Query: Negative refraction in semiconductor metamaterials

Candidate papers:

abstract: An optical metamaterial is a composite in which subwavelength features, rather than the constituent materials, control the macroscopic electromagnetic properties of the material. Recently, properly designed metamaterials have garnered much interest because of their unusual interaction with electromagnetic waves. Whereas nature seems to have limits on the type of materials that exist, newly invented metamaterials are not bound by such constraints. These newly accessible electromagnetic properties make these materials an excellent platform for demonstrating unusual optical phenomena and unique applications such as subwavelength imaging and planar lens design. 'Negative index materials' as first proposed, required the permittivity, epsilon, and permeability, mu, to be simultaneously less than zero, but such materials face limitations. Here, we demonstrate a comparatively low loss, three dimensional, all semiconductor metamaterial that exhibits negative refraction for all incidence angles in the long wave infrared region and requires only an anisotropic dielectric function with a single resonance. Using reflection and transmission measurements and a comprehensive model of the material, we demonstrate that our material exhibits negative refraction. This is furthermore confirmed through a straightforward beam optics experiment. This work will influence future metamaterial designs and their incorporation into optical semiconductor devices.
author_names: Anthony J Hoffman

Leonid V Alekseyev

Scott S Howard

Kale J Franz

Daniel Wasserman

Viktor A Podolskiy

Evgenii Narimanov

Deborah L Sivco

Claire Gmachl
title: Negative refraction in semiconductor metamaterials.
venue: Nature materials
year: 2007

abstract: We have considered the realization of metamaterials based on semiconductor quantum nanostructures, in particular, with the structural arrangement as in quantum cascade laser (QCL) designed to achieve optical gain in the mid infrared and terahertz part of the spectrum. The entire structure is placed in a strong external magnetic field, which facilitates the attainment of sufficient population inversion, necessary to manipulate the permittivity, and enable a left handed regime.
author_names: J Radovanovic

S Ramovic

Aleksandar Danicic

V Milanovic
title: Negative refraction in semiconductor metamaterials based on quantum cascade laser design for the mid IR and THz spectral range
year: 2012

abstract: We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate negative refraction in a semiconductorsystem operating at mid infrared wavelengths. Such effect is generic and realized by electrons quantum confinement in quantum wells, acting as an adjustable resonance. (c) 2019 The Author(s)
author_names: M Ferraro

Adrian Hierro

Miguel Montes Bajo

Julen Tamayo-Arrlola

Nolwenn Le Biavan

Maxime Hugues

Jose Maria Ulloa

M Giudici

J M Chauveau

Patrice Genevet
title: Intersubband plasmons induced negative refraction at mid IR frequency in heterostructured semiconductor metamaterials
venue: 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics (CLEO)
year: 2019

abstract: We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate negative refraction in a semiconductorsystem operating at mid infrared wavelengths. Such effect is generic and realized by electrons quantum confinement in quantum wells, acting as an adjustable resonance. (c) 2019 The Author(s)
author_names: M Ferraro

Adrian Hierro

Miguel Montes Bajo

Julen Tamayo-Arriola

Nolwenn Le Biavan

Maxime Hugues

Jose Maria Ulloa

M Giudici

J M Chauveau

Patrice Genevet
title: Intersubband plasmons induced negative refraction at mid IR frequency in heterostructured semiconductor metamaterials
year: 2019

abstract: We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate negative refraction in a semiconductorsystem operating at mid infrared wavelengths. Such effect is generic and realized by electrons quantum confinement in quantum wells, acting as an adjustable resonance. (c) 2019 The Author(s)
author_names: M Ferraro

Adrian Hierro

Miguel Montes Bajo

Julen Tamayo-Arrlola

Nolwenn Le Biavan

Maxime Hugues

J M Ulloa

M Giudici

J M Chauveau

Patrice Genevet
title: Intersubband plasmons induced negative refraction at mid IR frequency in heterostructured semiconductor metamaterials
year: 2019

abstract: In order to avoid losses in metamaterial unit cells at frequencies of interest, caused by metallic inclusions, an active medium design has been proposed. As candidate structures for this active medium, we have chosen quantum cascade lasers because of their high output gain. Here we analyze and compare two quantum cascade structures that emit at 4.6 THz and 3.9 THz, respectively, placed under the influence of a strong magnetic field. We first solve the full system of rate equations for all relevant Landau levels, and obtain the necessary information about carrier distribution among the levels, after which we are able to evaluate the permittivity component along the growth direction of the structure. With these data one can determine the conditions under which negative refraction occurs, and calculate the values of the refractive index of the structure, as well as the range of frequencies at which the structure exhibits negative refraction for a predefined total electron sheet density.
author_names: Aleksandar Danicic

J Radovanovic

S Ramovic

V Milanovic
title: Exploring negative refraction conditions for quantum cascade semiconductor metamaterials in the terahertz spectral range
year: 2016

abstract: One of the challenges in the design of metamaterials' unit cells is the reduction of losses caused by the metallic inclusions. In order to overcome this obstacle, it has been proposed to use the active medium as the unit cell. Quantum cascade lasers are great candidates for the active medium materials since they are able to provide high values of optical gain. In this paper we investigate and compare two quantum cascade structures optimized for emission frequencies lower than 2 THz and simulate the effect of a strong magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the layers. Comprehensive description of conduction band nonparabolicity is used to calculate the electronic structure, and subsequently evaluate the longitudinal optical phonon and interface roughness scattering rates and solve the system of rate equations which govern the distribution of carriers among the Landau levels. Once we assess the degree of population inversion, we have all the necessary information about the permittivity component along the growth direction of the structure and may determine the conditions under which the structure displays negative refraction.
author_names: Nikola N Vukovic

Aleksandar Danicic

J Radovanovic

V Milanovic

Dragan Indjin
title: Possibilities of achieving negative refraction in QCL based semiconductor metamaterials in the THz spectral range
year: 2015

abstract: Semiconductor metamaterials consisting of n+ GaInAs/i AlInAs heterostructures that support negative index modes in the mid infrared are reported. We demonstrate negative refraction in these metamaterials for wavelengths from 9?15 ?m over a wide range of incidence angles.
author_names: Anthony J Hoffman

Leonid V Alekseyev

Evgenii Narimanov

Claire Gmachl

Deborah L Sivco
title: Negative refraction in mid infrared semiconductor metamaterials
venue: 2007 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference
year: 2007

abstract: In this article, it has been theoretically shown that broad angle negative refraction is possible with asymmetric anisotropic metamaterials (AAMs) constructed by only dielectrics or lossless semiconductors at the telecommunication and relative wavelength range. Though natural uniaxial materials can exhibit negative refraction, the maximum angle of negative refraction and critical incident angle lie in a very narrow range. This problem can be overcome by our proposed structure. In our structures, negative refraction originates from the highly asymmetric elliptical iso frequency. This is artificially created by the rotated multilayer sub wavelength dielectric or semiconductor stack, which acts as an effective AAM. This negative refraction is achieved without using any negative permittivity materials such as metals. As we are using simple dielectrics, fabrication of such structures would be less complex than that of the metal based metamaterials. By considering the time harmonic field incidence, negative refraction has been demonstrated for two dimensional bi dielectric structures for TM polarization with realistic parameters. Our proposed ideas have been validated by the full wave simulations considering both the effective medium approach and realistic structure model. This device might find some important applications in photonics and optoelectronics.
author_names: Ayed Al Sayem

Mahdy Rahman Chowdhury Mahdy

Md Saifur Rahman
title: Broad angle negative refraction in lossless all dielectric or semiconductor based asymmetric anisotropic metamaterial
year: 2016

abstract: A possibility to realize thermotunable isotropic negative index metamaterials up to terahertz regime is theoretically investigated. The proposed composite metamaterials consist of dielectric spheres embedded randomly in a semiconductor host medium. As the variation in the intrinsic carrier density in InSb due to a variation in temperature thus changes the plasma frequency, we show theoretically the provided composite metamaterials whose index of refraction is thermally tunable and potentially less propagation loss. Furthermore, the effects of the radius of the dielectric sphere on the modulation frequency and bandwidth are discussed. Finally, we find that the design parameters for the composites can be scaled for application in the higher frequency regions.
author_names: Yu Chen

Zhihao Chen

Binyi Qin

Xiaoyu Dai
title: Thermotunable Terahertz Negative Index Metamaterials with Dielectric Spheres Embedded in Semiconductor Host
year: 2018