Coherent Control of Low Loss Surface Polaritons

Abstract

We propose fast all-optical control of surface polaritons by placing an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) medium at an interface between two materials. EIT provides longitudinal compression and a slow group velocity, while matching properties of the two materials at the interface provides strong transverse confinement. In particular, we show that an EIT medium near the interface between a dielectric and a negative-index metamaterial can establish tight longitudinal and transverse confinement plus extreme slowing of surface polaritons, in both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations, while simultaneously avoiding losses.

Electromagnetic Response and Broadband Utilities of Planar Metamaterials

“…SPPs with large coherent length are useful in many areas, including optical processing, quantum information (Kamli, Moiseev et al 2008) and novel light-matter www.intechopen.com interactions (Vasa, Pomraenke et al 2008). The enhancement of local fields by SPPs is particularly important as it opens a new route to absorption enhancement (Andrew, Kitson et al 1997), nonlinear optical amplification (Coutaz, Neviere et al 1985;Tsang 1996) as well as weak signal probing (Kneipp, Wang et al 1997;Nie & Emory 1997).…”

“…Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) modulate light waves at the metal-dielectric interface with wavelength much smaller than that in free space (Raether 1988),which enables the control of light in a subwavelength scale for nanophotonic devices (Barnes, Dereux et al 2003). SPPs with large coherent length are useful in many areas, including optical processing, quantum information (Kamli, Moiseev et al 2008) and novel light-matter interactions (Vasa, Pomraenke et al 2008). The enhancement of local fields by SPPs is particularly crucial to absorption enhancement (Andrew, Kitson et al 1997), nonlinear optical amplification (Coutaz, Neviere et al 1985;Tsang 1996) and weak signal probing (Kneipp, Wang et al 1997;Nie & Emory 1997).…”

Ultraslow long-living plasmons with electromagnetically induced transparency

“…One of such means takes advantage of the tunability offered by EIT [7][8][9][10]. EIT has already been proposed for slowing down SPPs near the interference between dielectric and active, negative index metamaterial [11].…”

Assembling optically active and nonactive metamaterials with chiral units

“…Following this approach, the major challenge nowadays is to find a structure that provides both the magnetic resonance and low electromagnetic loss at the resonance frequency. 13,[24][25][26] An alternative approach towards the negative refractive index is to utilize the chirality of the material, which helps to suppress the refractive index of light with one handedness, and increase the refractive index of light with the opposite handedness. When the structural chirality is sufficiently strong, negative refraction can be realized for the light with certain type of handedness.…”