical responses can be tuned; our results indicate novel ways to combine nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, and nanomagnetics and suggest the possibility for large magneto-chiral effects in metamaterials.

We present a comprehensive theoretical and numerical analysis of the physical mechanisms pertaining to the nonlinear pulsed excitation of optical modes in plasmonic cavities made of metallic nanowires. Our analysis is based on extensive numerical simulations carried out both in the frequency and time domains. The numerical algorithm used in our study is based on the multiple scattering method and allows us to include in our analysis the effects of both the surface and bulk nonlinear polarizations generated at the second harmonic (SH). In particular, we investigate the physical properties of plasmonic modes excited at the SH as the result of the interaction of femtosecond optical pulses with plasmonic nanocavities. We show that such cavities have two distinct types of modes, namely, plasmonic cavity modes and multipole plasmon modes generated via the hybridization of modes of single nanowires. Our analysis reveals that the properties of the latter modes depend only weakly on the cavity geometry, whereas the lifetime and quality factor of plasmonic cavity modes vary considerably with the system parameters.

We predict theoretically that stable subwavelength plasmonic lattice solitons (PLSs) are formed in arrays of metallic nanowires embedded in a nonlinear medium. The tight confinement of the guiding modes of the metallic nanowires, combined with the strong nonlinearity induced by the enhanced field at the metal surface, provide the main physical mechanisms for balancing the wave diffraction and the formation of PLSs. As the conditions required for the formation of PLSs are satisfied in a variety of plasmonic systems, we expect these nonlinear modes to have important applications to subwavelength nanophotonics. In particular, we show that the subwavelength PLSs can be used to optically manipulate with nanometer accuracy the power flow in ultracompact photonic systems.

We present the first observations of zero-n[over ] band gaps in photonic crystal superlattices consisting of alternating stacks of negative-index photonic crystals and positive-index dielectric materials in the near-infrared range. Guided by ab initio three-dimensional numerical simulations, the fabricated nanostructured superlattices demonstrate the presence of zeroth-order gaps in remarkable agreement with theoretical predictions across a range of different superlattice periods and unit cell variations. These volume-averaged zero-index superlattice structures present a new type of photonic band gap, with the potential for complete wave front control for arbitrary phase delay lines and open cavity resonances.

We study the frequency dependence of the optical nonlinearity of Si photonic nanowires (Si-PNWs) and its influence on the propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in such nanodevices. Specifically, we show that Si-PNWs present a remarkably large characteristic time associated with self-steepening effects and optical shock formation, namely, more than an order of magnitude larger than in the case of photonic crystal fibers.

We report the observation of imaging beyond the diffraction limit due to bound surface states in negative refraction photonic crystals. We achieve an effective negative index figure of merit [-Re(n)/Im(n)] of at least 380, approximately 125x improvement over recent efforts in the near-infrared range, with a 0.4 THz bandwidth. Supported by numerical and theoretical analyses, the observed near-field resolution is 0.47lambda, clearly smaller than the diffraction limit of 0.61lambda. Importantly, we show this subdiffraction imaging is due to the resonant excitation of surface slab modes.

We use finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to demonstrate enhanced infrared absorption in a photodetector covered with a microstructured metal film consisting of a metal-plasmon grating collector/ concentrator and sub-wavelength detector well; for circular gratings we use radial FDTD, and for linear gratings we use two-dimensional FDTD. We identify a figure of merit to quantify the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of such a detector scheme. We optimize grating parameters for a circular grating surrounding a simple hole, showing that the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by a factor of as much as 5.2, whereas the signal-to-noise improvement for comparable linear gratings is at most 1.7. In the case of the circular grating, this result is achieved with more than 400 times as much light absorbed in the hole as with a metal film but no grating.

The strong dispersion and large third-order nonlinearity in Si photonic wires are intimately linked in the optical physics needed for the optical control of phase. By carefully choosing the waveguide dimensions, both linear and nonlinear optical properties of Si wires can be engineered. In this paper we provide a review of the control of phase using nonlinear-optical effects such as self-phase and cross-phase modulation in dispersion-engineered Si wires. The low threshold powers for phase-changing effects in Si-wires make them potential candidates for functional nonlinear optical devices of just a few millimeters in length.

Plasmon-enhanced transmission of light incident on a periodic array of nanoscale, asymmetric cruciform patterns is demonstrated. The corresponding transmission spectra are shown to be polarization dependent and possess unique properties, such as the existence of isosbestic points for which the transmission is polarization insensitive. Transmission peaks corresponding to localized surface plasmon resonances and extended surface plasmons are also identified.

We observe spectral broadening of more than 350 nm, i.e., a 3/10-octave span, upon propagation of ultrashort 1.3-mum-wavelength optical pulses in a 4.7-mm-long silicon-photonic-wire waveguide. We measure the wavelength dependence of the spectral features and relate it to waveguide dispersion and input power. The spectral characteristics of the output pulses are shown to be consistent, in part, with higher-order soliton radiative effects.

We study theoretically the mechanisms by which optical absorption is enhanced in an optical nanostructure consisting of a slab waveguide, made of a-Si:H, sandwiched between a periodic array of metallic nanowires and a substrate, both made of Au. We demonstrate that for the TM polarization the optical absorption in the slab waveguide can be enhanced by almost an order of magnitude by the excitation of plasmon modes, whereas for both the TM and TE polarizations the grating-induced excitation of slab waveguide modes leads to more than twofold enhancement of the optical absorption.

By performing time-resolved experiments and power-dependent measurements using femtosecond pulses inside submicron cross-section Si photonic-wire waveguides, we demonstrate strong cross-phase modulation (XPM) effects. We find that XPM in Si wires can be significant even for low peak pump powers, i.e., ~15 mW for pi phase shift. Our experimental data closely match numerical simulations using a rigorous coupled-wave theoretical treatment. Our results suggest that XPM is a potentially useful approach for all-optical control of photonic devices in Si wires.

We demonstrate that strong modulation instability (MI) of copropagating optical waves can be observed in Si photonic nanowires with a length of only a few millimeters. We consider two distinct cases, namely one in which one wave propagates in the normal group-velocity dispersion (GVD) region and the other one experiences anomalous GVD, and a second case in which both waves propagate in the anomalous GVD region. In both cases we show that, for comparable optical powers, the peak value of the MI gain spectrum is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than that achieved in optical fibers.