Researchers have developed a groundbreaking nonlinear optical metasurface technology that allows for unprecedented control of light, paving the way for advancements in communication, medical diagnostics, and quantum technologies.
Unlocking Electrical Tuning
A team of researchers, led by Professor Jongwon Lee in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UNIST, has made an important breakthrough in the search for relevant materials and structures, which can be further applied to nonlinear optics. Here, we demonstrated the first example of nonlinear optical metasurfaces that can be electrically tuned— a challenge that could not previously be realized by traditional ways.
Their solution uses an intersubband polaritonic metasurface with multiple quantum wells (MQWs) integrated into it. Together, the combination enables modulation of the third-harmonic generation (THG), a process where one light frequency can create multiple wavelengths from a single source. Together, the researchers demonstrated that a modulation depth of 450% and over 86% of zero-order THG diffraction suppression were possible with local phase tuning >180°.
In the field of nonlinear optics, this degree of control over light intensity and phase has the potential to revolutionize. The fact that the researchers could change the attributes of THG using electrical signals now makes possible a variety of applications for their discoveries, including light modulation and quantum sensors, cryptography, dynamic holography, and quantum communication light sources.
Revolutionizing Communication and Diagnostics
This breakthrough technology has wide-ranging consequences. Light plays a key role in the interconnection between matter and its ability concerning non-linear optics to pave ways for inviting possibilities up to an exorbitant scale of informative transmission vis-a-vis the conventional single wavelength lasers. This is illustrated by the infamous green laser pointer, which uses non-linear optical technology.
Professor Lee’s team went beyond this with their novel nonlinear optical metasurface, ushering in the next generation of ultra-compact and lightweight optical devices. Nano-thin lasers from papers This tremendous shrinkage opens up new opportunities for in future communications technologies, quantum light sources, and medical diagnostic tools.
They also showed THG beam steering using phase gradients, offering a new route towards electrically tunable flat nonlinear optical elements with multiple functions. In this way, the metasurface can not only tailor the wavelength, intensity, and phase of light as desired but likewise redirect the beam which extends applications a lot in many fields.
Conclusion
This discovery was a major advance in the field of nonlinear optics by Professor Lee’s team. The system they realized is a fundamentally new kind of device capable of manipulating light in ways that are not possible with conventional means, and the design rules demonstrated are directly extendable to practically implement dimension-compressed nonlinear optical metasurfaces in key application areas such as deep-tissue imaging, quantum communications, information storage or on-chip processing. This new class of devices has the ability to usher in a renaissance period in optics and photonics that would change forever how we receive, bend, and use light.
