Beam steering at the nanosecond time scale with an atomically thin reflector
Abstract
Techniques to mold the flow of light on subwavelength scales enable fundamentally new optical systems and device applications. The realization of programmable, active optical systems with fast, tunable components is among the outstanding challenges in the field. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a few-pixel beam steering device based on electrostatic gate control of excitons in an atomically thin semiconductor with strong light-matter interactions. By combining the high reflectivity of a MoSe2 monolayer with a graphene split-gate geometry, we shape the wavefront phase profile to achieve continuously tunable beam deflection with a range of 10°, two-dimensional beam steering, and switching times down to 1.6 nanoseconds. Our approach opens the door for a new class of atomically thin optical systems, such as rapidly switchable beam arrays and quantum metasurfaces operating at their fundamental thickness limit.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 14, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-022-29976-0
Entities
People
- Alexander A Zibrov
- Andrew Y Joe
- Andrey Sushko
- Bo L Dwyer
- Dominik S Wild
- Giovanni Scuri
- Hongkun Park
- Jiho Sung
- Kenji Watanabe
- Mikhail Lukin
- Philip Kim
- Rivka Bekenstein
- Ryan J. Gelly
- Susanne F. Yelin
- Takashi Taniguchi
- Trond I Andersen
- Xiaoling Liu
- You Zhou
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Science Foundation
- United States Army Research Laboratory