arXiv subjects

Curdin Maissen

Publications and source records attributed to Curdin Maissen.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Understanding the image contrast of material boundaries in IR nanoscopy reaching 5 nm spatial resolution

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) allows for nanoscale resolved Infrared (IR) and Terahertz (THz) imaging, and thus has manifold applications ranging from materials to biosciences. However, a quantitatively accurate understanding of image contrast formation at materials boundaries, and thus spatial resolution is a surprisingly unexplored terrain. Here we introduce the write/read head of a commercial hard disk drive (HDD) as a most suitable test sample for fundamental studies, given its well20 defined sharp material boundaries perpendicular to its ultra-smooth surface. We obtainunprecedented and unexpected insights into the s-SNOM image formation process, free of topography-induced artifacts that often mask and artificially modify the pure near-field optical contrast. Across metal-dielectric boundaries, we observe non-point-symmetric line profiles for both IR and THz illumination, which are fully corroborated by numericalsimulations. We explain our findings by a sample-dependent confinement and screening of the near fields at the tip apex, which will be of crucial importance for an accurate understanding and proper interpretation of high-resolution s-SNOM images of nanocomposite materials. We also demonstrate that with ultra-sharp tungsten tips the apparent width (and thus resolution) of sharp material boundaries can be reduced to about 5 nm.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Probes for Ultrasensitive THz Nanoscopy

Scattering-type scanning near-field microscopy (s-SNOM) at terahertz (THz) frequencies could become a highly valuable tool for studying a variety of phenomena of both fundamental and applied interest, including mobile carrier excitations or phase transitions in 2D materials or exotic conductors. Applications, however, are strongly challenged by the limited signal to noise ratio. One major reason is that standard atomic force microscope (AFM) tips, which have made s-SNOM a highly practical and rapidly emerging tool, provide weak scattering efficiencies at THz frequencies. Here we report a combined experimental and theoretical study of commercial and custom-made AFM tips of different apex diameter and length, in order to understand signal formation in THz s-SNOM and to provide insights for tip optimization. Contrary to common beliefs, we find that AFM tips with large (micrometer-scale) apex diameter can enhance s-SNOM signals by more than one order of magnitude, while still offering a spatial resolution of about 100 nm at a wavelength of 119 micron. On the other hand, exploiting the increase of s-SNOM signals with tip length, we succeeded in sub-15 nm resolved THz imaging employing a tungsten tip with 6 nm apex radius. We explain our findings and provide novel insights into s-SNOM via rigorous numerical modeling of the near-field scattering process. Our findings will be of critical importance for pushing THz nanoscopy to its ultimate limits regarding sensitivity and spatial resolution.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Superradiantly limited linewidth in complementary THz metamaterials on Si-membranes

We study complementary double split ring THz resonators fabricated on a 10 mum thin Si-membrane. The linewidths of the fundamental LC-mode and dipolar mode are drastically narrowing with increased resonator spacing. The extracted decay rate of the LC-mode as a function of the resonator density shows a linear dependence, evidencing a collective superradiant effect of the resonator array. Furthermore, we show that a metamaterial can be designed for a low superradiant broadening of the resonance at high resonator densities, i.e. in the metamaterial condition. The use of a thin membrane as a substrate is crucial, since it shifts the THz surface plasmon polaritons modes to much higher frequencies, preventing them to couple to the LC mode and unveiling the superradiant broadening mechanism for a large range of lattice spacings. At higher frequencies, not interfering with the high Q LC-mode, other additional modes, which we ascribe to photonic crystal modes, form in the Si-membrane. We map the angle dependent band structure and show corresponding simulated electric field distributions.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Measuring intensity correlations of a THz quantum cascade laser around its threshold at sub-cycle timescales

The quantum nature of photonic systems is reflected in the photon statistics of the light they emit. Therefore, the development of quantum optics tools with single photon sensitivity and excellent temporal resolution is paramount to the development of exotic sources, and is particularly challenging in the THz range where photon energies approach kbT at T=300 K. Here, we report on the first room temperature measurement of field g1(τ) and intensity correlations g2(τ) in the THz range with sub-cycle temporal resolution (146 fs) over the bandwidth 0.3-3 THz, based on electro-optic sampling. With this system, we are able to measure the photon statistics at threshold of a THz Quantum Cascade Laser.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

THz ultrastrong light-matter coupling

Cavity photon resonators with ultrastrong light-matter interactions are attracting interest both in semiconductor and superconducting systems displaying the capability to manipulate the cavity quantum electrodynamic ground state with controllable physical properties. Here we review a series of experiments aimed at probing the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime, where the vacuum Rabi splitting $Ω$ is comparable to the bare transition frequency $ω$ . We present a new platform where the inter-Landau level transition of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is strongly coupled to the fundamental mode of deeply subwavelength split-ring resonators operating in the mm-wave range. Record-high values of the normalized light-matter coupling ratio $\fracΩω= 0.89$ are reached and the system appears highly scalable far into the microwave range.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Sub-cycle measurement of intensity correlations in the Terahertz range

The Terahertz frequency range bears intriguing opportunities, beyond very advanced applications in spectroscopy and matter control. Peculiar quantum phenomena are predicted to lead to light emission by non-trivial mechanisms. Typically, such emission mechanisms are unraveled by temporal correlation measurements of photon arrival times, as demonstrated in their pioneering work by Hanbury Brown and Twiss. So far, the Terahertz range misses an experimental implementation of such technique with very good temporal properties and high sensitivity. In this paper, we propose a room-temperature scheme to measure photon correlations at THz frequencies based on electro-optic sampling. The temporal resolution of 146 fs is faster than one cycle of oscillation and the sensitivity is so far limited to ~1500 photons. With this technique, we measure the photon statistics of a THz quantum cascade laser. The proposed measurement scheme allows, in principle, the measurement of ultrahigh bandwidth photons and paves the way towards THz quantum optics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

High quality factor, fully switchable THz superconducting metasurface

We present a complementary THz metasurface realised with Niobium thin film which displays a quality factor Q=54 and a fully switchable behaviour as a function of the temperature. The switching behaviour and the high quality factor are due to a careful design of the metasurface aimed at maximising the ohmic losses when the Nb is above the critical temperature and minimising the radiative coupling. The superconductor allows the operation of the cavity with an high Q and inductive elements with an high aspect ratio. Comparison with three dimensional finite element simulations highlights the crucial role of the inductive elements and of the kinetic inductance of the Cooper pairs in achieving the high quality factor and the high field enhancement.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Ultrastrong Coupling in the Near-field of Complementary Split Ring Resonators

The ultrastrong light-matter interaction regime was investigated in metallic and superconducting complementary split ring resonators coupled to the cyclotron transition of two dimensional electron gases. The sub-wavelength light confinement and the large optical dipole moment of the cyclotron transition yield record high normalized coupling rates of up to $\frac{Ω_R}{ω_c}=$ 0.87. We observed a blue-shift of both polaritons due to the diamagnetic term of the interaction Hamiltonian.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Ultrastrong coupling of the cyclotron transition of a two-dimensional electron gas to a THz metamaterial

Artificial cavity photon resonators with ultrastrong light-matter interactions are attracting interest both in semiconductor and superconducting systems, due to the possibility of manipulating the cavity quantum electrodynamic ground state with controllable physical properties. We report here experiments showing ultrastrong light-matter coupling in a terahertz metamaterial where the cyclotron transition of a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas is coupled to the photonic modes of an array of electronic split-ring resonators. We observe a normalized coupling ratio $\fracΩ{ω_c}=0.58$ between the vacuum Rabi frequency $Ω$ and the cyclotron frequency $ω_c$. Our system appears to be scalable in frequency and could be brought to the microwave spectral range with the potential of strongly controlling the magnetotransport properties of a high-mobility 2DEG.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗