Femtosecond optical polarization switching using a cadmium oxide-based perfect absorber

Yuanmu Yang; Kyle Kelley; Edward Sachet; Salvatore Campione; Ting S. Luk; Jon Paul Maria; Michael B. Sinclair; Igal Brener

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2017.64

Femtosecond optical polarization switching using a cadmium oxide-based perfect absorber

Yuanmu Yang, Kyle Kelley, Edward Sachet, Salvatore Campione, Ting S. Luk, Jon Paul Maria, Michael B. Sinclair, Igal Brener

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

270 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ultrafast control of the polarization state of light may enable a plethora of applications in optics, chemistry and biology. However, conventional polarizing elements, such as polarizers and waveplates, are either static or possess only gigahertz switching speeds. Here, with the aid of high-mobility indium-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) as the gateway plasmonic material, we realize a high-quality factor Berreman-type perfect absorber at a wavelength of 2.08 μm. On sub-bandgap optical pumping, the perfect absorption resonance strongly redshifts because of the transient increase of the ensemble-averaged effective electron mass of CdO, which leads to an absolute change in the p-polarized reflectance from 1.0 to 86.3%. By combining the exceedingly high modulation depth with the polarization selectivity of the perfect absorber, we experimentally demonstrate a reflective polarizer with a polarization extinction ratio of 91 that can be switched on and off within 800 fs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	390-395
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Photonics
Volume	11
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2017.64
State	Published - Jun 1 2017
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering and performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US DOE Office of Science. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the US DOE National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. K.K., E.S. and J.-P.M. also acknowledge support of this work by National Science Foundation grant CHE-150794 and Army Research Office grant W911NF-16-1-0037.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	CHE-150794
U.S. Department of Energy
Army Research Office	W911NF-16-1-0037
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Basic Energy Sciences
National Nuclear Security Administration	DE-AC04-94AL85000
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

Access to Document

10.1038/nphoton.2017.64

Cite this

@article{02f7dfa3be8d43cba58e38d9b6368806,

title = "Femtosecond optical polarization switching using a cadmium oxide-based perfect absorber",

abstract = "Ultrafast control of the polarization state of light may enable a plethora of applications in optics, chemistry and biology. However, conventional polarizing elements, such as polarizers and waveplates, are either static or possess only gigahertz switching speeds. Here, with the aid of high-mobility indium-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) as the gateway plasmonic material, we realize a high-quality factor Berreman-type perfect absorber at a wavelength of 2.08 μm. On sub-bandgap optical pumping, the perfect absorption resonance strongly redshifts because of the transient increase of the ensemble-averaged effective electron mass of CdO, which leads to an absolute change in the p-polarized reflectance from 1.0 to 86.3%. By combining the exceedingly high modulation depth with the polarization selectivity of the perfect absorber, we experimentally demonstrate a reflective polarizer with a polarization extinction ratio of 91 that can be switched on and off within 800 fs.",

author = "Yuanmu Yang and Kyle Kelley and Edward Sachet and Salvatore Campione and Luk, {Ting S.} and Maria, {Jon Paul} and Sinclair, {Michael B.} and Igal Brener",

year = "2017",

month = jun,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/nphoton.2017.64",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

pages = "390--395",

journal = "Nature Photonics",

issn = "1749-4885",

publisher = "Nature Research",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Femtosecond optical polarization switching using a cadmium oxide-based perfect absorber

AU - Yang, Yuanmu

AU - Kelley, Kyle

AU - Sachet, Edward

AU - Campione, Salvatore

AU - Luk, Ting S.

AU - Maria, Jon Paul

AU - Sinclair, Michael B.

AU - Brener, Igal

PY - 2017/6/1

Y1 - 2017/6/1

N2 - Ultrafast control of the polarization state of light may enable a plethora of applications in optics, chemistry and biology. However, conventional polarizing elements, such as polarizers and waveplates, are either static or possess only gigahertz switching speeds. Here, with the aid of high-mobility indium-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) as the gateway plasmonic material, we realize a high-quality factor Berreman-type perfect absorber at a wavelength of 2.08 μm. On sub-bandgap optical pumping, the perfect absorption resonance strongly redshifts because of the transient increase of the ensemble-averaged effective electron mass of CdO, which leads to an absolute change in the p-polarized reflectance from 1.0 to 86.3%. By combining the exceedingly high modulation depth with the polarization selectivity of the perfect absorber, we experimentally demonstrate a reflective polarizer with a polarization extinction ratio of 91 that can be switched on and off within 800 fs.

AB - Ultrafast control of the polarization state of light may enable a plethora of applications in optics, chemistry and biology. However, conventional polarizing elements, such as polarizers and waveplates, are either static or possess only gigahertz switching speeds. Here, with the aid of high-mobility indium-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) as the gateway plasmonic material, we realize a high-quality factor Berreman-type perfect absorber at a wavelength of 2.08 μm. On sub-bandgap optical pumping, the perfect absorption resonance strongly redshifts because of the transient increase of the ensemble-averaged effective electron mass of CdO, which leads to an absolute change in the p-polarized reflectance from 1.0 to 86.3%. By combining the exceedingly high modulation depth with the polarization selectivity of the perfect absorber, we experimentally demonstrate a reflective polarizer with a polarization extinction ratio of 91 that can be switched on and off within 800 fs.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018344162&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nphoton.2017.64

DO - 10.1038/nphoton.2017.64

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85018344162

SN - 1749-4885

VL - 11

SP - 390

EP - 395

JO - Nature Photonics

JF - Nature Photonics

IS - 6

ER -

Femtosecond optical polarization switching using a cadmium oxide-based perfect absorber

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this