arXiv subjects

Zhipei Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Zhipei Sun.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Study of electron emission from 1D nanomaterials under super high field

Photoemission driven by a strong electric field of near-infrared or visible light, referred to as strong-field photoemission, produces attosecond electron pulses that are synchronized to the waveform of the incident light, and this principle lies at the heart of current attosecond technologies. However, full access to strong-field photoemission regimes at near-infrared wavelengths based on solid-state materials is restricted by space-charge screening and material damage at high optical-field strengths, which significantly hampers the realization of predicted attosecond technologies, such as ultra-sensitive optical phase modulation. Here, we demonstrate a new type of strong-field photoemission behaviour with extreme nonlinearity -- photoemission current scales follow a 40th power law of the optical-field strength, making use of sub-nanometric carbon nanotubes and 800 nm pulses. As a result, the total photoemission current depends on the carrier-envelope phase with a greatly improved photoemission current modulation depth of up to 100%, which has not previously been achieved. Time-dependent density functional calculations reveal the completely new behaviour of the optical-field induced tunnelling emission process directly from the valence band of the carbon nanotubes, which is an indication of full access to a strong-field photoemission regime. Furthermore, the nonlinear dynamics are observed to be tunable by changing the binding energy of the valence-band-maximum, as confirmed by Simpleman model calculations. We believe that such extreme nonlinear photoemission from nanotips offers a new means of producing extreme temporal-spatial resolved electron pulses. These results additionally provide a new design philosophy for attosecond electronics and optics by making use of tunable band structures in nanomaterials.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Optical harmonic generation in monolayer group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit high nonlinear optical (NLO) susceptibilities. Experiments on MoS$_2$ have indeed revealed very large second-order ($χ^{(2)}$) and third-order ($χ^{(3)}$) optical susceptibilities. However, third harmonic generation results of other layered TMDs has not been reported. Furthermore, the reported $χ^{(2)}$ and $χ^{(3)}$ of MoS$_2$ vary by several orders of magnitude, and a reliable quantitative comparison of optical nonlinearities across different TMDs has remained elusive. Here, we investigate second- and third-harmonic generation, and three-photon photoluminescence in TMDs. Specifically, we present an experimental study of $χ^{(2)}$, and $χ^{(3)}$ of four common TMD materials (\ce{MoS2}, \ce{MoSe2}, \ce{WS2} and \ce{WSe2}) by placing different TMD flakes in close proximity to each other on a common substrate, allowing their NLO properties to be accurately obtained from a single measurement. $χ^{(2)}$ and $χ^{(3)}$ of the four monolayer TMDs have been compared, indicating that they exhibit distinct NLO responses. We further present theoretical simulations of these susceptibilities in qualitative agreement with the measurements. Our comparative studies of the NLO responses of different two-dimensional layered materials allow us to select the best candidates for atomic-scale nonlinear photonic applications, such as frequency conversion and all-optical signal processing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Low-power continuous-wave second harmonic generation in semiconductor nanowires

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are promising for realizing various on-chip nonlinear optical devices, due to their nanoscale lateral confinement and strong light-matter interaction. However, high-intensity pulsed pump lasers are typically needed to exploit their optical nonlinearity because light couples poorly with nanometric-size wires. Here, we demonstrate microwatts continuous-wave light pumped second harmonic generation (SHG) in AlGaAs NWs by integrating them with silicon planar photonic crystal cavities. Light-NW coupling is enhanced effectively by the extremely localized cavity mode at the subwavelength scale. Strong SHG is obtained even with a continuous-wave laser excitation with a pump power down to ~3 uW, and the cavity-enhancement factor is estimated around 150. Additionally, in the integrated device, the NW's SHG is more than two-order of magnitude stronger than third harmonic generations in the silicon slab, though the NW only couple s with less than 1% of the cavity mode. This significantly reduced power-requirement of NW's nonlinear frequency conversion would promote NW-based building blocks for nonlinear optics, specially in chip-integrated coherent light sources, entangled photon-pairs and signal processing devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Vapor-Liquid-Solid Growth of Monolayer MoS2 Nanoribbons

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of two-dimensional (2D) materials such as monolayer MoS2 typically involves the conversion of vapor-phase precursors to a solid product in a process that may be described as a vapor-solid-solid (VSS) mode. Here, we report the first demonstration of vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth of monolayer MoS2 yielding highly crystalline ribbon-shaped structures with a width of a few tens of nanometers to a few micrometers. The VLS growth mode is triggered by the reaction between molybdenum oxide and sodium chloride, which results in the formation of molten Na-Mo-O droplets. These droplets mediate the growth of MoS2 ribbons in the "crawling mode" when saturated with sulfur on a crystalline substrate. Our growth yields straight and kinked ribbons with a locally well-defined orientation, reflecting the regular horizontal motion of the liquid droplets during growth. Using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy, we show that the ribbons are homoepitaxially on monolayer MoS2 surface with predominantly 2H- or 3R-type stacking. These findings pave the way to novel devices with structures of mixed dimensionalities.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Ultrafast field-driven monochromatic photoemission from carbon nanotubes

Ultrafast electron pulses, combined with laser-pump and electron-probe technologies, allow for various forms of ultrafast microscopy and spectroscopy to elucidate otherwise challenging to observe physical and chemical transitions. However, the pursuit of simultaneous ultimate spatial and temporal resolution has been largely subdued by the low monochromaticity of the electron pulses and their poor phase synchronization to the optical excitation pulses. State-of-the-art photon-driven sources have good monochromaticity but poor phase synchronization. In contrast, field-driven photoemission has much higher light phase synchronization, due to the intrinsic sub-cycle emission dynamics, but poor monochromaticity. Such sources suffer from larger electron energy spreads (3 - 100 eV) attributed to the relatively low field enhancement of the conventional metal tips which necessitates long pump wavelengths (> 800 nm) in order to gain sufficient ponderomotive potential to access the field-driven regime. In this work, field-driven photoemission from ~1 nm radius carbon nanotubes excited by a femtosecond laser at a short wavelength of 410 nm has been realized. The energy spread of field-driven electrons is effectively compressed to 0.25 eV outperforming all conventional ultrafast electron sources. Our new nanotube-based ultrafast electron source opens exciting prospects for attosecond imaging and emerging light-wave electronics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Far-field nanoscale infrared spectroscopy of vibrational fingerprints of molecules with graphene plasmons

Infrared spectroscopy, especially for molecular vibrations in the fingerprint region between 600 and 1500 cm-1, is a powerful characterization method for bulk materials. However, molecular fingerprinting at the nanoscale level still remains a significant challenge, due to weak light-matter interaction between micron-wavelengthed infrared light and nano-sized molecules. Here, we demonstrate molecular fingerprinting at the nanoscale level using our specially designed graphene plasmonic structure on CaF2 nanofilm. This structure not only avoids the plasmon-phonon hybridization, but also provides in situ electrically-tunable graphene plasmon covering the entire infrared fingerprint region, which was previously unattainable. In addition, undisturbed and highly-confined graphene plasmon offers simultaneous detection of in-plane and out-of-plane vibrational modes with ultrahigh detection sensitivity down to the sub-monolayer level, significantly pushing the current detection limit of far-field mid-infrared spectroscopy. Our results provide a platform, fulfilling the long-awaited expectation of high sensitivity and selectivity far-field fingerprint detection of nano-scale molecules for numerous applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Optical modulators with two-dimensional layered materials

Light modulation is an essential operation in photonics and optoelectronics. With existing and emerging technologies increasingly demanding compact, efficient, fast and broadband optical modulators, high-performance light modulation solutions are becoming indispensable. The recent realization that two-dimensional layered materials could modulate light with superior performance has prompted intense research and significant advances, paving the way for realistic applications. In this review, we cover the state-of-the-art of optical modulators based on two-dimensional layered materials including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides and black phosphorus. We discuss recent advances employing hybrid structures, such as two-dimensional heterostructures, plasmonic structures, and silicon/fibre integrated structures. We also take a look at future perspectives and discuss the potential of yet relatively unexplored mechanisms such as magneto-optic and acousto-optic modulation.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Ultralong Lifetime Plasmons on Picosecond Time Scale Enabled by Hybrid Plasmon-Phonon Polaritons

Graphene plasmonics is of great interest for compact optical devices working in broad frequency domains with ultrahigh speed and very low energy consumption. However, graphene plasmons damp out quickly on most substrates mainly due to scattering loss from substrate surface phonons and impurities. Here we discover a new hybridized plasmon-phonon polariton mode in graphene/h-BN van der Waals heterostructures, which enables ultralong hybrid plasmon lifetime up to 1.6 picosecond, the longest plasmon lifetime ever demonstrated. Such remarkably long lifetime arises from the coupling of long-lifetime h-BN transverse optical phonon with graphene plasmons, which uniquely exists in monolayer heterostructures. Our findings and understanding of this unexploited hybrid mode offer a novel approach to tune the plasmon behaviours in the frequency, time and space domains. This can potentially introduce a new paradigm to generate highly-confined plasmons with ultra-long lifetime for various applications, such as deep-subwavelength metamaterials, ultra-low-loss waveguides, and ultrafast optical switches.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Broadband laser polarization control with aligned carbon nanotubes

We introduce a simple approach to fabricate aligned carbon nanotube (ACNT) device for broadband polarization control in fiber laser systems. The ACNT device was fabricated by pulling from as-fabricated vertically-aligned carbon nanotube arrays. Their anisotropic property is confirmed with optical and scanning electron microscopy, and with polarized Raman and absorption spectroscopy. The device was then integrated into fiber laser systems (at two technologically important wavelengths of 1 and 1.5 um) for polarization control. We obtained a linearly-polarized light output with the maximum extinction ratio of ~12 dB. The output polarization direction could be fully controlled by the ACNT alignment direction in both lasers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that ACNT device is applied to polarization control in laser systems. Our results exhibit that the ACNT device is a simple, low-cost, and broadband polarizer to control laser polarization dynamics, for various photonic applications (such as material processing, polarization diversity detection in communications), where the linear polarization control is necessary.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Ultrafast pulse generation with black phosphorus

Black phosphorus has been recently rediscovered as a new and interesting two-dimensional material due to its unique electronic and optical properties. Here, we study the linear and nonlinear optical properties of black phosphorus thin films, indicating that both linear and nonlinear optical properties are anisotropic and can be tuned by the film thickness. Then we employ the nonlinear optical property of black phosphorus for ultrafast (pulse duration down to ~786 fs in mode-locking) and large-energy (pulse energy up to >18 nJ in Q-switching) pulse generation in fiber lasers at the near-infrared telecommunication band ~1.5 μm. Our results underscore relatively large optical nonlinearity in black phosphorus and its prospective for ultrafast pulse generation, paving the way to black phosphorus based nonlinear and ultrafast photonics applications (e.g., ultrafast all-optical switches/modulators, frequency converters etc.).

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Effects of carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide absorbers on the noise of mode-locked fiber lasers

Phase noise is very important for the ultrafast pulse application in telecommunication, ultrafast diagnose, material science, and biology. In this paper, two types of carbon nano-materials, single-wall carbon nanotube and graphene oxide, are investigated for noise suppression in ultrafast photonics. Various properties of the wall-paper SAs, such as saturable intensity, optical absorption and degree of purity, are found to be key factors determining the phase noise of the ultrafast pulses. A reduced-noise femtosecond fiber laser is experimentally demonstrated by optimizing the above parameters of carbon material based SAs. The phase noise reduction more than 10 dB at 10 kHz can be obtained in the experiments. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the relationship between different carbon material based SAs and the phase noise of mode-locked lasers has been investigated. This work will pave the way to get a high-quality ultrashort pulse in passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Controlling Sub-nm Gaps in Plasmonic Dimers using Graphene

Graphene is used as the thinnest possible spacer between gold nanoparticles and a gold substrate. This creates a robust, repeatable, and stable sub-nanometre gap for massive plasmonic field enhancements. White light spectroscopy of single 80 nm gold nanoparticles reveals plasmonic coupling between the particle and its image within the gold substrate. While for a single graphene layer, spectral doublets from coupled dimer modes are observed shifted into the near infra-red, these disappear for increasing numbers of layers. These doublets arise from plasmonic charge transfer, allowing the direct optical measurement of out-of-plane conductivity in such layered systems. Gating the graphene can thus directly produce plasmon tuning.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗