Manipulating Light Using Micro/Nanostructured Materials

Professor Qihuang Gong

Department of Physics & State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Peking University, China

11:00 am Tuesday, 14 January 2014
EN103 Lecture Theatre (EN Building), Hawthorn.

Abstract
Recently, using nano/micro-structure photonic devices to manipulate the light has attracted much attention for its potential applications in photonic circuits. In this report, the experimental investigations based on two kinds of micro/nanostructured materials, photonic crystals and metallic nanostructures, were performed.
Using two-dimensional photonic crystal made of the composite materials with large and fast third-order optical nonlinearity, ultrafast and low threshold all-optical switching was demonstrated. High switching efficiency of 80%, low pump intensity of the order of 0.1-1MW/cm2 and picosecond switching times were achieved.
Based on tunable Fano resonances of metallic nanostructures, ultrafast modulations on light transmission were also experimentally demonstrated. Ultrafast optical modulation based on plasmonic lens was experimentally studied by using a femtosecond time-resolved scanning near-field optical microscope. An ultra-small and ultrafast all-optical modulation spot was successfully achieved inside a thin gold film. Moreover, ultracompact plasmonic devices including SPP unidirectional generator, splitter and switch were experimentally demonstrated using an asymmetric single-nanoslit.

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