In modern optic and photonic applications, tunability of the asymmetric transmission has become important due to its adjustable unidirectional transmission. In this study, we design a three-dimensional trapezoidal metallic nano structure on a stretchable substrate. It shows broadband tunable asymmetric light transmission in the visible spectrum. The proposed structure is made of a periodic nano array of a trapezoidal shaped aluminum on a stretchable substrate. The transmission properties of the proposed structure with respect to the geometric parameters were systematically investigated employing finite-difference time-domain computations. It was shown that the intensity and the bandwidth of the asymmetric light transmission between 400 nm and 800 nm wavelengths change when the flexible substrate is stretched. The period of the designed structure varies depending on the stretch of the substrate. For example, when the substrate is stretched, the period of the structure is 450 nm and when it is unstretched, the period is 350 nm. This increase in the period causes a red shift in the wavelength range of the asymmetric transmission. While the asymmetric transmission under unstretched case starts at 350 nm and stops at 514.5 nm, under stretched case it starts at 450 nm and stops at 661.5 nm. In addition, the performance of our structure is insensitive the polarization of the incoming radiation in both forward and backward illumination directions. This study provides a path toward the realization of tunable optical devices for the applications which require dynamic tunability.
We propose an asymmetric to quasisymmetric behavioral tunability of a structured filter operating in the mid-infrared (IR) spectral region, where the atmospheric transparency is high. The structure is designed through electromagnetic wave analysis using finite-difference time-domain computations. The behavioral tunability provides dynamic control of the optical behavior of the IR filter without geometric and structural changes and opens up a field of research area in the tunable IR devices. It is shown that optical characteristic can be switched from an optical diode (unidirectional isolator or asymmetric light transmission) to the bidirectional isolator (quasisymmetric behavior) based on the phase transition of vanadium dioxide in the entire mid-IR spectrum. The proposed structure can be fabricated with the current nano and microfabrication techniques and can be utilized in smart front IR windows for protecting delicate sensors in the IR imaging systems and IR missile seekers under strong IR laser radiation.
Refractive and conventional optical elements such as prisms and lenses are heavy, large-sized and have limited performance in light-material interactions. Due to these severe constraints, new types of structures called metasurfaces, which are composed of subwavelength structural elements with subwavelength thicknesses, are used instead of conventional and refractive based optical elements. Metasurfaces enable unprecedented control of phase, polarization, amplitude and impedance of incident light. Thanks to these very effective features, metasurfaces have gathered remarkable attention in wavefront manipulation of photons for various applications. Earlier attempts have deployed plasmonic metasurfaces in the designs. However, the light coupled to plasmons suffers from great optical loss, which restricts high transmission efficiency, at visible wavelengths due to intrinsic heat dissipation. This problem can be overcome using all dielectric structures operating mainly in the transmission mode. Here, we numerically demonstrate vortex beam generation having donut-like intensity profile and 60% transmission efficiency. In this study, we use all dielectric metasurface that is composed of thick glass substrate and crystalline silicon which is shaped as trapezoid structure at 532 nm visible wavelength. The refractive indices of glass substrate and crystalline silicon are 1.46 and 4.15 with height of 220 nm, respectively at the designed wavelength. We have achieved 0-2π phase distribution by scaling trapezoid shaped silicon at fixed height. The interface of metasurface segmented 8 regions is filled with trapezoid shaped silicon with a π/4 phase increment in an azimuthal pattern. The obtained vortex beam can be used in various applications such as light trapping, optical tweezers, and laser beam forming.
Improving sensitivity in the infrared spectrum is a challenging task. Detecting infrared light over a wide bandwidth and at low power consumption is very important. Novel solutions can be acquired by mimicking biological eyes such as compound eye with many individual lenses inspired from the nature. The nature provides many ingenious approaches of sensing and detecting the surrounding environment. Even though compound eye consists of small optical units, it can detect wide-angle electromagnetic waves and it has high transmission and low reflection loss. Insects have eyes that are superior compared to human eyes (single-aperture eyes) in terms of compactness, robustness, wider field of view, higher sensitivity of light intensity and being cheap vision systems. All these desired properties are accompanied by an important drawback: lower spatial resolution. The first step to investigate the feasibility of bio-inspired optics in photodetectors is to perform light interaction with the optical system that gather light and detect it. The most common method used in natural vision systems is the ray analysis. Light wave characteristics are not taken into consideration in such analyses, such as the amount of energy at the focal point or photoreceptor site, the losses caused by reflection at the interfaces and absorption cannot be investigated. In this study, we present a bio-inspired optical detection system investigated by wave analysis. We numerically model the wave analysis based on Maxwell equations from the viewpoint of efficient light detection and revealing the light propagation after intercepting the first interface of the eye towards the photoreceptor site.
Nanostructured thin film absorbers embedded with phase-change material (PCM) can provide large level of absorption intensity tunability in the near-infrared region. Germanium Antimonide Tellurite (Ge2Sb1Te4-GST) was employed as the phase-change material in the designed structures. The structure is composed of a periodic grating-type array of 200 nm thick Au buried with 100 nm-thick GST layer from the top of the Au layer. The period of the gratings is 2 μm and in each period, GST width is 0.5 μm. GST was selected as the active PCM because its optical properties undergo a substantial change during a structural transition from the amorphous to the crystalline phase. The optical absorption properties of the designed structures with respect to the geometric and material parameters were systematically investigated using finite-difference time-domain computations. It was shown that absorption intensity in the near-infrared region was tuned from the near-perfect to the near-zero level by switching the PCM from its amorphous to crystalline states. The distributions of the electric field and absorbed power at the resonant wavelengths with respect to different phases of the GST were investigated to further explain the physical origin of the absorption tuning. This study provides a path toward the realization of tunable infrared absorbers for the applications, such as selective infrared emitters, infrared camouflage, sensors, and photovoltaic devices.
Nanostructured thin film absorbers embedded with phase-change thermochromic material can provide a large level of absorption tunability in the near-infrared region. Vanadium dioxide was employed as the phase-change material in the designed structures. The optical absorption properties of the designed structures with respect to the geometric and material parameters were systematically investigated using finite-difference time-domain computations. Absorption level of the resonance wavelength in the near-IR region was tuned from the perfect absorption level to a low level (17%) with a high positive dynamic range of near-infrared absorption intensity tunability (83%). Due to the phase transition of vanadium dioxide, the resonance at the near-infrared region is being turned on and turned off actively and reversibly under the thermal bias, thereby rendering these nanostructures suitable for infrared camouflage, emitters, and sensors.
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