Publications by Year: 2012

2012
Francesco Aieta, Patrice Genevet, Mikhail A. Kats, Nanfang Yu, Romain Blanchard, Zeno Gahurro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Aberration-Free Ultrathin Flat Lenses and Axicons at Telecom Wavelengths Based on Plasmonic Metasurfaces.” NANO LETTERS, 12, 9, Pp. 4932-4936.Abstract
The concept of optical phase discontinuities is applied to the design and demonstration of aberration-free planar lenses and axicons, comprising a phased array of ultrathin subwavelength-spaced optical antennas. The lenses and axicons consist of V-shaped nano-antennas that introduce a radial distribution of phase discontinuities, thereby generating respectively spherical wavefronts and nondiffracting Bessel beams at telecom wavelengths. Simulations are also presented to show that our aberration-free designs are applicable to high-numerical aperture lenses such as flat microscope objectives.
nl302516v.pdf
Nanfang Yu, Qijie Wang, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Beam engineering of quantum cascade lasers.” LASER & PHOTONICS REVIEWS, 6, 1, Pp. 24-46.Abstract
This paper reviews beam engineering of mid-infrared and terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), based on two approaches: designer plasmonic structures and deformed microcavities. The plasmonic structures couple laser emission into surface waves and control the laser wavefront in the near-field, thereby greatly increasing beam collimation or introducing new functionalities to QCLs. The plasmonic designs overall preserve laser performance in terms of operating temperature and power output. The deformed microcavity QCLs operate primarily on whispering-gallery modes, which have much higher quality factors than other modes, leading to lower threshold current densities. Cavity deformations are carefully controlled to greatly enhance directionality and output power.
lpor.201100019.pdf
Nanfang Yu, Francesco Aieta, Patrice Genevet, Mikhail A. Kats, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “A Broadband, Background-Free Quarter-Wave Plate Based on Plasmonic Metasurfaces.” NANO LETTERS, 12, 12, Pp. 6328-6333.Abstract
We demonstrate optically thin quarter-wave plates built with metasurfaces that generate high-quality circularly polarized light over a broad wavelength range for arbitrary orientation of the incident linear polarization. The metasurface consists of an array of plasmonic antennas with spatially varying phase and polarization responses. Experimentally demonstrated quarter-wave plates generate light with a high degree of circular polarization (>0.97) from lambda = 5 to 12 mu m, representing a major advance in performance compared to previously reported plasmonics-based wave plates.
nl303445u.pdf
Eiji Iwase, Pui-Chuen Hui, David Woolf, Alejandro W. Rodriguez, Steven G. Johnson, Federico Capasso, and Marko Loncar. 2012. “Control of buckling in large micromembranes using engineered support structures.” JOURNAL OF MICROMECHANICS AND MICROENGINEERING, 22, 6.Abstract
In this paper we describe a general method to avoid stress-induced buckling of thin and large freestanding membranes. We show that using properly designed supports, in the form of microbeams, we can reduce the out-of-plane deflection of the membrane while maintaining its stiffness. As a proof of principle, we used a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform to fabricate 30 mu m wide, 220 nm thick, free-standing Si membranes, supported by four 15 mu m long and 3 mu m wide microbeams. Using our approach, we are able to achieve an out-of-plane deformation of the membrane smaller than 50 nm in spite of 39 MPa of compressive internal stress. Our method is general, and can be applied to different material systems with compressive or tensile internal stress.
eiji_micromech.pdf
Jiao Lin, Jean Dellinger, Patrice Genevet, Benoit Cluzel, Frederique de Fornel, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Cosine-Gauss Plasmon Beam: A Localized Long-Range Nondiffracting Surface Wave.” PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 109, 9.Abstract
A new surface wave is introduced, the cosine-Gauss beam, which does not diffract while it propagates in a straight line and tightly bound to the metallic surface for distances up to 80 mu m. The generation of this highly localized wave is shown to be straightforward and highly controllable, with varying degrees of transverse confinement and directionality, by fabricating a plasmon launcher consisting of intersecting metallic gratings. Cosine-Gauss beams have potential for applications in plasmonics, notably for efficient coupling to nanophotonic devices, opening up new design possibilities for next-generation optical interconnects.
physrevlett.109.093904.pdf
Romain Blanchard, Cecile Grezes, Stefan Menzel, Christian Pfluegl, Laurent Diehl, Yong Huang, Jae-Hyun Ryou, Russell D. Dupuis, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Double-waveguide quantum cascade laser.” APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 100, 3.Abstract
We demonstrate 1.1W peak power at room-temperature from a double-waveguide quantum cascade laser (QCL) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Two full broadband QCL active regions were grown on top of each other separated by thick cladding layers to reduce gain competition. Simultaneous lasing on Fabry-Perot modes separated by as much as 360 cm(-1) is obtained. This design paves the way for high-brightness broadband mid-infrared sources, as well as more complex three-terminal devices. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3678033]
1.3678033.pdf
Hakan Pettersson, Irina Zubritskaya, Ngo Tuan Nghia, Jesper Wallentin, Magnus T. Borgstrom, Kristian Storm, Lars Landin, Peter Wickert, Federico Capasso, and Lars Samuelson. 2012. “Electrical and optical properties of InP nanowire ensemble p(+)-i-n(+) photodetectors.” NANOTECHNOLOGY, 23, 13.Abstract
We report on a comprehensive study of electrical and optical properties of efficient near-infrared p(+)-i-n(+) photodetectors based on large ensembles of self-assembled, vertically aligned i-n(+) InP nanowires monolithically grown on a common p(+) InP substrate without any buffer layer. The nanowires have a polytype modulated crystal structure of wurtzite and zinc blende. The electrical data display excellent rectifying behavior with an ideality factor of about 2.5 at 300 K. The ideality factor scales with 1/T, which possibly reflects deviations from classical transport models due to the mixed crystal phase of the nanowires. The observed dark leakage current is of the order of merely similar to 100 fA/nanowire at 1 V reverse bias. The detectors display a linear increase of the photocurrent with reverse bias up to about 10 pA/nanowire at 5 V. From spectrally resolved measurements, we conclude that the photocurrent is primarily generated by funneling photogenerated carriers from the substrate into the NWs. Contributions from direct excitation of the NWs become increasingly important at low temperatures. The photocurrent decreases with temperature with an activation energy of about 50 meV, which we discuss in terms of a temperature-dependent diffusion length in the substrate and perturbed transport through the mixed-phase nanowires.
pettersson_2012_nanotechnology_23_135201.pdf
Mikhail A. Kats, Patrice Genevet, Guillaume Aoust, Nanfang Yu, Romain Blanchard, Francesco Aieta, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Giant birefringence in optical antenna arrays with widely tailorable optical anisotropy.” PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 109, 31, Pp. 12364-12368.Abstract
The manipulation of light by conventional optical components such as lenses, prisms, and waveplates involves engineering of the wavefront as it propagates through an optically thick medium. A unique class of flat optical components with high functionality can be designed by introducing abrupt phase shifts into the optical path, utilizing the resonant response of arrays of scatterers with deeply subwavelength thickness. As an application of this concept, we report a theoretical and experimental study of birefringent arrays of two-dimensional (V- and Y-shaped) optical antennas which support two orthogonal charge-oscillation modes and serve as broadband, anisotropic optical elements that can be used to locally tailor the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light. The degree of optical anisotropy can be designed by controlling the interference between the waves scattered by the antenna modes; in particular, we observe a striking effect in which the anisotropy disappears as a result of destructive interference. These properties are captured by a simple, physical model in which the antenna modes are treated as independent, orthogonally oriented harmonic oscillators.
12364.full_.pdf
Patrice Genevet, Jiao Lin, Mikhail A. Kats, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Holographic detection of the orbital angular momentum of light with plasmonic photodiodes.” NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 3.Abstract
Metallic components such as plasmonic gratings and plasmonic lenses are routinely used to convert free-space beams into propagating surface plasmon polaritons and vice versa. This generation of couplers handles relatively simple light beams, such as plane waves or Gaussian beams. Here we present a powerful generalization of this strategy to more complex wave-fronts, such as vortex beams that carry orbital angular momentum, also known as topological charge. This approach is based on the principle of holography: the coupler is designed as the interference pattern of the incident vortex beam and focused surface plasmon polaritons. We have integrated these holographic plasmonic interfaces into commercial silicon photodiodes, and demonstrated that such devices can selectively detect the orbital angular momentum of light. This holographic approach is very general and can be used to selectively couple free-space beams into any type of surface wave, such as focused surface plasmon polaritons and plasmonic Airy beams.
ncomms2293.pdf
Y. Chassagneux, Q. J. Wang, S. P. Khanna, E. Strupiechonski, J. -R. Coudevylle, E. H. Linfield, A.G. Davies, F. Capasso, M. A. Belkin, and R. Colombelli. 2012. “Limiting Factors to the Temperature Performance of THz Quantum Cascade Lasers Based on the Resonant-Phonon Depopulation Scheme.” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON TERAHERTZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 2, 1, Pp. 83-92.Abstract
We analyze the temperature performance of five terahertz (THz)-frequency quantum cascade lasers based on a three-quantum-well resonant-phonon depopulation design as a function of operating frequency in the 2.3-3.8-THz range. We find evidence that the device performance is limited by the interplay between two factors: 1) optical phonon scattering of thermal electrons, which dominates at shorter wavelengths, and 2) parasitic current, which dominates at longer wavelengths. We present a simple model that provides an accurate estimate of the parasitic current in these devices and predicts the dependence of the threshold current density on temperature.
06111503.pdf
Sebastian Geburt, Andreas Thielmann, Robert Roeder, Christian Borschel, Amanda McDonnell, Michael Kozlik, Julian Kuehnel, Kristen A. Sunter, Federico Capasso, and Carsten Ronning. 2012. “Low threshold room-temperature lasing of CdS nanowires.” NANOTECHNOLOGY, 23, 36.Abstract
The synthesis of CdS nanostructures (bands, wires, irregular structures) was investigated by systematic variation of temperature and gas pressure, to deduce a comprehensive growth phase diagram. The high quality nanowires were further investigated and show stoichiometric composition of CdS as well as a single-crystalline lattice without any evidence of extended defects. The luminescence of individual nanowires at low excitation shows a strong near band edge emission at 2.41 eV indicating a low point defect concentration. Sharp peaks evolve at higher laser power and finally dominate the luminescence spectrum. The power dependence of the spectrum clearly shows all the characteristics of amplified stimulated emission and lasing action in the nanowire cavity. A low threshold was determined as 10 kW cm(-2) for lasing at room temperature with a slope efficiency of 5-10% and a Q factor of up to 1200. The length and diameter relations necessary for lasing of individual nanowires was investigated.
geburt_2012_nanotechnology_23_365204.pdf
P. Rauter, S. Menzel, A. K. Goyal, B. Goekden, C. A. Wang, A. Sanchez, G. W. Turner, and F. Capasso. 2012. “Master-oscillator power-amplifier quantum cascade laser array.” APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 101, 26.Abstract
We report on the demonstration of an array of master-oscillator power-amplifier quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) operating in single-mode at different wavelengths between 9.2 and 9.8 mu m. In each device, the output of a distributed feedback QCL is injected into a tapered QCL section which acts as an amplifier while maintaining a high beam quality due to adiabatic mode spreading. All array elements feature longitudinal as well as transverse single-mode emission at peak powers between 0.8 and 3.9W at room temperature. The high output power and excellent beam quality render the array highly suitable for stand-off spectroscopy applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4773377]
1.4773377.pdf
Romain Blanchard, Guillaume Aoust, Patrice Genevet, Nanfang Yu, Mikhail A. Kats, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Modeling nanoscale V-shaped antennas for the design of optical phased arrays.” PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 85, 15.Abstract
We present a simplified numerical method to solve for the current distribution in a V-shaped antenna excited by an electric field with arbitrary polarization. The scattered far-field amplitude, phase, and polarization of the antennas are extracted. The calculation technique presented here is an efficient method for probing the large design parameter space of such antennas, which have been proposed as basic building blocks for the design of ultrathin plasmonic metasurfaces. Our calculation is based on the integral equation method of moments and is validated by comparison to the results of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. The computation time is approximately five orders of magnitude less than for FDTD simulations. This speed-up relies mainly on the use of the thin-wire approximation, whose domain of validity is discussed. This method can be generalized to more complex geometries such as zigzag antennas.
physrevb.85.155457.pdf
Jonathan A. Fan, Kui Bao, J. Britt Lassiter, Jiming Bao, Naomi J. Halas, Peter Nordlander, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Near-Normal Incidence Dark-Field Microscopy: Applications to Nanoplasmonic Spectroscopy.” NANO LETTERS, 12, 6, Pp. 2817-2821.Abstract
The spectroscopic characterization of individual nanostructures is of fundamental importance to understanding a broad range of physical and chemical processes. One general and powerful technique that addresses this aim is dark-field microscopy, with which the scattered light from an individual structure can be analyzed with minimal background noise. We present the spectroscopic analysis of individual plasmonic nanostructures using dark-field illumination with incidence nearly normal to the substrate. We show that, compared to large incidence angle approaches, the near-normal incidence approach provides significantly higher signal-to-background ratios and reduced retardation field effects. To demonstrate the utility of this technique, we characterize an individual chemically synthesized gold nanoshell and a lithographically defined heptamer exhibiting a pronounced Fano-like resonance. We show that the line shape of the latter strongly depends on the incidence angle. Near-normal incidence dark-field microscopy can be used to characterize a broad range of molecules and nanostructures and can be adapted to most microscopy setups.
nl300160y.pdf
Francesco Aieta, Patrice Genevet, Nanfang Yu, Mikhail A. Kats, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Out-of-Plane Reflection and Refraction of Light by Anisotropic Optical Antenna Metasurfaces with Phase Discontinuities.” NANO LETTERS, 12, 3, Pp. 1702-1706.Abstract
Experiments on ultrathin anisotropic arrays of subwavelength optical antennas display out-of-plane refraction. A powerful three-dimensional (3D) extension of the recently demonstrated generalized laws of refraction and reflection shows that the interface imparts a tangential wavevector to the incident light leading to anomalous beams, which in general are noncoplanar with the incident beam. The refracted beam direction can be controlled by varying the angle between the plane of incidence and the antenna array.
nl300204s.pdf
Jonathan A. Fan, Kui Bao, Li Sun, Jiming Bao, Vinothan N. Manoharan, Peter Nordlander, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Plasmonic Mode Engineering with Templated Self-Assembled Nanoclusters.” NANO LETTERS, 12, 10, Pp. 5318-5324.Abstract
Plasmonic nanoparticle assemblies are a materials platform in which optical modes, resonant frequencies, and near-field intensities can be specified by the number and position of nanoparticles in a cluster. A current challenge is to achieve clusters with higher yields and new types of shapes. In this Letter, we show that a broad range of plasmonic nanoshell nanoclusters can be assembled onto a lithographically defined elastomeric substrate with relatively high yields using templated assembly. We assemble and measure the optical properties of three cluster types: Fano-resonant heptamers, linear chains, and rings of nanoparticles. The yield of heptamer clusters is measured to be over 30%. The assembly of plasmonic nanoclusters on an elastomer paves the way for new classes of plasmonic nanocircuits and colloidal metamaterials that can be transfer-printed onto various substrate media.
nl302650t.pdf
Francesco Aieta, Ali Kabiri, Patrice Genevet, Nanfang Yu, Mikhail A. Kats, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Reflection and refraction of light from metasurfaces with phase discontinuities.” JOURNAL OF NANOPHOTONICS, 6.Abstract
A three-dimensional extension of the recently demonstrated generalization of the laws of refraction and reflection was investigated for both flat and curved metasurfaces. We found that out-of-plane refraction occurs for a metasurface that imparts a wavevector out of the plane of incidence onto the incident light beam. Metasurfaces provide arbitrary control over the direction of refraction, and yield new critical angles for both reflection and refraction. A spherical metasurface with phase discontinuities leads to unconventional light bending compared to standard refractive lenses. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.JNP.6.063532]
063532_1.pdf
P. Malara, M. F. Witinski, F. Capasso, J. G. Anderson, and P. De Natale. 2012. “Sensitivity enhancement of off-axis ICOS using wavelength modulation.” APPLIED PHYSICS B-LASERS AND OPTICS, 108, 2, Pp. 353-359.Abstract
In this paper, we analyze the sensitivity enhancement attainable by combining a wavelength modulation (WM) technique to integrated cavity output spectroscopy (ICOS), pointing out how the spectrometer's parameters and the acquisition strategy affect the detection noise in both techniques. We point out that WM-ICOS is mainly limited by the slow scan rate that it requires, compared to regular ICOS. Nevertheless, according to our analysis, WM can still appreciably improve the SNR of an ultrasensitive ICOS system, if the cavity transmission is so low that the detector noise is not negligible. In light of these considerations, we directly compare the performance of ICOS and WM-ICOS in a high sensitivity ambient-air methane detection experiment, finding a good agreement with the theoretical influence of the various spectrometer parameters.
malara2012_article_sensitivityenhancementofoff-ax.pdf
Mikhail A. Kats, Deepika Sharma, Jiao Lin, Patrice Genevet, Romain Blanchard, Zheng Yang, M. Mumtaz Qazilbash, D. N. Basov, Shriram Ramanathan, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Ultra-thin perfect absorber employing a tunable phase change material.” APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 101, 22.Abstract
We show that perfect absorption can be achieved in a system comprising a single lossy dielectric layer of thickness much smaller than the incident wavelength on an opaque substrate by utilizing the nontrivial phase shifts at interfaces between lossy media. This design is implemented with an ultra-thin (similar to lambda/65) vanadium dioxide (VO2) layer on sapphire, temperature tuned in the vicinity of the VO2 insulator-to-metal phase transition, leading to 99.75% absorption at lambda = 11.6 mu m. The structural simplicity and large tuning range (from similar to 80% to 0.25% in reflectivity) are promising for thermal emitters, modulators, and bolometers. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4767646]
1.4767646.pdf
Patrice Genevet, Nanfang Yu, Francesco Aieta, Jiao Lin, Mikhail A. Kats, Romain Blanchard, Marlan O. Scully, Zeno Gaburro, and Federico Capasso. 2012. “Ultra-thin plasmonic optical vortex plate based on phase discontinuities.” APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 100, 1.Abstract
A flat optical device that generates optical vortices with a variety of topological charges is demonstrated. This device spatially modulates light beams over a distance much smaller than the wavelength in the direction of propagation by means of an array of V-shaped plasmonic antennas with sub-wavelength separation. Optical vortices are shown to develop after a sub-wavelength propagation distance from the array, a feature that has major potential implications for integrated optics. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3673334]
1.3673334.pdf

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