Broadband dynamic polarization conversion in optomechanical metasurfaces
Zanotto, Simone (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Istituto Nanoscienze. Nest)
Colombano Sosa, Martin (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Navarro Urrios, Daniel. (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Electrònica)
Biasiol, Giorgio (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Istituto Officina dei Materiali. Laboratorio TASC)
Sotomayor Torres, Clivia M. (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Tredicucci, Alessandro (Università di Pisa. Dipartimento di Fisica)
Pitanti, Alessandro (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Istituto Nanoscienze. Nest)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	Artificial photonic materials, nanofabricated through wavelength-scale engineering, have shown astounding and promising results in harnessing, tuning, and shaping photonic beams. Metamaterials have proven to be often outperforming the natural materials they take inspiration from. In particular, metallic chiral metasurfaces have demonstrated large circular and linear dichroism of light which can be used, for example, for probing different enantiomers of biological molecules. Moreover, the precise control, through designs on demand, of the output polarization state of light impinging on a metasurface, makes this kind of structures particularly relevant for polarization-based telecommunication protocols. The reduced scale of the metasurfaces makes them also appealing for integration with nanomechanical elements, adding new dynamical features to their otherwise static or quasi-static polarization properties. To this end we designed, fabricated and characterized an all-dielectric metasurface on a suspended nanomembrane. Actuating the membrane mechanical motion, we show how the metasurface reflectance response can be modified, according to the spectral region of operation, with a corresponding intensity modulation or polarization conversion. The broad mechanical resonance at atmospheric pressure, centered at about 400 kHz, makes the metasurfaces structure suitable for high-frequency operation, mainly limited by the piezo-actuator controlling the mechanical displacement, which in our experiment reached modulation frequencies exceeding 1. 3 MHz.
Grants:	European Commission 713450 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SEV-2017-0706
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Frontiers in physics (Lausanne), Vol. 7 (Jan. 2020) , art. 231, ISSN 2296-424X

DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2019.00231

9 p, 3.0 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles