TY - JOUR
T1 - THz bandwidth optical switching with carbon nanotube metamaterial
AU - Nikolaenko, Andrey E.
AU - Papasimakis, Nikitas
AU - Chipouline, Arkadi
AU - De Angelis, Francesco
AU - Di Fabrizio, Enzo
AU - Zheludev, Nikolay I.
PY - 2012/3/12
Y1 - 2012/3/12
N2 - We provide the first demonstration of exceptional light-withlight optical switching performance of a carbon nanotube metamaterial - a hybrid nanostructure of a plasmonic metamaterial with semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. A modulation depth of 10% in the near-IR with sub-500 fs response time is achieved with a pump fluence of just 10 íJ/cm2, which is an order of magnitude lower than in previously reported artificial nanostructures. The improved switching characteristics of the carbon nanotube metamaterial are defined by an excitonic nonlinearity of carbon nanotubes resonantly enhanced by a concentration of local fields in the metamaterial. Since the spectral position of the excitonic response and metamaterial plasmonic resonance can be adjusted by using carbon nanotubes of different diameter and scaling of the metamaterial design, the giant nonlinear response of the hybrid metamaterial - in principle - can be engineered to cover the entire second and third telecom windows, from Oto U-band.
AB - We provide the first demonstration of exceptional light-withlight optical switching performance of a carbon nanotube metamaterial - a hybrid nanostructure of a plasmonic metamaterial with semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. A modulation depth of 10% in the near-IR with sub-500 fs response time is achieved with a pump fluence of just 10 íJ/cm2, which is an order of magnitude lower than in previously reported artificial nanostructures. The improved switching characteristics of the carbon nanotube metamaterial are defined by an excitonic nonlinearity of carbon nanotubes resonantly enhanced by a concentration of local fields in the metamaterial. Since the spectral position of the excitonic response and metamaterial plasmonic resonance can be adjusted by using carbon nanotubes of different diameter and scaling of the metamaterial design, the giant nonlinear response of the hybrid metamaterial - in principle - can be engineered to cover the entire second and third telecom windows, from Oto U-band.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84858994991&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1364/OE.20.006068
DO - 10.1364/OE.20.006068
M3 - Article
C2 - 22418486
AN - SCOPUS:84858994991
SN - 1094-4087
VL - 20
SP - 6068
EP - 6079
JO - OPTICS EXPRESS
JF - OPTICS EXPRESS
IS - 6
ER -