Active Epsilon-Near-Zero Photonics

Discovery of novel active materials is fundamental for photonic applications. The epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials have been shown to be as one of the most promising optical materials in the recent years as the electromagnetic field inside media with near-zero permittivity has been shown to exhibit unique optical properties, including strong electromagnetic wave confinement, enhanced quantum emission near ENZ media, non-reciprocal magneto-optical effects, unique topological properties, and abnormally large optical nonlinearity. While ENZ optics have been investigated extensively in the last few years, the current commonly used ENZ materials suffer from limited optical enhancement because of the lack of precise control of ENZ frequency, loss, and thickness for efficient ENZ mode excitation. In addition, the active tunability and enhanced nonlinearity and emission properties in ENZ materials have yet been fully experimentally explored.<br/><br/>This talk will review our recent studies on the active linear, nonlinear, and emission properties of conducting oxide and metallic nitride epsilon-near-zero materials in planar and optical fiber platforms [1-7]. I will present a method to engineer the field intensity enhancement of the Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) ENZ thin films synthesized by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. I will then discuss the observation of abnormal nonlinear temporal dynamic of hot electrons and enhanced optical nonlinearity in AZO and ITO ENZ thin films under different pump fluences and excitation angles using a degenerate pump-probe spectroscopy technique. Finally, I will also discuss the first experimental demonstration of optically confined ENZ resonance excitation in an optical fiber waveguide uniformly coated with AZO nanolayer. These studies enrich the fundamental understanding of emission and nonlinear properties on ENZ thin films and the integration of ENZ materials and optical fiber will open the path to revolutionary ultracompact in-fiber optical devices for optical communication, imaging, sensing/laser applications.<br/><br/>This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant number: 2113010), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-21-1-02204) (AFOSR-AOARD, FA2386-21-1-4057)