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Mie-resonant dielectric metasurfaces are excellent candidates for both fundamental studies related to light-matter interactions and for numerous applications ranging from holography to sensing to nonlinear optics. To date, however, most applications using Mie metasurfaces utilize only weak light-matter interaction. Here, we go beyond the weak coupling regime and demonstrate for the first time strong polaritonic coupling between Mie photonic modes and intersubband (ISB) transitions in semiconductor heterostructures. Furthermore, along with demonstrating ISB polaritons with Rabi splitting as large as 10%, we also demonstrate the ability to tailor the strength of strong coupling by engineering either the semiconductor heterostructure or the photonic mode of the resonators. Unlike previous plasmonic-based works, our new all-dielectric metasurface approach to generate ISB polaritons is free from ohmic losses and has high optical damage thresholds, thereby making it ideal for creating novel and compact mid-infrared light sources based on nonlinear optics.

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We perform ultrafast degenerate infrared pump-probe micro- to nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy of multi-quantum-well antenna heterostructures. We demonstrate coupling strength and phase rotation control through modification of the optical nano-cavity.

We experimentally demonstrate a metasurface that supports tailorable polaritons arising from strong coupling between Mie modes of dielectric nanoresonators and intersubband transitions of semiconductor quantum wells that are embedded inside the resonator.

We demonstrate an extremely nonlinear all-dielectric metasurface that employs intersubband polaritons to achieve a second-harmonic conversion coefficient of 3 mW/W2, and second-harmonic power conversion efficiency of 0.045% at a modest pump intensity of 6.7 kW/cm2.

We experimentally characterize mid-infrared intersubband transitions in identical Al0.5Ga0.5N/GaN heterostructures grown on a- and m-plane GaN substrates. The absorption peaks of the m-plane samples are 10 to 40% narrower than that of the a-plane samples.

We experimentally demonstrate strong coupling between Mie modes of dielectric resonators in a metasurface and intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells that are embedded inside the resonator. The ability to achieve such light-matter coupling creates the possibility to realize ultrathin nonlinear optical devices that are free from complex phase matching requirements and have very high nonlinear conversion efficiencies.

Highly nonlinear optical materials with fast third-order nonlinear optical response are crucial for the operation of all-optical photonic devices, such as switches for signal processing and computation, power limiters, and saturable absorbers. The nonlinear response of traditional optical materials is weak, thus requiring large light intensities to induce significant changes in their properties. Here we show that optical control of the coupling rate in subwavelength patch antennas coupled to intersubband transitions in multi-quantum-well semiconductor heterostructures can provide a giant third-order nonlinear response, on the order of 3.4 × 10 − 13 m 2 / V 2 , with a response time < 2 p s . We utilize this effect to realize intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces and demonstrate their operation as highly nonlinear saturable and reverse saturable absorbers, enabling optical power limiters and other elements for all-optical modulation and control. Our approach enables a plethora of compact, low-power, highly nonlinear devices with spectral, temporal, and structured wavefront responses tailored by design.

Mid-infrared intersubband transitions are investigated in nonpolar m-plane and a-plane GaN/AlGaN multi-quantum well heterostructures. Nominally identical heterostructures were grown by ammonia molecular-beam epitaxy on free-standing m-plane and a-plane GaN substrates. A total of 12 well- and barrier-doped samples with intersubband transition energies in the range of 220–320 meV (wavelength range 3.8–5.6 μm) were grown. The intersubband absorption lines of the m-plane samples were 10–40% narrower than those of the a-plane samples, and a very narrow intersubband absorption linewidth of 38 meV (full width at half maximum) at a transition energy of approximately 250 meV (5 μm wavelength) was observed in an m-plane sample. Narrower intersubband absorption linewidths of m-plane samples can be explained by more abrupt heterostructure interfaces revealed by structural characterization, which is attributed to a higher stability of the m-plane compared to the a-plane. No significant difference in the intersubband absorption linewidth was observed between the barrier- and well-doped samples.

The Si-compatibility of perovskite heterostructures offers the intriguing possibility of producing oxide-based quantum well (QW) optoelectronic devices for use in Si photonics. While the SrTiO3/LaAlO3 (STO/LAO) system has been studied extensively in the hopes of using the interfacial 2-dimensional electron gas in Si-integrated electronics, the potential to exploit its giant 2.4 eV conduction band offset in oxide-based QW optoelectronic devices has so far been largely ignored. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature intersubband absorption in STO/LAO QW heterostructures at energies on the order of hundreds of meV, including at energies approaching the critically important telecom wavelength of 1.55 μm. We demonstrate the ability to control the absorption energy by changing the width of the STO well layers by a single unit cell and present theory showing good agreement with experiment. A detailed structural and chemical analysis of the samples via scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is presented. This work represents an important proof-of-concept for the use of transition metal oxide QWs in Si-compatible optoelectronic devices.

The Si-compatibility of perovskite heterostructures offers the intriguing possibility of producing oxide-based quantum well (QW) optoelectronic devices for use in Si photonics. While the SrTiO

We experimentally demonstrate a novel approach of using coupling between a leaky mode resonance and intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells to realize a hybrid dielectric-semiconductor metasurface with high second-harmonic conversion efficiency and increased bandwidth.

We report the design and operation of a nonlinear intersubband polaritonic metasurface for mid-infrared second harmonic generation. The metasurface is made of plasmonic nanoresonators filled with a multiple-quantum-well semiconductor heterostructure. Unlike the previously reported nonlinear intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces that employ full-metal backplanes below the etched metal–semiconductor nanoresonators, the metasurface reported here employs an incomplete backplane that is complementary to the pattern of the top metallization of the etched semiconductor heterostructure nanoresonators. The new approach produces high-electric-field localization and enhancement in the nanoresonators, while requiring simplified fabrication and allowing the metasurface to operate in both transmission and reflection regimes.

Gradient metasurfaces, or ultrathin optical components with engineered transverse impedance gradients along the surface, are able to locally control the phase and amplitude of the scattered fields over subwavelength scales, enabling a broad range of linear components in a flat, integrable platform1–4. On the contrary, due to the weakness of their nonlinear optical responses, conventional nonlinear optical components are inherently bulky, with stringent requirements associated with phase matching and poor control over the phase and amplitude of the generated beam. Nonlinear metasurfaces have been recently proposed to enable frequency conversion in thin films without phase-matching constraints and subwavelength control of the local nonlinear phase5–8. However, the associated optical nonlinearities are far too small to produce significant nonlinear conversion efficiency and compete with conventional nonlinear components for pump intensities below the materials damage threshold. Here, we report multi-quantum-well based gradient nonlinear metasurfaces with second-order nonlinear susceptibility over 106 pm/V for second harmonic generation at a fundamental pump wavelength of 10 μm, 5-6 orders of magnitude larger than traditional crystals. Further, we demonstrate the efficacy of this approach to designing metasurfaces optimized for frequency conversion over a large range of wavelengths, by reporting multi-quantum-well and metasurface structures optimized for a pump wavelength of 6.7 μm. Finally, we demonstrate how the phase of this nonlinearly generated light can be locally controlled well below the diffraction limit using the Pancharatnam-Berry phase approach5,7,9, opening a new paradigm for ultrathin, flat nonlinear optical components.

The application of the Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase approach to the design of nonlinear metasurfaces has recently enabled subdiffractive phase control over the generated nonlinear fields, embedding phased array features in ultrathin structures. Here, we rigorously model, analyze, and design highly efficient nonlinear metasurfaces with advanced functionalities, including the generation of pencil beams steered in arbitrary directions in space, as well as vortex beams with polarization-dependent angular momentum, and we extend the PB approach to various nonlinear processes. To this purpose, we develop an accurate and efficient theoretical framework---inspired by the linear phase array theory---based on the effective nonlinear susceptibility method, thus avoiding the use of time-consuming numerical simulations. Our findings allow exploiting the flat nonlinear optics paradigm, enabling exciting applications based on subwavelength field control over flat and large-scale structures with giant nonlinear responses.

Extending the ‘flat optics’ paradigm to the nonlinear optics faces important challenges, since, for any practical situation, we are required to simultaneously achieve sub-diffraction phase control and efficient frequency conversion in metasurfaces of sub-wavelength thickness. Here, we experimentally demonstrate giant nonlinear response and continuous phase control of the giant nonlinear response in metasurfaces based on plasmonic nanoresonators coupled to intersubband transitions in semiconductor multi-quantum wells. Over 0.075% of second-harmonic power conversion efficiency is achieved experimentally in a 400-nm-thick metasurface using 10 microns wavelength pump with 20 kW/cm2 intensity.

Extending the ‘flat optics’ paradigm to the nonlinear optics faces important challenges, since, for any practical situation, we are required to simultaneously achieve sub-diffraction phase control and efficient frequency conversion in metasurfaces of sub-wavelength thickness. Here, we experimentally demonstrate giant nonlinear response and continuous phase control of the giant nonlinear response in metasurfaces based on plasmonic nanoresonators coupled to intersubband transitions in semiconductor multi-quantum wells. Over 0.075% of second-harmonic power conversion efficiency is achieved experimentally in a 400-nm-thick metasurface using 10 microns wavelength pump with 20 kW/cm2 intensity.

Gradient metasurfaces, or ultrathin optical components with engineered transverse impedance gradients along the surface have recently been demonstrated to provide control of the phase of scattered fields over sub-wavelength scale, enabling a broad range of linear optical components. More recently, sub-wavelength-thin nonlinear metasurfaces with tailored nonlinear responses have provided new degrees of freedom in metamaterial design, with potential applications such as super-resolution imaging, frequency conversion with greatly relaxed phase-matching constraints, and in all-optical switching and memories at nanoscale. However for all practical purposes, the level of nonlinear responses enabled by traditional materials, such as metals and dielectric crystals, is too weak, and nonlinear metasurfaces with orders of magnitude larger nonlinear susceptibilities are necessary to realistically enable a new paradigm in nonlinear optics, based on efficient frequency mixing in sub-wavelength films with relaxed phase-matching conditions and local in-place phase and amplitude control of the nonlinear response. We have recently reported polaritonic nonlinear metasurfaces with record-high nonlinear optical responses for second-harmonic generation based on coupling of electromagnetic modes in plasmonic nanoresonators with quantum-engineered intersubband nonlinearities in multi-quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor heterostructures. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate continuous 360-degrees phase control of the nonlinear response for second-harmonic nonlinear optical process at the individual nanoresonator level with practical level of nonlinear optical responses using a generalization of the Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase approach to our MQW-based structures. Extending the ‘flat optics’ paradigm established with linear gradient metasurface, our result unveil a ‘flat nonlinear optics’ paradigm based on efficient frequency mixing and a complete control of the output wavefront with subwavelngth resolution.

We present a novel class of ultrathin metasurfaces operating in a nonlinear regime, simultaneously providing generation efficiencies that are many orders of magnitude larger than in other nonlinear setups, and, at the same time, capable of controlling the local phase of the nonlinear signal with high precision and subwavelength resolution. The key to achieving such outstanding performance is combining a strong local field enhancement and polarization selectivity of plasmonic nano-antennas with extremely high nonlinearity of multi-quantum well semiconductor stacks. In this work, we discuss the operation principles of such metasurfaces and provide experimental and numerical results. We also show how a savvy application of Lorentz reciprocity principle allows for fast and efficient analysis and modeling of such metasurfaces consisting of thousands of elements.

We apply the Pancharatnam-Berry phase approach to plasmonic metasurfaces loaded by highly nonlinear multiquantum-well substrates, establishing a platform to control the nonlinear wave front at will based on giant localized nonlinear effects. We apply this approach to design flat nonlinear metasurfaces for efficient second-harmonic radiation, including beam steering, focusing, and polarization manipulation. Our findings open a new direction for nonlinear optics, in which phase matching issues are relaxed, and an unprecedented level of local wave front control is achieved over thin devices with giant nonlinear responses.

Intersubband transitions in n-doped semiconductor heterostructures allow one to quantum-engineer one of the largest known nonlinear response in condensed matter systems but only for the electric field polarized normal to semiconductor layer. By coupling of a quantum-engineered multi-quantum-well semiconductor layer with electromagnetically-engineered plasmonic elements we may produce ultrathin metasurfaces with giant nonlinear response. Here we experimentally demonstrate metasurfaces designed for second harmonic generation at λ≈9.9 μm with a record-high nonlinear response for condensed-matter systems in infrared/visible spectral range, up to 1.17×106 pm/V. The practical impact of the nonlinear metasurfaces proposed here may be extended to a variety of fields, including THz generation and detection, phase conjugation, and other nonlinear optical processes.

Intersubband transitions in n-doped semiconductor heterostructures provide the possibility to quantum engineer one of the largest known nonlinear optical responses in condensed matter systems, limited however to electric field polarized normal to the semiconductor layers. Here we show that by coupling of electromagnetic modes in plasmonic metasurfaces with quantum-engineered intersubband transitions in semiconductor heterostructures one can create ultra-thin highlynonlinear metasurfaces for normal light incidence. Structures discussed here represent a novel kind of hybrid metalsemiconductor metamaterials in which exotic optical properties are produced by coupling electromagneticallyengineered modes in dielectric and plasmonic nanostructures with quantum-engineered intersubband transitions in semiconductor heterostructures. Record values of effective optical nonlinearities of over 400 nm/V are experimentally measured for metasurfaces optimized for efficient second harmonic generation at 9.7 μm pump wavelength under normal incidence.

We report highly-nonlinear metasurfaces based on combining electromagnetically-engineered plasmonic nanoresonators with quantum-engineered intersubband nonlinearities. Experimentally, effective nonlinear susceptibility over 480 nm/V was measured for second-harmonic generation at normal incidence.

The results of tensile strained AlN/GaN, AlGaN/GaN, and compressive strained InGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) grown by Ammonia MBE (NH3-MBE) are presented. A combination of atom probe tomography and high-resolution X-ray diffraction confirms that periodic heterostructures of high crystallographic quality are achieved. Strain induced misfit dislocations (MDs), however, are revealed by cathodoluminescence (CL) of the strained AlN/GaN, AlGaN/GaN, and InGaN/GaN structures. MDs in the active region of a device are a severe problem as they act as non-radiative charge recombination centers, affecting the reliability and efficiency of the device. Strain compensated SL structures are subsequently developed, composed of alternating layers of tensile strained AlGaN and compressively strained InGaN. CL reveals the absence of MDs in such structures, demonstrating that strain compensation offers a viable route towards MD free active regions in III-Nitride SL based devices.

Gradient metasurfaces have recently been demonstrated to provide control of the phase of scattered fields over subwavelength scales, enabling a broad range of linear optical components in a flat, ultrathin, integrable platform. Additionally, the development of nonlinearmetasurfaces has disrupted conventional nonlinear optical device design by relaxing phase matching constraints, reducing size and dimensionality, and providing record values of localized nonlinear responses. However, extending the “flat optics” paradigm to the nonlinear case faces important challenges, since we are required to simultaneously achieve efficient frequency conversion and sub-diffractive phase control. Here, we experimentally demonstrate continuous phase control of the giant nonlinear second harmonic optical response from metasurfaces tied to intersubband transitions in semiconductor multi-quantum wells, establishing an exciting path toward realizing the vision of flat, nonlinear optics.

This paper focuses on a re-analysis and updating of the 1974 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency entitled: Population Distribution of the United Sates as a Function of Outdoor Noise Level, and commonly known as the 100-site survey. New data, about half of which were gathered throughout the country during 2008 and 2009 and about half of which were gathered in the Baltimore area in about 1998, are presented in this paper, where these different data sets are compared one to one another, and where the total combined data set in terms of the day-night sound level (abbreviated DNL and symbolized Ldn) is examined as a function of population density. The main conclusions are that the original function in the EPA report yields results that are 3 dB higher than results obtained in a free-field situation, primarily because the measurements in that study used a microphone supported on a pole and at a distance of 1.8 m (6 ft) from the facade of the building. The new data confirm that the EPA predictions are 3 dB higher than those obtained for a free-field situation. A second main conclusion is that there is neither indication of any significant increase in overall ambient community noise exposure over the past 35 years, nor is there indication of any significant decrease in overall ambient community noise exposure despite 35 years of technological noise control improvements on transportation and other noise sources.