Enhanced Nonlinear Effects in Metamaterials and Plasmonics
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Abstract
In this paper we provide an overview of the anomalous and enhanced nonlinear effects available when optical nonlinear materials are combined inside plasmonic waveguide structures. Broad, bistable and all-optical switching responses are exhibited at the cut-off frequency of these waveguides, characterized by reduced Q-factor resonances. These phenomena are due to the large field enhancement obtained inside specific plasmonic gratings, which ensures a significant boosting of the nonlinear operation. Several exciting applications are proposed, which may potentially lead to new optical components and add to the optical nanocircuit paradigm.
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A. Alù, University of Texas at Austin
Andrea Alù is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Roma Tre in 2007. Dr. Alù's current research interests span over a broad range of areas, including electromagnetic theory and applications, metamaterials and plasmonics, optics and photonics, cloaking and transparency, nanocircuits and nanostructures modeling, miniaturized antennas and nanoantennas, RF antennas and circuits. He is the co-author of over 145 journal papers and 15 book chapters, with over 2,600 citations. He has been the recipient of several international awards and recognitions for his research studies, among which the 2011 Issac Koga Gold Medal from URSI, an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, an AFOSR Young Investigator Award, a DTRA Young Investigator Award, the L. B. Felsen Award for Excellence in Electrodynamics and four URSI Young Scientist Awards. Dr. Alù is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters and of Optics Express, Guest Editor of Special Issues for Optics Communications, for the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics on Quantum Electronics and for Sensors and an OSA Traveling Lecturer. He is also a senior member of SPIE, full member of URSI, and member of the IEEE and OSA.
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