ScholarlyCommons

Title

Boosting Optical Nonlinearities in Є-Near-Zero Plasmonic Channels

Author(s)

Christos Argyropoulos, University of Texas at Austin
Pai-Yen Chen, University of Texas at Austin
Giuseppe D'Aguanno, AEgis Technologies Group
Nader Engheta, University of PennsylvaniaFollow
Andrea Alù, University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

The anomalous transmission properties of zero-permittivity ultranarrow channels are used to boost Kerr nonlinearities and achieve switching and bistable response for moderate optical intensities. Strong field enhancement, uniform all along the channel, is a typical feature of ε-near-zero supercoupling and is shown to be particularly suited to enhance nonlinear effects. This is obtained by designing narrow apertures at cutoff in a plasmonic screen. We show that this nonlinear mechanism can significantly outperform nonlinearities in traditional Fabry-Pérot resonant gratings.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

1-27-2012

Comments

Argyropoulos, C., Chen, P., D'Aguanno, G., Engheta, N., & Alù, A. (2012). Boosting optical nonlinearities in ε-near-zero plasmonic channels. Physical Review B, 85(4), 045129. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.045129

©2012 American Physical Society