Metamaterials for Manipulation of Thermal Radiation and Photoluminescence in Near and Far Fields

131 Pages·2022·5.108 MB·English

by  Yinhui Kan

Springer Theses
Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research
Yinhui Kan
Metamaterials
for Manipulation
of Thermal
Radiation and
Photoluminescence
in Near and Far Fields
Springer Theses
Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research
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Yinhui Kan
Metamaterials
for Manipulation of Thermal
Radiation
and Photoluminescence
in Near and Far Fields
Doctoral Thesis accepted by
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Author Supervisor
Dr. Yinhui Kan Prof. Changying Zhao
School of Mechanical Engineering School of Mechanical Engineering
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai, China Shanghai, China
ISSN 2190-5053 ISSN 2190-5061 (electronic)
Springer Theses
ISBN 978-981-19-6127-4 ISBN 978-981-19-6128-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6128-1
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To my family,
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Supervisor’s Foreword
This thesis provides a series of methods for flexibly and actively manipulating
thermal emission and photoluminance by advanced nanostructures—metamaterials.
Although there are tens of thousands of materials in nature, sometimes it is still very
hard to find a specific material with the permittivity simultaneously satisfying the
requirements in both spatial positions and frequency regions. To address this issue,
nanostructures in subwavelength scales have been introduced to precisely modu-
late light–matter interactions and then tailorize both thermal radiations and photon
emissions. This thesis explores methods for designing different kinds of nanostruc-
ture, including multilayers, gratings, nanoridges, and waveguides, to improve the
flexibility and functionality of micro/nanodevices.
In the far-field, two different thermal absorbers, consisting of multilayers and
gratings, have been proposed for achieving broadband near-perfect absorption in the
visible, near-infrared range, and mid-infrared range, respectively. In the near-field, a
formalism for calculating the near-field thermal radiation in three-body systems with
periodic structures has been developed and further demonstrated a larger heat transfer
rate than that in two-grating and three-slab counterparts. Moreover, the results show
that the asymmetric regimes of the modulator can provide a large tunability for the
near-field thermal performance of the proposed three-body systems.
Furthermore, in terms of manipulation of nonclassical light emission from
quantum emitters (QEs), metasurfaces consisting of nanoridges have been first
designed to change the polarization and direction of photon emission, which is the
first time as far as we know for realizing spinning single photons in the room temper-
ature without strong magnific field. It also demonstrated that the hybrid plasmon-QE
coupled metasurfaces have the ability for facilitating the phase matching of QE-
excited circularly diverging SPPs and realize a well-collimated off-normal propa-
gating photon steam. Moreover, a dielectric-loaded plasmonic nanocircuit consisting
of an achiral spin–orbit coupler has been proposed and realized for unidirectional
routing of pump radiation into branched QE-integrated waveguides. The proposed
methods together with designed metamaterials open new avenues for designing
vii
viii Supervisor’sForeword
novel micro/nanodevices or systems for promising applications like thermal energy
harvesting, detecting, sensing, and on-chip quantum-optical networks.
Shanghai, China Prof. Changying Zhao
June 2022
Abstract
Nanostructures in subwavelength scales can be designed to precisely modulate light–
matter interactions, and thereby tailoring both thermal radiations and photon emis-
sions. This dissertation explores methods for designing different kinds of nanos-
tructure, including multilayers, gratings, nanoridges, and waveguides, to improve
the flexibility and functionality of micro/nanodevices. The major goals are to (1)
propose active designing routes for far-field broadband absorption, design and fabri-
cate metamaterial absorbers; (2) develop the formulation for near-field radiative heat
transfer and propose three-body systems for enhancing and modulating near-field
thermal radiation; (3) introduce metasurfaces to couple with quantum emitters for
achieving spinning single photons and unidirectional off-normal photon steaming;
(4) design nanocircuits for realizing on-chip spin-selective and remote excitation of
photon sources.
Firstly, the configuration of periodic multilayers is studied by dividing them into
different regimes according to the relationship between its period and focused wave-
lengths. Bloch theorem and optical topological transition are applied to predict
the starting and end wavelengths of absorption band, respectively. Based on the
proposed design method, we design, fabricate, and characterize the periodic multi-
layer absorbers, confirming experimentally the broadband near-perfect (~95%)
absorption in the focused visible and near-infrared range (0.4–2 μm). In the mid-
infrared region, we propose another route to achieve broadband absorption by
exciting hybrid phonon–plasmon polaritons. Sawtooth grating structures consisting
of two-dimensional material hexagonal boron nitride are investigated, whose thick-
ness is in deep subwavelength, featuring an ultra-thin metasurface absorber. The
absorptance averaged over the considered region (6.26 μm<λ <7.60μ m) is greater
than 96%, which is attributed to the enhancement of the light–matter interaction in
nanoscale volumes by exciting hybrid polaritons.
Secondly, we have developed a formulation for calculating the near-field radiative
heat transfer in three-body systems with periodic structures. The giant enhancement
of heat transfer is demonstrated by comparing with two-grating and three-slab coun-
terparts, which is attributed to an additional heat transport channel provided by the
ix
x Abstract
intermediate grating that can support hyperbolic surface modes in a specific wave-
length range. Furthermore, another three-body system has been proposed by intro-
ducing of hBN/graphene heterostructures to actively modulate heat transfer rate. By
applying bias voltages on the modulator, the optical properties of graphene could
be modulated drastically and hence the heat transfer rate, demonstrating a larger
turnability for thermal performance of the three-body systems.
Thirdly, metasurfaces coupling with quantum emitters (QEs) have been investi-
gated to manipulate the performance of photoluminescence. The condition of circular
polarization states is achieved by analyzing the relationship between the phase shift
and the width of nanoridges that are arranged as bullseye with azimuthally varying
widths. The design, fabrication, and characterization of spinning single photon
sources are presented. Moreover, another types of hybrid plasmon-QE coupled meta-
surfaces, consisting of bullseye-like Doppler nanoridges with NDs situated in the
center, has been designed to funnel the photon emission along a given off-normal
direction. It is demonstrated experimentally that the proposed systems have the capa-
bility of directing the photon emission to a unidirectional and off-axis (with the angle
as large as 17.3°) collimated beam in the far-field (with the collection efficiency larger
than 0.965).
Finally, a dielectric-loaded plasmonic nanocircuit consisting of an achiral spin–
orbit coupler is proposed and realized for unidirectional routing of pump radiation
into branched QE-integrated waveguides. The contrast of intensities at out-coupling
gratings measured for the right-hand and left-hand circular incidences amounts to
32 with a large waveguide mode propagation length. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
that the spatially separated (by a distance of ~ 10 μm) QEs can be selectively and
remotely excited using an incident pump beam with different circular polarizations.
In summary, the study of different kinds of metamaterial configurations, based
on the light–matter interaction in subwavelength scales, not only presents a series
of methods for flexibly and actively manipulating thermal emission and photolumi-
nance, but also opens new avenues for designing novel micro/nanodevices or systems
for promising applications like thermal energy harvesting, detecting, sensing, and
on-chip quantum-optical networks.