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Reconfigurable plasmonics is driving an extensive quest for active materials that can support a controllable modulation of their optical properties for dynamically tunable plasmonic structures. Here, polymorphic gallium (Ga) is demonstrated to be a very promising candidate for adaptive plasmonics and reconfigurable photonics applications. The Ga sp-metal is widely known as a liquid metal at room temperature. In addition to the many other compelling attributes of nanostructured Ga, including minimal oxidation and biocompatibility, its six phases have varying degrees of metallic character, providing a wide gamut of electrical conductivity and optical behavior tunability. Here, the dielectric function of the several Ga phases is introduced and correlated with their respective electronic structures. The key conditions for optimal optical modulation and switching for each Ga phase are evaluated. Additionally, we provide a comparison of Ga with other more common phase-change materials, showing better performance of Ga at optical frequencies. Furthermore, we first report, to the best of our knowledge, the optical properties of liquid Ga in the terahertz (THz) range showing its broad plasmonic tunability from ultraviolet to visible-infrared and down to the THz regime. Finally, we provide both computational and experimental evidence of extension of Ga polymorphism to bidimensional two-dimensional (2D) gallenene, paving the way to new bidimensional reconfigurable plasmonic platforms.

The demand for information processing at ultrahigh speed with large data transmission capacity is continuously rising. Necessary building blocks for on‐chip photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are reconfigurable integrated low‐loss high‐speed modulators and switches. Phase change materials (PCMs) provide unique opportunities for integration into PICs. Here, the investigation of layered gallium monosulfide (GaS) as a novel low‐loss PCM from infrared to optical frequencies is pioneered, with high index contrast (Δn ≈0.5) at the optical telecommunication band. The GaS bandgap switches from 1.5 ± 0.2 eV for the amorphous state to 2.1 ± 0.1 eV for the crystalline state. It is demonstrated that the reversible GaS amorphous‐to‐crystalline phase transition can be operated thermally and by picosecond green (532 nm) laser irradiation. The design of a reconfigurable integrated optical modulator on‐chip based on Mach‐Zehnder Interferometers (MZI) with the GaS PCM cell deposited on one of the arms for application is presented at the telecommunication wavelength of λ = 1310 nm, where the standard single mode optical fiber exhibits zero chromatic dispersion, and at λ = 1550 nm, where a minimum optical loss of 0.22 dB km−1 is obtained. This opens the route to applications such as reconfigurable modulators, beam steering using phase modulation, and photonic neural networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planar metal-dielectric interface can be regarded as the simplest such system, where the excitations take the form of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with amplitudes decreasing exponentially in both directions from the surface. The ENZ wavelengths of elemental metals are usually located in the UV-Visible range, whereas the ENZ wavelengths of transparent conductive oxides are typically located in the near-infrared region. The interaction of electromagnetic fields with matter and the ability to harvest and manipulate light at the nanoscale has turned the research on plasmonic nanomaterials into a booming field of study.[1] Plasmonic materials, along with their nanostructural details and hybridization, can offer new research directions in plasmonics. Historically, the field began with investigations of bulk and surface plasmons in thin metal films, since at the time materials science was relatively primitive and the fabrication of nanostructure to order was impossible. [Extracted from the article]

Reconfigurable plasmonics constitutes an exciting and challenging new horizon in nanophotonics. This blooming field aims at providing plasmonic nanostructures that present a dynamic and active plasmonic response that can be switched or manipulated by external stimuli to induce a controllable change in the optical properties. Most common plasmonic materials, such as the noble metals gold and silver, cannot deliver this type of behavior. Therefore, significant effort is being invested in developing alternative materials whose optical properties can be controllably modified to provide a reconfigurable plasmonic response. In this perspective, several materials including non-noble metals, transition metal oxides and nitrides, and chalcogenide compounds will be analyzed. The selected materials share interesting characteristics like low cost, good chemical and thermal stabilities, and CMOS compatibility while presenting a reconfigurable plasmonic response governed by different phase-change mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gallium monochalcogenides family, comprising gallium sulfide (GaS), gallium selenide (GaSe), and gallium telluride (GaTe), is capturing attention for its applications in energy storage and production, catalysis, photonics, and optoelectronics. This interest originates from their properties, which include an optical bandgap larger than those of most common transition metal dichalcogenides, efficient light absorption, and significant carrier mobility. For any application, stability to air exposure is a fundamental requirement. Here, we perform a comparative study of the stability of layered GaS, GaSe, and GaTe nanometer-thick films down to a few layers with the goal of identifying the most suitable Ga chalcogenide for future integration in photonic and optoelectronic devices. Our study unveils a trend of decreasing air stability from sulfide to selenide and finally to telluride. Furthermore, we demonstrate a hydrogen passivation process to prevent the oxidation of GaSe with a higher feasibility and durability than other state-of-the-art passivation methods proposed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among semiconductor metal oxides, that are an important class of sensing materials, titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films are widely employed as sensors because of their high chemical and mechanical stability in harsh environments, non-toxicity, eco-compatibility, and photocatalytic properties. TiO2-based chemical oxygen demand (COD) sensors exploit the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 in inducing the oxidation of organic compounds to CO2. In this work, we discuss nanostructured TiO2 thin films grown via low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on metallic AISI 316 mesh. To increase the surface sensing area, different inorganic acid-based chemical etching protocols have been developed, determining the optimal experimental conditions for adequate substrate roughness. Both chemically etched pristine meshes and the MOCVD-coated ones have been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We demonstrate that etching by HCl/H2SO4 at 55 °C provides the most suitable surface morphology. To investigate the behavior of the developed high surface area TiO2 thin films as COD sensors, photocatalytic degradation of functional model pollutants based on ISO 10678:2010 has been tested, showing for the best performing acid-etched mesh coated with polycrystalline TiO2 an increase of 60% in activity, and degrading 66 µmol of MB per square meter per hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]