Mousavi Seyedmohammad A, Plum Eric, Shi Jinhui, Zheludev Nikolay I
Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
1] Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK [2] Key Laboratory of In-Fiber Integrated Optics of Ministry of Education, College of Science, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.
Sci Rep. 2015 Mar 10;5:8977. doi: 10.1038/srep08977.
Processing of photonic information usually relies on electronics. Aiming to avoid the conversion between photonic and electronic signals, modulation of light with light based on optical nonlinearity has become a major research field and coherent optical effects on the nanoscale are emerging as new means of handling and distributing signals. Here we demonstrate that in slabs of linear material of sub-wavelength thickness optical manifestations of birefringence and optical activity (linear and circular birefringence and dichroism) can be controlled by a wave coherent with the wave probing the polarization effect. We demonstrate this in proof-of-principle experiments for chiral and anisotropic microwave metamaterials, where we show that the large parameter space of polarization characteristics may be accessed at will by coherent control. Such control can be exerted at arbitrarily low intensities, thus arguably allowing for fast handling of electromagnetic signals without facing thermal management and energy challenges.
光子信息处理通常依赖于电子学。为了避免光子信号与电子信号之间的转换，基于光学非线性的光对光调制已成为一个主要研究领域，并且纳米尺度上的相干光学效应正作为处理和分配信号的新手段而出现。在此，我们证明，在亚波长厚度的线性材料平板中，双折射和旋光性（线性和圆双折射及二向色性）的光学表现可由与探测偏振效应的波相干的波来控制。我们在手性和各向异性微波超材料的原理验证实验中证实了这一点，在这些实验中我们表明，通过相干控制可以随意访问偏振特性的大参数空间。这种控制可以在任意低的强度下施加，因此可以说能够在不面临热管理和能量挑战的情况下快速处理电磁信号。
