We are seeing here the emergence of new methodologies for completely new imaging devices and just as likely a new protocol for producing optical computation. We continue to learn to work around atoms and molecules with increasing facility. We can all see difficulties, but we are also seeing difficulties fall away.
This is all pretty exciting but the sheer complexity of the optical capability been shown promises amazing capability in the future.
I am also reminded of one branch of research that I do not think was ever pursued as vigorously as it could have been thirty years ago. That was amorphous metals. This work on plasmons and energy transfer along surfaces fits the unusual behavior of these materials. They were mainly used to produce smaller starters for GM cars at the time but got little play elsewhere.
This is not too unusual when a new effect is studied. The scramble for any application focuses resources sometimes unwisely.
JULY 01, 2010
Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375 lcyarris@lbl.gov
Powerful new microscopes able to resolve DNA molecules with visible light, superfast computers that use light rather than electronic signals to process information, and Harry Potteresque invisibility cloaks are just some of the many thrilling promises of transformation optics. In this burgeoning field of science, light waves can be controlled at all lengths of scale through the unique structuring of metamaterials, composites typically made from metals and dielectrics – insulators that become polarized in the presence of an electromagnetic field. The idea is to transform the physical space through which light travels, sometimes referred to as “optical space,” in a manner similar to the way in which outer space is transformed by the presence of a massive object under Einstein’s relativity theory.
Schematic on the left shows the scattering of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on a metal-dielectric interface with a single protrusion. Schematic on right shows how SPP scattering is dramatically suppressed when the optical space around the protrusion is transformed. (Image courtesy of Zhang group)
So far transformation optics have delivered only hints as to what the future might hold, with a major roadblock being how difficult it is to modify the physical properties of metamaterials at the nano or subwavelength scale, mainly because of the metals. Now, a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley
A plasmon is an electronic surface wave that rolls through the sea of conduction electrons on a metal. Just as the energy in waves of light is carried in quantized particle-like units called photons, so, too, is plasmonic energy carried in quasi-particles called plasmons. Plasmons will interact strongly with photons at the interface of a metamaterial’s metal and dielectric to form yet another quasi-particle called a surface plasmon polariton(SPP). Manipulation of these SPPs is at the heart of the astonishing optical properties of metamaterials.
Yongmin Liu (left) Xiang Zhang and Thomas Zentgraf used sophisticated compuer modeling to develop a “transformational plasmon optics” technique that may open the door to practical integrated, compact optical data-processing chips. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley
The Berkeley Lab-UC Berkeley team, led by Xiang Zhang, a principal investigator with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and director of UC Berkeley’s Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (SINAM), modeled what they have dubbed a “transformational plasmon optics” approach that involved manipulation of the dielectric material adjacent to a metal but not the metal itself. This novel approach was shown to make it possible for SPPs to travel across uneven and curved surfaces over a broad range of wavelengths without suffering significant scattering losses. Using this model, Zhang and his team then designed a plasmonic waveguide with a 180 degree bend that won’t alter the energy or properties of a light beam as it makes the U-turn. They also designed a plasmonic version of a Luneburg
“Since the metal properties in our metamaterials are completely unaltered, our transformational plasmon optics methodology provides a practical way for routing light at very small scales,” Zhang says. “Our findings reveal the power of the transformation optics technique to manipulate near-field optical waves, and we expect that many other intriguing plasmonic devices will be realized based on the methodology we have introduced.”
Zhang is the corresponding author of a paper describing this research that appeared in the journal Nano Letters, titled “Transformational Plasmon Optics.” Co-authoring the paper with Zhang were Yongmin Liu, Thomas Zentgraf and Guy Bartal.
Field distribution after the transformation of a dielectric material shows the nearly perfect transmission of a light beam around a 180 degree bend. (Image courtesy of Zhang group)
Says Liu, who was the lead author of the paper and is a post-doctoral researcher in Zhang’s UC Berkeley group, “In addition to the 180 degree plasmonic bend and the plasmonic Luneburg
Zhang and his research group have been at the forefront of transformation optics research since 2008 when they became the first group to fashion metamaterials that were able to bend light backwards, a property known as “negative refraction,” which is unprecedented in nature. In 2009, he and his group created a “carpet cloak” from nanostructured silicon that concealed the presence of objects placed under it from optical detection.
For this latest work, Zhang and Liu with Zentgraf and Bartal departed from the traditional transformation optics focus on propagation waves and instead focused on the SPPs carried in near-field (subwavelength) region.
“The intensity of SPPs is maximal at the interface between a metal and a dielectric medium and exponentially decays away from the interface,” says Zhang. “Since a significant portion of SPP energy is carried in the evanescent field outside the metal, that is, in the adjacent dielectric medium, we proposed to control SPPs by keeping the metal property fixed and only modifying the dielectric material based on the transformation optics technique.”
In this schematic of a plasmonic Luneburg
Full-wave simulations of different transformed designs proved the proposed methodology by Zhang and his colleagues correct. It was furthermore demonstrated that if a prudent transformational plasmon optics scheme is taken the transformed dielectric materials can be isotropic and nonmagnetic, which further boosts the practicality of this approach. The demonstration of a 180 degree bend plasmonic bend with almost perfect transmission was especially significant.
“Plasmonic waveguides are one of the most important components/elements in integrated plasmonic devices,” says Liu. “However, curvatures often lead to strong radiation loss that reduces the length for transferring an optical signal. Our 180 degree bend plasmonic bend is definitely important and will be useful in the future design of integrated plasmonic devices.”
Compared with silicon-based photonic devices the use of plasmonics could help to further scale- down the total size of photonic devices and increase the interaction of light with certain materials, which should improve performance.
“We envision that the unique design flexibility of the transformational plasmon optics approach may open a new door to nano optics and photonic circuit design,” Zhang says.
This research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation’s Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center
Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory located in Berkeley, California University of California
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