A Triple-Mode Midinfrared Modulator for Radiative Heat Management of Objects with Various Emissivity.

Thermal management is ubiquitous in the modern world and indispensable for a sustainable future. Radiative heat management provides unique advantages because the heat transfer can be controlled by the surface. However, different object emissivities require different tuning strategies, which poses challenges to develop dynamic and universal radiative heat management devices. Here, we demonstrate a triple-mode midinfrared modulator that can switch between passive heating and cooling suitable for all types of object surface emissivities. The device comprises a surface-textured infrared-semiabsorbing elastomer coated with a metallic back reflector, which is biaxially strained to sequentially achieve three fundamental modes: emission, reflection, and transmission. By analyzing and optimizing the coupling between optical and mechanical properties, we achieve a performance as follows: emittance contrast Δε = 0.58, transmittance contrast Δτ = 0.49, and reflectance contrast Δρ = 0.39. The device can provide a new design paradigm of radiation heat regulation for wearable, robotics, and camouflage technologies.

Neural-adjoint method for the inverse design of all-dielectric metasurfaces.

All-dielectric metasurfaces exhibit exotic electromagnetic responses, similar to those obtained with metal-based metamaterials. Research in all-dielectric metasurfaces currently uses relatively simple unit-cell designs, but increased geometrical complexity may yield even greater scattering states. Although machine learning has recently been applied to the design of metasurfaces with impressive results, the much more challenging task of finding a geometry that yields a desired spectra remains largely unsolved. We propose and demonstrate a method capable of finding accurate solutions to ill-posed inverse problems, where the conditions of existence and uniqueness are violated. A specific example of finding the metasurface geometry which yields a radiant exitance matching the external quantum efficiency of gallium antimonide is demonstrated. We also show how the neural-adjoint method can intelligently grow the design search space to include designs that increasingly and accurately approximate the desired scattering response. The neural-adjoint method is not restricted to the case demonstrated and may be applied to plasmonics, photonic crystal, and other artificial electromagnetic materials.

Infrared all-dielectric Kerker metasurfaces.

The unidirectional scattering of electromagnetic waves in the backward and forward direction, termed Kerkers' first and second conditions, respectively, is a prominent feature of sub-wavelength particles, which also has been found recently in all-dielectric metasurfaces. Here we formulate the exact polarizability requirements necessary to achieve both Kerker conditions simultaneously with dipole terms only and demonstrate its equivalence to so-called "invisible metasurfaces". We further describe the perfect absorption mechanism in all-dielectric metasurfaces through development of an extended Kerker formalism. The phenomena of both invisibility and perfect absorption is shown in a 2D hexagonal array of cylindrical resonators, where only the resonator height is modified to switch between the two states. The developed framework provides critical insight into the range of scattering response possible with all-dielectric metasurfaces, providing a methodology for studying exotic electromagnetic phenomena.

Deep learning for accelerated all-dielectric metasurface design.

Deep learning has risen to the forefront of many fields in recent years, overcoming challenges previously considered intractable with conventional means. Materials discovery and optimization is one such field, but significant challenges remain, including the requirement of large labeled datasets and one-to-many mapping that arises in solving the inverse problem. Here we demonstrate modeling of complex all-dielectric metasurface systems with deep neural networks, using both the metasurface geometry and knowledge of the underlying physics as inputs. Our deep learning network is highly accurate, achieving an average mean square error of only 1.16 × 10-3 and is over five orders of magnitude faster than conventional electromagnetic simulation software. We further develop a novel method to solve the inverse modeling problem, termed fast forward dictionary search (FFDS), which offers tremendous controls to the designer and only requires an accurate forward neural network model. These techniques significantly increase the viability of more complex all-dielectric metasurface designs and provide opportunities for the future of tailored light matter interactions.

Experimental realization of a terahertz all-dielectric metasurface absorber.

Metamaterial absorbers consisting of metal, metal-dielectric, or dielectric materials have been realized across much of the electromagnetic spectrum and have demonstrated novel properties and applications. However, most absorbers utilize metals and thus are limited in applicability due to their low melting point, high Ohmic loss and high thermal conductivity. Other approaches rely on large dielectric structures and / or a supporting dielectric substrate as a loss mechanism, thereby realizing large absorption volumes. Here we present a terahertz (THz) all dielectric metasurface absorber based on hybrid dielectric waveguide resonances. We tune the metasurface geometry in order to overlap electric and magnetic dipole resonances at the same frequency, thus achieving an experimental absorption of 97.5%. A simulated dielectric metasurface achieves a total absorption coefficient enhancement factor of FT=140, with a small absorption volume. Our experimental results are well described by theory and simulations and not limited to the THz range, but may be extended to microwave, infrared and optical frequencies. The concept of an all-dielectric metasurface absorber offers a new route for control of the emission and absorption of electromagnetic radiation from surfaces with potential applications in energy harvesting, imaging, and sensing.

Graphene metamaterial spatial light modulator for infrared single pixel imaging.

High-resolution and hyperspectral imaging has long been a goal for multi-dimensional data fusion sensing applications - of interest for autonomous vehicles and environmental monitoring. In the long wave infrared regime this quest has been impeded by size, weight, power, and cost issues, especially as focal-plane array detector sizes increase. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrated a new approach based on a metamaterial graphene spatial light modulator (GSLM) for infrared single pixel imaging. A frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) imaging technique is designed and implemented, and relies entirely on the electronic reconfigurability of the GSLM. We compare our approach to the more common raster-scan method and directly show FDM image frame rates can be 64 times faster with no degradation of image quality. Our device and related imaging architecture are not restricted to the infrared regime, and may be scaled to other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The study presented here opens a new approach for fast and efficient single pixel imaging utilizing graphene metamaterials with novel acquisition strategies.

Multiplexed coded time domain sampling with metamaterials.

The far infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum often necessitates the use of thermal detectors that, by nature, typically have poor response times and diminished sensitivities, at least compared to adjacent bands. However, many signals of interest contain frequency components far too fast to be reliably measured with such detectors, and hence expensive and inefficient alternatives are brought to bear. Here we propose and experimentally validate a new method leveraging the speed and scalability of dynamic metamaterial modulators to encode high-frequency signal components at a lower frequency, making them reliably measurable with thermal detectors that would otherwise be too slow. An optimal weighing scheme design in the time domain is realized, the result being an imaging system whose time resolution is independent of detector speed and is rather limited only by the speed of the modulator and the reproducibility of the signal of interest.

Degenerate critical coupling in all-dielectric metasurface absorbers.

We develop the theory of all-dielectric absorbers based on temporal coupled mode theory (TCMT), with parameters extracted from eigenfrequency simulations. An infinite square array of cylindrical resonators embedded in air is investigated, and we find that it supports two eigenmodes of opposite symmetry that are each responsible for half of the total absorption. The even and odd eigenmodes are found to be the hybrid electric (EH111) and hybrid magnetic (HE111) waveguide modes of a dielectric wire of circular cross section, respectively. The geometry of the cylindrical array is shown to be useful for individual tuning of the radiative loss rates of the eigenmodes, thus permitting frequency degeneracy. Further, by specifying the resonators' loss tangent, the material loss rate can be made to equal the radiative loss rate, thus achieving a state of degenerate critical coupling and perfect absorption. Our results are supported by S-parameter simulations, and agree well with waveguide theory.

Ultra-thin infrared metamaterial detector for multicolor imaging applications.

The next generation of infrared imaging systems requires control of fundamental electromagnetic processes - absorption, polarization, spectral bandwidth - at the pixel level to acquire desirable information about the environment with low system latency. Metamaterial absorbers have sparked interest in the infrared imaging community for their ability to enhance absorption of incoming radiation with color, polarization and/or phase information. However, most metamaterial-based sensors fail to focus incoming radiation into the active region of a ultra-thin detecting element, thus achieving poor detection metrics. Here our multifunctional metamaterial absorber is directly integrated with a novel mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) detector with an ultra-thin (~λ/15) InAs/GaSb Type-II superlattice (T2SL) interband cascade detector. The deep sub-wavelength metamaterial detector architecture proposed and demonstrated here, thus significantly improves the detection quantum efficiency (QE) and absorption of incoming radiation in a regime typically dominated by Fabry-Perot etalons. Our work evinces the ability of multifunctional metamaterials to realize efficient wavelength selective detection across the infrared spectrum for enhanced multispectral infrared imaging applications.

Graphene metamaterial modulator for free-space thermal radiation.

We proposed and demonstrated a new metamaterial architecture capable of high speed modulation of free-space space thermal infrared radiation using graphene. Our design completely eliminates channel resistance, thereby maximizing the electrostatic modulation speed, while at the same time effectively modulating infrared radiation. Experiment results verify that our device with area of 100 × 120 µm2 can achieve a modulation speed as high as 2.6 GHz. We further highlight the utility of our graphene metamaterial modulator by reconstructing a fast infrared signal using an equivalent time sampling technique. The graphene metamaterial modulator demonstrated here is not only limited to the thermal infrared, but may be scaled to longer infrared and terahertz wavelengths. Our work provides a path forward for realization of frequency selective and all-electronic high speed devices for infrared applications.

Role of surface electromagnetic waves in metamaterial absorbers.

Metamaterial absorbers have been demonstrated across much of the electromagnetic spectrum and exhibit both broad and narrow-band absorption for normally incident radiation. Absorption diminishes for increasing angles of incidence and transverse electric polarization falls off much more rapidly than transverse magnetic. We unambiguously demonstrate that broad-angle TM behavior cannot be associated with periodicity, but rather is due to coupling with a surface electromagnetic mode that is both supported by, and well described via the effective optical constants of the metamaterial where we achieve a resonant wavelength that is 19.1 times larger than the unit cell. Experimental results are supported by simulations and we highlight the potential to modify the angular response of absorbers by tailoring the surface wave.

Physics-Informed Inverse Design of Programmable Metasurfaces.

Emerging reconfigurable metasurfaces offer various possibilities for programmatically manipulating electromagnetic waves across spatial, spectral, and temporal domains, showcasing great potential for enhancing terahertz applications. However, they are hindered by limited tunability, particularly evident in relatively small phase tuning over 270°, due to the design constraints with time-intensive forward design methodologies. Here, a multi-bit programmable metasurface is demonstrated capable of terahertz beam steering facilitated by a developed physics-informed inverse design (PIID) approach. Through integrating a modified coupled mode theory (MCMT) into residual neural networks, the PIID algorithm not only significantly increases the design accuracy compared to conventional neural networks but also elucidates the intricate physical relations between the geometry and the modes. Without decreasing the reflection intensity, the method achieves the enhanced phase tuning as large as 300°. Additionally, the inverse-designed programmable beam steering metasurface is experimentally validated, which is adaptable across 1-bit, 2-bit, and tri-state coding schemes, yielding a deflection angle up to 68° and broadened steering coverage. The demonstration provides a promising pathway for rapidly exploring advanced metasurface devices, with potentially great impact on communication and imaging technologies.

Terahertz single pixel imaging with an optically controlled dynamic spatial light modulator.

We present a single pixel terahertz (THz) imaging technique using optical photoexcitation of semiconductors to dynamically and spatially control the electromagnetic properties of a semiconductor mask to collectively form a THz spatial light modulator (SLM). By co-propagating a THz and collimated optical laser beam through a high-resistivity silicon wafer, we are able to modify the THz transmission in real-time. By further encoding a spatial pattern on the optical beam with a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), we may write masks for THz radiation. We use masks of varying complexities ranging from 63 to 1023 pixels and are able to acquire images at speeds up to 1/2 Hz. Our results demonstrate the viability of obtaining real-time and high-fidelity THz images using an optically controlled SLM with a single pixel detector.

Liquid crystal tunable metamaterial absorber.

We present an experimental demonstration of electronically tunable metamaterial absorbers in the terahertz regime. By incorporation of active liquid crystal into strategic locations within the metamaterial unit cell, we are able to modify the absorption by 30% at 2.62 THz, as well as tune the resonant absorption over 4% in bandwidth. Numerical full-wave simulations match well to experiments and clarify the underlying mechanism, i.e., a simultaneous tuning of both the electric and magnetic response that allows for the preservation of the resonant absorption. These results show that fundamental light interactions of surfaces can be dynamically controlled by all-electronic means and provide a path forward for realization of novel applications.

Loss compensation in metamaterials through embedding of active transistor based negative differential resistance circuits.

Dielectric and ohmic losses in metamaterials are known to limit their practical use. In this paper, an all-electronic approach for loss compensation in metamaterials is presented. Each unit cell of the meta-material is embedded with a cross-coupled transistor pair based negative differential resistance circuit to cancel these losses. Design, simulation and experimental results for Split Ring Resonator (SRR) metamaterials with and without loss compensation are presented. Results indicate that the quality factor (Q) of the SRR improves by over 400% at 1.6 GHz, showing the effectiveness of the approach. The proposed technique is scalable over a broad frequency range and is limited only by the maximum operating frequency of transistors, which is reaching terahertz in today's semiconductor technologies.

Experimental realization of a metamaterial detector focal plane array.

We present a metamaterial absorber detector array that enables room-temperature, narrow-band detection of gigahertz (GHz) radiation in the S band (2-4 GHz). The system is implemented in a commercial printed circuit board process and we characterize the detector sensitivity and angular dependence. A modified metamaterial absorber geometry allows for each unit cell to act as an isolated detector pixel and to collectively form a focal plane array . Each pixel can have a dedicated microwave receiver chain and functions together as a hybrid device tuned to maximize the efficiency of detected power. The demonstrated subwavelength pixel shows detected sensitivity of -77 dBm, corresponding to a radiation power density of 27 nW/m(2), with pixel to pixel coupling interference below -14 dB at 2.5 GHz.

Active terahertz metamaterial devices.

The development of artificially structured electromagnetic materials, termed metamaterials, has led to the realization of phenomena that cannot be obtained with natural materials. This is especially important for the technologically relevant terahertz (1 THz = 10(12) Hz) frequency regime; many materials inherently do not respond to THz radiation, and the tools that are necessary to construct devices operating within this range-sources, lenses, switches, modulators and detectors-largely do not exist. Considerable efforts are underway to fill this 'THz gap' in view of the useful potential applications of THz radiation. Moderate progress has been made in THz generation and detection; THz quantum cascade lasers are a recent example. However, techniques to control and manipulate THz waves are lagging behind. Here we demonstrate an active metamaterial device capable of efficient real-time control and manipulation of THz radiation. The device consists of an array of gold electric resonator elements (the metamaterial) fabricated on a semiconductor substrate. The metamaterial array and substrate together effectively form a Schottky diode, which enables modulation of THz transmission by 50 per cent, an order of magnitude improvement over existing devices.

Inverse deep learning methods and benchmarks for artificial electromagnetic material design.

In this work we investigate the use of deep inverse models (DIMs) for designing artificial electromagnetic materials (AEMs) - such as metamaterials, photonic crystals, and plasmonics - to achieve some desired scattering properties (e.g., transmission or reflection spectrum). DIMs are deep neural networks (i.e., deep learning models) that are specially-designed to solve ill-posed inverse problems. There has recently been tremendous growth in the use of DIMs for solving AEM design problems however there has been little comparison of these approaches to examine their absolute and relative performance capabilities. In this work we compare eight state-of-the-art DIMs on three unique AEM design problems, including two models that are novel to the AEM community. Our results indicate that DIMs can rapidly produce accurate designs to achieve a custom desired scattering on all three problems. Although no single model always performs best, the Neural-Adjoint approach achieves the best overall performance across all problem settings. As a final contribution we show that not all AEM design problems are ill-posed, and in such cases a conventional deep neural network can perform better than DIMs. We recommend that a deep neural network is always employed as a simple baseline approach when addressing AEM design problems. We publish python code for our AEM simulators and our DIMs to enable easy replication of our results, and benchmarking of new DIMs by the AEM community.

High speed terahertz modulation from metamaterials with embedded high electron mobility transistors.

We present a computational and experimental study of a novel terahertz (THz) device resulting from hybridization of metamaterials with pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), fabricated in a commercial gallium arsenide (GaAs) process. Monolithic integration of transistors into each unit cell permits modulation at the metamaterial resonant frequency of 0.46 THz. Characterization is performed using a THz time-domain spectrometer (THz-TDS) and we demonstrate switching values over 30%, and THz modulation at frequencies up to 10 megahertz (MHz). Our results demonstrate the viability of incorporating metamaterials into mature semiconductor technologies and establish a new path toward achieving electrically tunable THz devices.

Microwave and terahertz wave sensing with metamaterials.

We have designed, fabricated, and characterized metamaterial enhanced bimaterial cantilever pixels for far-infrared detection. Local heating due to absorption from split ring resonators (SRRs) incorporated directly onto the cantilever pixels leads to mechanical deflection which is readily detected with visible light. Highly responsive pixels have been fabricated for detection at 95 GHz and 693 GHz, demonstrating the frequency agility of our technique. We have obtained single pixel responsivities as high as 16,500 V/W and noise equivalent powers of 10(-8) W/Hz(1/2) with these first-generation devices.