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Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for a label-free identification of molecular species. The low infrared absorption cross sections of molecules are made up for the huge electromagnetic field enhancement provided by the resonant excitation of collective electron oscillations in metallic nanoantennas. Since these surface plasmons are localized at the nanometer scale, a minute amount of materials is detected leading to a weak SEIRA signal. The design of actual plasmonics detectors is a trade-off between the detection of very small volumes of molecules and the signal to noise ratio level. We demonstrate that an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) material combined with nano-slits lifts this constraint and provides both extreme enhancement factor up to 107 and highly contrasted SEIRA signal for an extremely low amount of material of interest. These results are explained by the modification of the electromagnetic field of the gap plasmon mode sustained by the slits in the presence of the ENZ material. We propose to implement this concept with a semiconductor whose doping level engineering provides a versatile way to scan the whole molecules' fingerprint frequency range.

We theoretically and experimentally study the THz electromagnetic properties of an undoped-InAs slab whose permittivity is optically modified by a photo-generation process. The modulation of the permittivity is calculated by solving the ambipolar rate equation for the free carriers. Experiment results demonstrate that InAs is a promising semiconductor to manufacture fast and efficiently on-chip THz components. We show a high modulation of the THz transmission up to 100% from 0.75 to 1.1THz at very low pump fluence in the continuous wave regime. We also demonstrate a high-speed transmission modulation rate up to the MHz range with a modulated pump.

International audience; We experimentally demonstrate an ultrastrong coupling regime between a gap plasmon and phonon in metallic-insulator-metallic antennas at far-infrared frequencies. These plasmonic antennas made of a silicondoped semiconductor (InAsSb) are versatile structures able to reveal the polaritonic modes due to the hybridization of a gap plasmon and phonon. The anticrossing behavior featuring the ultrastrong coupling is properly studied by varying the width of the metallic antenna array. The gap-plasmon resonance supported by the antennas is shown to be particularly sensitive to the presence of phonons in the GaSb insulator. The experimental data demonstrate a giant Rabi splitting of 30% of the GaSb transverse optical phonon energy and are in good agreement with both electromagnetic and semiclassical calculations.

International audience; We propose an efficient optically actuated THz modulator based on an ultrathin epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) slab photogenerated in an InAs semiconductor. We experimentally demonstrate a modulation depth of 90% at 1 THz obtained with a continuous laser at irradiation lower than 10 W cm À2. Beyond the strong attenuation of the THz transmission provided by the ENZ absorption effect, we also report a broadband modulation of the THz waves from 1 to 10 THz. In addition, our experimental results show that the cutoff frequency of 3 dB attains 2 MHz in the dynamic modulation regime.

Active metasurfaces have attracted a great deal of attention due to the unlimited ways of controlling electromagnetic radiation. In this work, we theoretically study the THz electromagnetic properties of photogenerated metasurfaces in an InAs slab. We use a spatially modulated optical pump to modify the permittivity. Those modifications are calculated by solving the ambipolar rate equation for the photocarriers. This work reveals the crucial impact of the photocarrier diffusion for realizing optimal metasurfaces for the control of THz radiation. We demonstrate that InAs is a promising semiconductor that could be used to manufacture fast and efficient on-chip THz components. We also demonstrate that low pump fluence in the continuous regime of only tens of $\text{W}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\text{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ is sufficient to modulate the absorption of the THz waves up to $67%$ over a broad frequency range from 1 to 3 THz.

We propose the concept of hyperbolic metamaterial wires allowing to miniaturize plasmonic resonators sustaining bulk plasmon polaritons squeezed in 1/100 of the wavelength. These new structures outperform the conventional Metal — Insulator — Metal optical antennas in terms of efficiency and miniaturization. A model is provided to scale the resonant wavelength by controlling the filling ratio between the metal and dielectric layers.

The oxynitride materials present a high versatility, which enables their properties to be controlled by tuning their elemental composition. This is the case for silicon oxynitrides used for multilayer antireflective coatings (ARCs), where several thin films with various refractive indexes are needed. Different techniques allow for the modification of the thin film composition. In this paper, we investigate the reactive gas pulsing sputtering process to easily tune the thin film composition, from an oxide to a nitride, by controlling the averaged oxygen flow rate, without reducing the deposition rate, compared to a conventional reactive process (CP). We then demonstrated that the refractive indexes of films deposited by this pulsing process (PP) can be varied in the same range compared to films obtained by CP (from 1.83 to 1.45 at 1.95 eV), whereas their extinction coefficients remain low. Finally, the multilayer ARC has been simulated and optimized by a genetic algorithm for wavelength at 600 nm and for the silicon substrate. Various optimized multilayer (mono-, bi- and tri-layers) structures have been deposited by the PP technique and characterized. They are presented in good agreement with the simulated reflectivity. Hence, the PP allows for an easy depositing tri-layer system with a reasonable deposition rate and low reflectivity (8.1% averaged on 400–750 nm visible light range).

We propose a universal design which provides simple scaling laws that can be used as a recipe to realize ultra-thin perfect absorbers operating from infrared to microwave frequencies independently of the choice of the materials (i.e metal and dielectric) involved and for all polarization states of light.

We demonstrate a periodic array of metallic — insulator-metallic nano-resonators using highly doped InAsSb semiconductors on GaSb substrate that can be described as a high absorber in the infrared region. Our simulation approach permits to obtain analytically the optical properties of the absorption structure with rigorous couple-wave analysis and thus to establish a coherent fabrication geometry for almost total absorption at certain wavelengths. Furthermore, the fabricated nano-resonator arrays by laser lithography and acid wet chemical etching show absorption at certain wavelengths. There is a linear relationship between the peak maximum and the nano-resonator width.

We study the impact of a super-structuration of the transparent conducting electrode made of polycrystalline ZnO:Al on the efficiency of thin solar cells based on amorphous silicon. We demonstrate that photonic crystal cavities etched in the electrode present efficient anti-reflective properties and add absorption resonances in the red part of the spectrum where other structures are inefficient. This super-structuring boosts the optical absorption by 4.2% and broaden the angular acceptance compared to conventional grating patterns. The origin of these cavity states is explained in the framework of the envelop function approach.