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Ultrathin and two-dimensional (2D) metals can support strong plasmons, with concomitant tight field confinement and large field enhancement. Accordingly, 2D-metal nanostructures exhibiting plasmonic resonances are highly sensitive to the environment and intrinsically suitable for optical sensing. Here, based on a proof-of-concept numerical study, nano-engineered ultrathin 2D-metal films that support infrared plasmons are demonstrated to enable highly responsive refractive index (RI) sensing. For 3 nm-Au nanoribbons exhibiting plasmonic resonances at wavelengths around 1600 nm, a RI sensitivity of SRI > 650 nm per refractive index unit (RIU) is observed for a 100 nm-thick analyte layer. A parametric study of the 2D-Au system indicates the strong dependence of the RI sensitivity on the 2D-metal thickness. Furthermore, for an analyte layer as thin as 1 nm, a RI sensitivity up to 110 (90 nm/RIU) is observed in atomically thin 2D-In (2D-Ga) nanoribbons exhibiting highly localized plasmonic resonances at mid-infrared wavelengths. Our results not only reveal the extraordinary sensing characteristics of 2D-metal systems but also provide insight into the development of 2D-metal-based plasmonic devices for enhanced IR detection.

 

The resonant nature and geometric scalability make metamaterials an ideal platform for an enhanced light–matter interaction over a broad frequency range. The mid-infrared (IR) spectral range is of great importance for vibrational spectroscopy of molecules, while IR metamaterials created from lithography-based planar nanostructures have been used to demonstrate enhanced molecular detection. Compared with visible and near-infrared, the relative long wavelengths of IR light make it possible to achieve three-dimensional (3D) IR metamaterials via the state-of-the-art 3D fabrication techniques. Here, we design and fabricate a 3D printed plasmonic metamaterial absorber (MMA), and by performing Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy, we demonstrate that a series of molecular fingerprint vibrations of glycine can be significantly enhanced by the high absorption mode supported by the 3D meta-atoms of the MMA. The observed enhanced IR detection can also be partially attributed to the improved accessibility offered by the 3D architecture of the MMA. In particular, due to capillary forces during the drying process, the microscale 3D printed features lead to selective analyte deposition in high-field regions, which provides another degree of freedom in the design of the 3D printed structures for surface-enhanced IR detection. Our study shows the flexibility of metastructures based on advanced 3D printing technology in tailoring the interaction between IR light and materials on a subwavelength scale. 

The Pancharatnam–Berry phase induced by the winding topology of polarization around a vortex singularity at bound states in the continuum (BIC) provides a unique approach to optical vortex (OV) generation. The BIC-based OV generators have the potential to outperform their counterparts that rely on spatial variations in terms of design feasibility, fabrication complexity, and robustness. However, given the fact that this class of OV generators originates from the topological property of the photonic bands, their responses are generally fixed and cannot be dynamically altered, which limits their applications to photonic systems. Here, we numerically demonstrate that a silicon photonic crystal slab can be used to realize optically switchable OV generation by simultaneously exploiting the vortex topology in momentum space in conjunction with silicon’s nonlinear dynamics. Picosecond switching of OV beams at near-infrared wavelengths are observed. The demonstrated nontrivial topological nature of the active generators can significantly expand the application of BIC toward ultrafast vortex beam generation, high-capacity optical communication, and mode-division multiplexing.

 

Temporal boundary value problems (TBVPs) provide the foundation for analyzing electromagnetic wave propagation in time-varying media. In this paper, we point out that TBVPs fall into the category of unbounded initial value problems, which have traveling wave solutions. By dividing the entire time frame into several subdomains and applying the d’Alembert formula, the transient expressions for waves propagating through temporal boundaries can be evaluated analytically. Moreover, unlike their spatial analogs, TBVPs are subject to causality. Therefore, the resulting analytical transient solutions resulting from the d’Alembert formula are unique to temporal systems.

 

Various dispersion models can be expressed as special cases of the Generalized Dispersion Model (GDM), which is composed of a series of Padé polynomials. While important for its broad applicability, we found that some materials with Drude dispersive terms can be accurately modeled by mixing a 1^storder Padé polynomial with an extra conductivity term. This conductivity term can be separated from the auxiliary differential equation (ADE). Therefore, the proposed mixed-order model can achieve the same accuracy with fewer unknowns, thus realizing higher computational efficiency and lower memory consumption. For examples, we derive the model parameters and corresponding numerical errors for noble metals including Au, Ag, and Al in the optical regime. Finally, the proposed model’s efficiency improvements are validated through implementation within a Discontinuous Galerkin Time Domain (DGTD) framework. The proposed model can achieve up to 12.5% efficiency improvement in theory compared to the conventional GDM with the same accuracy. A numerical example validates that, in practice, 9% memory reduction and 11% acceleration can be realized.

 

The quarter-wavelength matching technique is widely used because it minimizes the reflection while it maximizes the transmission. The recently introduced antireflection temporal coatings (ATCs) [Optica7,323(2020)10.1364/OPTICA.381175] have been considered as its temporal analog. However, our study shows that by introducing an ATC, not only will the reflection be reduced but also the transmission. This phenomenon is opposite its spatial counterpart, which indicates that ATCs are more than simply a temporal dual of quarter-wavelength matching. This is a direct consequence of the different physical phenomena that are manifested in the temporal and spatial domains.

 

Lithium niobate (LN) has been widely used for second-harmonic generation (SHG) from bulk crystals. Recent studies have reported improved SHG efficiency in LN micro-ring resonators and hybrid waveguiding structures, as well as in LN nanostructures supporting anapole modes and plasmon-assisted dipole resonances. Here we numerically demonstrate that high$Q$-factor resonances associated with symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum can lead to highly efficient frequency doubling in LN metasurfaces. Simulations show that the radiative$Q$-factor and on-resonance field enhancement factor observed in the metasurface are closely dependent on the asymmetric parameter$\mathrm{\alpha <\#comment/>}$of the system. Furthermore, high$Q$-factor resonances boost the SH conversion process in the LN nanostructures. In particular, for a LN metasurface with a$Q$-factor of$\sim <\#comment/>8\times <\#comment/>{10}^4$, a 0.49% peak SH conversion efficiency is achieved at a pump intensity of$3.3{\mathrm{k}\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^2$. This suggests that such high$Q$-factor LN metasurfaces may be good candidates for practical blue–ultraviolet light sources. Our work provides insight into the possible implementation of metadevices based on nanoengineering of conventional nonlinear crystals.