OSE Seminars
Extreme infrared photonics with phonon-polaritons
Presented by Stavroula Foteinopoulou, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Dept., UNM
To enable new capabilities with modern photonic devices, entirely new extreme domains of light control must be reached. Extreme spatial or temporal light properties are desirable, such as deep-subwavelength light confinement, giant electromagnetic (EM) enhancement, unidirectionality or ultra-slow light-propagation speed. Throughout the EM spectrum, new ways of controlling light are continually investigated. The vast range of conceived platforms for unconventional light control have all an underlying common characteristic; all exploit a judicious synergy between the optical material responses of the constituent building blocks and their geometry and arrangement in space.
For light in the optical regime, metal-based building blocks have completely transformed traditional Optics as we knew it, by breaking the diffraction limit in both focusing and waveguiding, and even bringing lasing to the nanoscale. All these extra-ordinary effects emanate from the plasmonic properties of the metal, which enable well-localized high-intensity resonances at metallic interfaces. These new effects, gave rise to the exciting and continuously growing field of plasmonics. Although metallic-based platforms have been used also for infrared light, the progress with infrared metal-based platforms has not mirrored the advancements of plasmonics in the optical regime.
In this talk, I will explain what are the limitations of metal Optics for infrared light. I will discuss another class of materials, phonon-polariton materials or otherwise known as Reststrahlen-band materials, that have been hitherto overlook for infrared photonic applications due to their near-perfect reflector properties in bulk form. I will explain how the full plasmonic "powerhouse" can be unleashed for infrared light with the use of phonon-polariton materials. I will present examples of infrared phonon-polariton platforms from our work demonstrating interesting capabilities such as exotic EM wave dispersions as well as artificial magnetism. Finally, I will focus my discussion on our recent results on phonon-polariton enabled uni-directional absorption and thermal emission.
11:00 am, Wednesday, February 14, 2018
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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