Extreme Active Meta-Optics, “Meta”-Optical Fibers, and Zero-Index Photonics
The ability to control flow of light is important for optical applications, leading to photonic technologies that significantly impact daily life, such as high-speed optical internet, ultrathin optical displays, novel lasers, and medical imaging tools. Over the last two decades of photonic science advances, the optical metamaterials and metasurfaces paradigm has revolutionized photonic matter design using nanoscale structures, yielding new optical properties and functions not found in natural materials. These ultrathin optical metasurfaces consist of arrays of subwavelength light scatterers (i.e., optical antennas), leading to unique control of light properties. Due to metasurfaces’ planar, thin-film nature (typical thickness <100 nm), they can replace conventional bulky 3D optics and enable ultrathin optical components such as flat lenses, wave plates, and holographic surfaces over a broad spectral range, significantly impacting next-generation optical displays, communications, and consumer optoelectronic applications. While metasurfaces show exceptional promise, there are several limitations such as the lack of optical turnabilities of metasurfaces and the challenges on integrating functional metasurfaces into optical devices/systems, etc.
In this talk, I will give an overview of our research efforts on electrically and nonlinear optically tunable meta-optics and zero-index optics for developing new active optical applications. I will present our recent advances on the use of transparent conducting oxide and conducting polymer materials to demonstrate electrically-tunable ultrathin optical metasurfaces that can tune the optical phase and amplitude for light steering and nonlinear/quantum emission control. In addition, strongly enhanced optical nonlinearity of nano-engineered conducting oxide epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) meta-film will be discussed. Recent developments of 2D ITO ENZ and neural network designed ENZ materials will be presented. I will then discuss our study on a new type of “meta”-optical fiber which merges the sciences of optical metasurfaces and optical fibers, leading to the development of ultrathin optical meta-optical fiber probe for potential medical imaging endoscope and laser surgery applications. These advanced “meta”-optics open the path to novel in-fiber lasers/spectroscopies, optical imaging/sensing, and optical/quantum communication applications.
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 09 May 2025
- Time: 03:30 PM UTC to 04:30 PM UTC
-
Add Event to Calendar
- 300 College Park
- Dayton, Ohio
- United States 45469
- Building: Fitz Hall
- Room Number: 568