Surprising Eutectics: Enhanced Properties of ZnO-ZnWO4 from Visible to MIR.

Zinc oxide-zinc tungstate (ZnO-ZnWO4 ) is a self-organized eutectic composite consisting of parallel ZnO thin layers (lamellae) embedded in a dielectric ZnWO4 matrix. The electromagnetic behavior of composite materials is affected not only by the properties of single constituent materials but also by their reciprocal geometrical micro-/nano-structurization, as in the case of ZnO-ZnWO4 . The light interacting with microscopic structural features in the composite material provides new optical properties, which overcome the possibilities offered by the constituent materials. Here remarkable active and passive polarization control of this composite over various wavelength ranges are shown; these properties are based on the crystal orientation of ZnO with respect to the biaxiality of the ZnWO4 matrix. In the visible range, polarization-dependent polarized luminescence occurs for blue light emitted by ZnO. Moreover, it is reported on the enhancement of the second harmonic generation of the composite with respect to its constituents, due to the phase matching condition. Finally, in the medium infrared spectral region, the composite behaves as a metamaterial with strong polarization dependence.

Broadband optical spin dependent reflection in self-assembled GaAs-based nanowires asymmetrically hybridized with Au.

Hybridization of semiconductor nanostructures with asymmetric metallic layers offers new paths to circular polarization control and chiral properties. Here we study, both experimentally and numerically, chiral properties of GaAs-based nanowires (NWs) which have two out of six sidewalls covered by Au. Sparse ensembles of vertical, free-standing NWs were fabricated by means of lithography-free self-assembled technique on Si substrates and subsequently covered by Au using tilted evaporation. We report on optical spin-dependent specular reflection in the 680-1000 nm spectral range when the orientation of the golden layers follows the rule of extrinsic chirality. The analysis shows reflection peaks of the chiral medium whose intensity is dependent on the light handedness. We further propose a novel, time-efficient numerical method that enables a better insight into the far-field intensity and distribution of the scattered light from a sparse NW ensembles. The measurements done on three different samples in various orientations show good agreement with theoretical predictions over a broad wavelength range.

Circular Dichroism in the Second Harmonic Field Evidenced by Asymmetric Au Coated GaAs Nanowires.

Optical circular dichroism (CD) is an important phenomenon in nanophotonics, that addresses top level applications such as circular polarized photon generation in optics, enantiomeric recognition in biophotonics and so on. Chiral nanostructures can lead to high CD, but the fabrication process usually requires a large effort, and extrinsic chiral samples can be produced by simpler techniques. Glancing angle deposition of gold on GaAs nanowires can (NWs) induces a symmetry breaking that leads to an optical CD response that mimics chiral behavior. The GaAs NWs have been fabricated by a self-catalyzed, bottom-up approach, leading to large surfaces and high-quality samples at a relatively low cost. Here, we investigate the second harmonic generation circular dichroism (SHG-CD) signal on GaAs nanowires partially covered with Au. SHG is a nonlinear process of even order, and thus extremely sensitive to symmetry breaking. Therefore, the visibility of the signal is very high when the fabricated samples present resonances at first and second harmonic frequencies (i.e., 800 and 400 nm, in our case).

Chiral near-field manipulation in Au-GaAs hybrid hexagonal nanowires.

We demonstrate the control of enhanced chiral field distribution at the surface of hybrid metallo-dielectric nanostructures composed of self-assembled vertical hexagonal GaAs-based nanowires having three of the six sidewalls covered with Au. We show that weakly-guided modes of vertical GaAs nanowires can generate regions of high optical chirality that are further enhanced by the break of the symmetry introduced by the gold layer. Changing the angle of incidence of a linearly polarized plane wave it is possible to tailor and optimize the maps of the optical chirality in proximity of the gold plated walls. The low cost feasibility of the sample combined to the simple control by using linearly polarized light and the easy positioning of chiral molecules by functionalization of the gold plates make our proposed scheme very promising for enhanced enantioselective spectroscopy applications.

Precise detection of circular dichroism in a cluster of nano-helices by photoacoustic measurements.

Compact samples of nano-helices built by means of a focused ion beam technology with large bandwidth and high dichroism for circular polarization are promising for the construction of built-in-chip sensors, where the ideal transducer must be sufficiently confined without compromising its filtering ability. Direct all-optical measurements revealed the sample's dichroic character with insufficient details because of scattering and diffraction interference. On the other hand, photoacoustic measurements resulted to be a possible alternative investigation, since they directly deal with absorbed power and allow to get clear evidences of the differential selection for the two opposite polarization states. Multi-level numerical simulations confirmed the experimental results, proving once again the reliability of photoacoustic technique and the versatility of this class of dichroic artificial materials.

Photo-acoustic spectroscopy revealing resonant absorption of self-assembled GaAs-based nanowires.

III-V semiconductors nanowires (NW) have recently attracted a significant interest for their potential application in the development of high efficiency, highly-integrated photonic devices and in particular for the possibility to integrate direct bandgap materials with silicon-based devices. Here we report the absorbance properties of GaAs-AlGaAs-GaAs core-shell-supershell NWs using photo-acoustic spectroscopy (PAS) measurements in the spectral range from 300 nm to 1100 nm wavelengths. The NWs were fabricated by self-catalyzed growth on Si substrates and their dimensions (length ~5 µm, diameter ~140-150 nm) allow for the coupling of the incident light to the guided modes in near-infrared (IR) part of the spectrum. This coupling results in resonant absorption peaks in the visible and near IR clearly evidenced by PAS. The analysis reveal broadening of the resonant absorption peaks arising from the NW size distribution and the interaction with other NWs. The results show that the PAS technique, directly providing scattering independent absorption spectra, is a very useful tool for the characterization and investigation of vertical NWs as well as for the design of NW ensembles for photonic applications, such as Si-integrated light sources, solar cells, and wavelength dependent photodetectors.

Self-Phase-Matched Second-Harmonic and White-Light Generation in a Biaxial Zinc Tungstate Single Crystal.

Second-order nonlinear optical materials are used to generate new frequencies by exploiting second-harmonic generation (SHG), a phenomenon where a nonlinear material generates light at double the optical frequency of the input beam. Maximum SHG is achieved when the pump and the generated waves are in phase, for example through birefringence in uniaxial crystals. However, applying these materials usually requires a complicated cutting procedure to yield a crystal with a particular orientation. Here we demonstrate the first example of phase matching under the normal incidence of SHG in a biaxial monoclinic single crystal of zinc tungstate. The crystal was grown by the micro-pulling-down method with the (102) plane perpendicular to the growth direction. Additionally, at the same time white light was generated as a result of stimulated Raman scattering and multiphoton luminescence induced by higher-order effects such as three-photon luminescence enhanced by cascaded third-harmonic generation. The annealed crystal offers SHG intensities approximately four times larger than the as grown one; optimized growth and annealing conditions may lead to much higher SHG intensities.

Electron microscopy reveals a soluble hybrid network of individual nanocrystals self-anchored by bifunctional thiol fluorescent bridges.

Today, nanochemistry research of hybrid materials growth in liquid media represents a new challenge for tailoring specific nano-sized materials directly related to the hybrid electron-optical properties. Distinctive assumptions about the origin, the growth, and the functionalization of hybrid nanoparticles have recently been proposed by scientific research to attend the different aspects of observable behaviors. Therefore, appropriate morpho-structural observation of the hybrid nanoparticles is the most important factor for controlling the chemical and physical properties. Here, we report how the gold nanocrystals (Au-NCs) structurally covered by an outer layer material of 9,9-didodecyl-2,7-bisthiofluorene (FL) bifunctional stabilizer evolve into a self-organized 2D-network as a function of different nano-structural features. Detailed morpho-structural investigation of this hybrid material through electron microscopy techniques has been performed from the atomic-scale to hundreds of nanometers. The experimental information gathered allowed us to figure out the evolution growth of the gold-FL nanoparticles (AuFL-NPs) from the early stage of the gold-organic nucleation to the final assembled bi-dimensional network. The reported results represent a valuable background toward the full comprehension of growth mechanisms of organic-inorganic materials responsible for the final chemical and physical properties.

Chiral light intrinsically couples to extrinsic/pseudo-chiral metasurfaces made of tilted gold nanowires.

Extrinsic or pseudo-chiral (meta)surfaces have an achiral structure, yet they can give rise to circular dichroism when the experiment itself becomes chiral. Although these surfaces are known to yield differences in reflected and transmitted circularly polarized light, the exact mechanism of the interaction has never been directly demonstrated. Here we present a comprehensive linear and nonlinear optical investigation of a metasurface composed of tilted gold nanowires. In the linear regime, we directly demonstrate the selective absorption of circularly polarised light depending on the orientation of the metasurface. In the nonlinear regime, we demonstrate for the first time how second harmonic generation circular dichroism in such extrinsic/pseudo-chiral materials can be understood in terms of effective nonlinear susceptibility tensor elements that switch sign depending on the orientation of the metasurface. By providing fundamental understanding of the chiroptical interactions in achiral metasurfaces, our work opens up new perspectives for the optimisation of their properties.

Second harmonic generation on self-assembled tilted gold nanowires.

Here we present measurements on a metasurface composed by tilted gold nanowires. The metasurface can induce an optical chiral response of the whole sample when the light impinges on the sample out of the normal incidence angle. In order to investigate the symmetry breaking induced by the geometry, we measured the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal generated by circular polarized pulsed light. This technique has demonstrated to be a powerful method in order to investigate the chiral morphology of nanostructures.

Observation of photorefractive simultons in lithium niobate.

Spatial and temporal locking of fundamental and second harmonic pulses was realized by means of photorefractive nonlinearity and highly mismatched harmonic generation. Due to the presence of both phase-locked and unlocked second harmonic pulses, a twin simultonic state was observed. Simultonic filamentation occurring at high pumping rates allowed us to determine a relation between the simulton's waist and its intensity.

Complete spatial and temporal locking in phase-mismatched second-harmonic generation.

We experimentally demonstrate simultaneous phase and group velocity locking of fundamental and generated second harmonic pulses in Lithium Niobate, under conditions of material phase mismatch. In phase-mismatched, pulsed second harmonic generation in addition to a reflected signal two forward-propagating pulses are also generated at the interface between a linear and a second order nonlinear material: the first pulse results from the solution of the homogeneous wave equation, and propagates at the group velocity expected from material dispersion; the second pulse is the solution of the inhomogeneous wave equation, is phase-locked and trapped by the pump pulse, and follows the pump trajectory. At normal incidence, the normal and phase locked pulses simply trail each other. At oblique incidence, the consequences can be quite dramatic. The homogeneous pulse refracts as predicted by material dispersion and Snell's law, yielding at least two spatially separate second harmonic spots at the medium's exit. We thus report the first experimental results showing that, at oblique incidence, fundamental and phase-locked second harmonic pulses travel with the same group velocity and follow the same trajectory. This is direct evidence that, at least up to first order, the effective dispersion of the phase-locked pulse is similar to the dispersion of the pump pulse.

Tailored second harmonic generation from self-organized metal nano-wires arrays.

Here we report the second harmonic emission properties of self-organized gold nanowires arrays supported on dielectric substrates with a sub-wavelength periodic pattern. The peculiar morphology of the nanowires, which are locally tilted with respect to the average plane of the substrate, allows to generate maximum second harmonic signal at normal incidence with a polarization direction driven by the orientation of the wires (perpendicular to the wires). The generation efficiency was increased by tailoring the growth process in order to tune the metal plasmon resonance close to the pump field frequency and also by increasing the local tilt of the nanowires.