Large optical nonlinearity of ITO nanorods for sub-picosecond all-optical modulation of the full-visible spectrum

Peijun Guo, Richard D. Schaller (), Leonidas E. Ocola, Benjamin T. Diroll, John B. Ketterson and Robert P. H. Chang ()
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Peijun Guo: Northwestern University
Richard D. Schaller: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
Leonidas E. Ocola: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
Benjamin T. Diroll: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
John B. Ketterson: Northwestern University
Robert P. H. Chang: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Nonlinear optical responses of materials play a vital role for the development of active nanophotonic and plasmonic devices. Optical nonlinearity induced by intense optical excitation of mobile electrons in metallic nanostructures can provide large-amplitude, dynamic tuning of their electromagnetic response, which is potentially useful for all-optical processing of information and dynamic beam control. Here we report on the sub-picosecond optical nonlinearity of indium tin oxide nanorod arrays (ITO-NRAs) following intraband, on-plasmon-resonance optical pumping, which enables modulation of the full-visible spectrum with large absolute change of transmission, favourable spectral tunability and beam-steering capability. Furthermore, we observe a transient response in the microsecond regime associated with slow lattice cooling, which arises from the large aspect-ratio and low thermal conductivity of ITO-NRAs. Our results demonstrate that all-optical control of light can be achieved by using heavily doped wide-bandgap semiconductors in their transparent regime with speed faster than that of noble metals.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12892

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