arXiv subjects

S. N. Zhu

Publications and source records attributed to S. N. Zhu.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Plasmonic Airy Beam on Metal Surface

Optical Airy beam, as a novel non-diffracting and self-accelerating wave packet, has generated great enthusiasm since its first realization in 2007, owing to its unique physics and exciting applications. Here, we report a new form of this intriguing wave packet - plasmonic Airy beam, which is experimentally realized on a silver surface for the first time. By particular diffraction processes in a carefully designed nano-array structure, a novel planar Airy beam of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is directly generated and a structural dependent phase tuning method is proposed to modulate the beam properties. This SPP Airy beam is regarded as a two-dimensional (2D) subwavelength counterpart of the 3D optical Airy beam in free space, allowing for on-chip photonic manipulations. Moreover, it possibly suggests a breakthrough in recognition of this unique wave packet in a polariton regime after its previous evolution from free particle to pure optical wave.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2011

Strong light-induced negative optical pressure arising from the kinetic energy of conduction electrons in plasmonic cavities

We found that very strong negative optical pressure can be induced in plasmonic cavities by LC resonance. This interesting effect could be described qualitatively by a Lagrangian model which shows that the negative optical pressure is driven by the internal inductance and the kinetic energy of the conduction electrons. If the metal is replaced by perfect conductors, the optical pressure becomes much smaller and positive.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2011

High-sensing properties of magnetic plasmon resonances in double- and triple-rod structures

We numerically investigated the magnetic plasmon resonances in double-rod and triple-rod structures (DRSs and TRSs, respectively) for sensing applications. According to the equivalent circuit model, one magnetic plasmon mode was induced in the DRS. Due to the hybridization effect, two magnetic plasmon modes were obtained in the TRS. Compared with the electric plasmon resonance in a single-rod structure (SRS), the electromagnetic fields near the DRS and TRS were much more localized in the dielectric surrounding the structures at the resonance wavelengths. This caused the magnetic plasmon resonance wavelengths to become very sensitive to refractive index changes in the environment medium. As a result, a large figure of merit that is much larger than the electric plasmon modes of SRS could be obtained in the magnetic plasmon modes of DRS and TRS. These magnetic plasmon mode properties enable the use of DRSs and TRSs as sensing elements with remarkable performance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Electric and Magnetic Excitation of Coherent Magnetic Plasmon Waves in a One-dimensional Meta-chain

A one-dimensional diatomic meta-chain with equal-size holes and different-length slits is designed. Broadband coherent magnetic plasmon waves (MPW) are formed in such a system, excited by both the electric resonance in the slits and the magnetic resonance in the holes in a wide range of incidence angles (00-400) and broad frequency bands (200-230 THz). The dispersion properties of the MPW measured in our experiments agree with the theoretical calculation based on the Lagrange model. The coherent MPWs reported in this paper may have applications in subwavelength integrated nanocircuits.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Lagrange Model for the Chiral Optical Properties of Stereometamaterials

We employ a general Lagrange model to describe the chiral optical properties of stereometamaterials. We derive the elliptical eigenstates of a twisted stacked split-ring resonator, taking phase retardation into account. Through this approach, we obtain a powerful Jones matrix formalism which can be used to calculate the polarization rotation, ellipticity, and circular dichroism of transmitted waves through stereometamaterials at any incident polarization. Our experimental measurements agree well with our model.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2010

Spaser in Coupled Metamaterials: The gain effect in a magnetic plasmon waveguide

Loss is a crucial problem in plasmonic integrated optical circuits and metamaterials. The Er, Yb codoped gain material is introduced into a magnetic plasmon waveguide composed of a chain of nanosandwiches in order to solve the loss problem in such subwavelength waveguide. The magnetic plasmon mode and a higher order mode are chosen as the signal and pump light to enhance the radiation and pump efficiencies. The signal light propagating in the waveguide is investigated with different Er3+ doping concentration and signal decay time. It is shown that the gain effect can not only compensate the loss but also is able to amplify the signal, when exceeding certain threshold values of doping concentration and signal decay time.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2010

Double Resonance Nanolaser based on Coupled Slit-hole Resonator Structures

This work investigates a kind of metallic magnetic cavity based on slit-hole resonators (SHRs). Two orthogonal hybrid magnetic resonance modes of the cavity with a large spatial overlap are predesigned at the wavelengths of 980 nm and 1550 nm. The Yb-Er co-doped material serving as a gain medium is set in the cavity; this enables the resonator to have high optical activity. The numerical result shows that the strong lasing at 1550 nm may be achieved when the cavity array is pumped at 980 nm. This double resonance nanolaser array has potential applications in future optical devices and quantum information techniques.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Modeling the directed transmission and reflection enhancements of the lasing spaser in active metamaterials

Simultaneously enhanced reflectance and transmittance greater than 35 dB are demonstrated for the lasing spaser (or spasing) behavior in an active fishnet metamaterial. In mimicking a lasing cavity, an equivalent active slab with Lorentz dispersion for the index of refraction is established to model the spasing metamaterial through the Fabry-Perot effect. Numerical and theoretical results show good agreement in the equal enhancement of reflectance and transmittance, as well as the non-monotonic dependence of the spasing intensity on the gain coefficient. In addition, directed emission of the spasing beam is verified numerically.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Suppression of radiation loss by hybridization effect in two coupled split-ring resonators

This paper investigates the radiation properties of two coupled split-ring resonators (SRRs). Due to electromagnetic coupling, two hybrid magnetic plasmon modes were induced in the structure. Our calculations show that the radiation loss of the structure was greatly suppressed by the hybridization effect. This led to a remarkable increase in the Q-factor of the coupled system compared to the single SRR. By adjusting the distance between the two SRRs, the Q-factor changed correspondingly due to different electromagnetic coupling strengths. This resulted in a coupled structure that functioned as a new type of nanocavity with an adjustable Q-factor.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Coupled magnetic plasmons in metamaterials

Magnetic metamaterials consist of magnetic resonators smaller in size than their excitation wavelengths. Their unique electromagnetic properties were characterized by the effective media theory at the early stage. However, the effective media model does not take into account the interactions between magnetic elements; thus, the effective properties of bulk metamaterials are the result of the "averaged effect" of many uncoupled resonators. In recent years, it has been shown that the interaction between magnetic resonators could lead to some novel phenomena and interesting applications that do not exist in conventional uncoupled metamaterials. In this paper, we will give a review of recent developments in magnetic plasmonics arising from the coupling effect in metamaterials. For the system composed of several identical magnetic resonators, the coupling between these units produces multiple discrete resonance modes due to hybridization. In the case of a system comprising an infinite number of magnetic elements, these multiple discrete resonances can be extended to form a continuous frequency band by strong coupling. This kind of broadband and tunable magnetic metamaterial may have interesting applications. Many novel metamaterials and nanophotonic devices could be developed from coupled resonator systems in the future.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Structural-configurated magnetic plasmon bands in connected ring chains

Magnetic resonance coupling between connected split ring resonators (SRRs) and magnetic plasmon (MP) excitations in the connected SRR chains were theoretically studied. By changing the connection configuration, two different coupling behaviors were observed, and therefore two kinds of MP bands were formed in the connected ring chains, accordingly. These MPs were revealed with positive and negative dispersion for the homo- and anti-connected chain, respectively. Notably, these two MP modes both have wide bandwidth due to the conductive coupling. Moreover, the anti-connected chain is found supporting a novel negative propagating wave with a wide band starting from zero frequency, which is a fancy phenomenon in one-dimensional system.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Optically pumped nanolaser based on two magnetic plasmon resonance modes

We propose and analyze theoretically a double magnetic plasmon resonance nanolaser, in which Ytterbium-erbium co-doped material is used as the gain medium. Through design of the double magnetic resonance modes, pumping light (980nm) can be resonantly absorbed and laser light (1550nm) can be resonantly generated simultaneously. We introduce a set of rate equations combined to describe the operation of the laser and predict the lasing condition. According to our calculations, the disadvantage that pumping light is difficult to be absorbed by a thin slab of gain materials can be overcome.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Extraordinary Optical Transmission Induced by Excitation of a Magnetic Plasmon Propagation Mode in a Diatomic Chain of Slit-hole Resonators

In this paper, we will propose that magnetic-resonance nanostructures in a metal surface could be used to realize extraordinary optical transmission (EOT). Toward this goal, we designed and fabricated a one dimensional diatomic chain of slit-hole resonator (SHR). Due to the strong exchange current interaction, a type of magnetic plasmon (MP) propagation mode with a broad frequency bandwidth was established in this system. Apparent EOT peaks induced by the MP mode were observed in our measured spectra at infrared frequencies. The strongest EOT peak was obtained at 1.07 eV with an incident angle of 20 degree. The measured dependence of EOT peaks on the incident angle coincided with the theoretical results quite well. This proposed MP propagation mode in SHR structure has good potential applications in multifrequency nonlinear optical processes.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2007

Non-left-handed transmission and bianisotropic effect in a [pi]-shaped metallic metamaterials

A [pi]-shaped metallic metamaterial (geometrically, a combination medium of C-shaped resonators and continuous wires) is proposed to numerically investigate its transmission band near the resonant frequency, where otherwise it should be a negative-permeability (or negative-permittivity) stop band if either the C-shaped or continuous-wire constituent is separately considered. However, in contrast to the left-handed materials (LHMs)composed of split-ring resonators and wires as well as other metallic LHMs, this resonant transmission is a non-left-handed one as a result of the intrinsic bianisotropic effect attributed to the electrically asymmetric configuration of this [pi]-shaped metamaterial.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Negative-Index Refraction in a Lamellar Composite with Alternating Single Negative Layers

Negative-index refraction is achieved in a lamellar composite with epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG) materials stacked alternatively. Based on the effective medium approximation, simultaneously negative effective permittivity and permeability of such a lamellar composite are obtained theoretically and further proven by full-wave simulations. Consequently, the famous left-handed metamaterial comprising split ring resonators and wires is interpreted as an analogy of such an ENG-MNG lamellar composite. In addition, beyond the effective medium approximation, the propagating field squeezed near the ENG/MNG interface is demonstrated to be left-handed surface waves with backward phase velocity.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2005

Numerical simulations of negative-index refraction in wedge-shaped metamaterials

A wedge-shaped structure made of split-ring resonators (SRR) and wires is numerically simulated to evaluate its refraction behavior. Four frequency bands, namely, the stop band, left-handed band, ultralow-index band, and positive-index band, are distinguished according to the refracted field distributions. Negative phase velocity inside the wedge is demonstrated in the left-handed band and the Snell's law is conformed in terms of its refraction behaviors in different frequency bands. Our results confirmed that negative index of refraction indeed exists in such a composite metamaterial and also provided a convincing support to the results of previous Snell's law experiments.

physics.optics↗