Extreme "Meta"-Optical Fiber Enabled by Gate-tunable Metasurfaces and Zero-index Materials
Abstract
Optical fiber is a well-known example of a way to guide and manipulate light. It has been used extensively in various applications including long distance optical communication, light generation using fiber lasers, remote and optical sensing, fiber imaging in endoscopes, and fiber laser surgery. Although a dielectric optical waveguide is very efficient for transmitting light, its functionality is somewhat limited by the dielectric material of the core, which has poor electronic, magneto-optical, and nonlinear-optical responses and has the dielectric diffraction limit. Therefore, the optical properties of the optical fiber waveguide such as phase, amplitude, polarization state, and mode profile cannot be modulated after the fiber drawing fabrication, thus limiting the development of novel in-fiber optical devices. The long-range goal of the proposed research project is to develop effective methods for designing advanced optical applications using novel zero-index materials and metasurfaces-based optical fiber applications. The objective in this research project is to develop efficient tunable “meta”-optical fibers with reconfigurable functionality such as phase modulation, enhanced magneto-optical properties and light emission/lasing effects by merging the advantages of three distinct sciences, i) tunable transparent conducting oxide/metallic nitride epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials, ii) optical metasurfaces, and iii) nano/micro-structured optical fibers. To achieve this objective, the PI will identify approaches which yield efficient control of the voltage-tuned ENZ resonance in metasurface-optical fiber phase and amplitude modulation. The PI will also use advanced techniques such as atomic layer deposition and wet chemistry synthesis to fabricate conducting oxide nano-shell/film into nano/micro-structured optical fiber for efficient ENZ resonance excitation and enhanced magneto-optical/quantum emission effects. The projects will open the path to revolutionary in-fiber nanoscale optical-devices such as an ultrathin tunable fiber metalens and beam steering element for high power laser devices and imaging devices, and an efficient compact optical fiber isolator, modulator, and laser for defense, imaging, optical communication applications within DoD’s mission.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 21, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95502110220XX0
Entities
People
- Ho Wai Howard Lee
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, Irvine