Ultrafast all-optical modulation of the visible and infrared spectrum with nanorod arrays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10243660-B2
Application number	US-201715424029-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2017
Priority date	Feb 3, 2016
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of optical modulation, the method comprising irradiating an optical switch with a control beam at a first control time and irradiating the optical switch with a signal beam at a signal time. The transmitted intensity of the signal beam in a direction depends on the delay time between the first control time and the signal time and the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction is detectably different than a static signal. The optical switch comprises a nanorod array, the nanorod array comprising a plurality of nanorods extending outwardly from a substrate.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of optical modulation, the method comprising:
irradiating an optical switch with a control beam at a first control time and irradiating the optical switch with a signal beam at a signal time,
wherein a transmitted intensity of the signal beam in a direction depends on a delay time between the first control time and the signal time and wherein the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction is detectably different than a static signal,
wherein the optical switch comprises a nanorod array,
wherein the nanorod array comprises a plurality of nanorods extending outwardly from a substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanorod array is arranged in a regular periodic pattern.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the nanorod array has a periodicity of about 30nm to about 5000 nm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nanorods comprise a transparent conducting oxide, a transparent conducting nitride, a transparent conducting carbide, or a transparent conducting silicide.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nanorods comprise indium tin oxide.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nanorods comprise a plurality of film coated nanorods.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising irradiating the optical switch with a second control beam at a second control time,
wherein the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction depends on the delay time between the second control time and the signal time and wherein the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction is detectably different than a static signal.

8. The method claim 7 , wherein the first control time and the second control time are in controlled displacement.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the center wavelength of the control beam is in the visible spectrum, the near infrared spectrum, mid infrared spectrum, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control beam and/or the signal beam irradiate the nanorod array from an angle of incidence of 0° to 70° .

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control beam has a fluence less than 10 mJ/cm 2 .

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal beam is a broad band signal beam.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal beam probe comprises wavelengths from the visible spectrum, near-infrared spectrum, mid-infrared spectrum, or a combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal beam has a fluence of less than about 10 mJ/cm2.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the direction is substantially parallel with a forward propagation direction of the signal beam.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the direction is oblique with a forward propagation direction of the signal beam.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanorod array comprises a plurality of nanorods having an average height of about 30 nm to about 5000 nm.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanorod array comprises a plurality of nanorods having an average edge length of about 10 nm to about 500 nm.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises indium tin oxide, yittria stabilized oxide, and/or aluminum oxide.

21. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein control beam excites a vibrational mode of the plurality of nanorod arrays and wherein the transmitted intensity of the signal beam in the direction is modulated by the frequency of the vibrational mode.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the vibrational mode is an extensional mode or a breathing mode.

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern
• Uchicago Argonne Llc
• Northwester Univ

Inventors

• Chang Robert P H
• Schaller Richard D
• Ketterson John B
• Guo Peijun

Classifications

• H04B10/50 Primary

  Transmitters · CPC title

• H04B10/11

  Arrangements specific to free-space transmission, i.e. transmission through air or vacuum · CPC title

• B82Y20/00

  Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals · CPC title

• B82Y30/00

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title

• G02F1/0126

  Opto-optical modulation, i.e. control of one light beam by another light beam, not otherwise provided for in this subclass · CPC title