Polarization-selected nonlinearity transition in gold dolmens coupled to an epsilon-near-zero material
Niu Xinxiang,
Hu Xiaoyong,
Sun Quan,
Lu Cuicui,
Yang Yuanmu,
Yang Hong,
Gong Qihuang
Affiliations
Niu Xinxiang
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Hu Xiaoyong
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Sun Quan
Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
Lu Cuicui
Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Quantum Architecture and Measurements of Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Ultrafine Optoelectronic Systems, School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Yang Yuanmu
State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100871, China
Yang Hong
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Gong Qihuang
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Nonlinear optical materials are cornerstones of modern optics including ultrafast lasers, optical computing, and harmonic generation. The nonlinear coefficients of optical materials suffer from limitations in strength and bandwidth. Also, the nonlinear performance is typically monotonous without polarization selectivity, and to date, no natural material has been found to possess nonlinear coefficients with positive or negative signs simultaneously at a specific wavelength, all of which impede practical applications in the specific scenario. Here, we realize broadband large optical nonlinearity accompanied with ultrafast dynamics in a coupled system composed of gold dolmens and an epsilon-near-zero material for dual orthogonal polarizations simultaneously. The system also shows the polarization-selected nonlinearity transition properties, where the sign of the optical nonlinear refractive indexes can be converted via polarization switching. This guarantees active transitions from self-focusing to self-defocusing by polarization rotation without tuning wavelength in practical utilizations. The measured nonlinear refractive index and susceptibility demonstrate more than three orders of magnitude enhancement over a 400-nm-bandwidth compared with the constituents, while maintaining the sub-1 ps time response. The realized enhanced, ultrafast response, and the polarization tunability ensure the designed system a promising platform for the development of integrated ultrafast laser sources, all-optical circuits and quantum chips.
