Abstract
Electro- and magneto-optical phenomena play key roles in photonic technology enabling light modulators, optical data storage, sensors and numerous spectroscopic techniques. Optical effects, linear and quadratic in external electric and magnetic field are widely known and comprehensively studied. However, optical phenomena that depend on the simultaneous application of external electric and magnetic fields in conventional media are barely detectable and technologically insignificant. Here we report that a large reciprocal magneto-electro-optical effect can be observed in metamaterials. In an artificial chevron nanowire structure fabricated on an elastic nano-membrane, the Lorentz force drives reversible transmission changes on application of a fraction of a volt when the structure is placed in a fraction-of-tesla magnetic field. We show that magneto-electro-optical modulation can be driven to hundreds of thousands of cycles per second promising applications in magneto-electro-optical modulators and field sensors at nano-tesla levels.
Highlights
Electro- and magneto-optical phenomena play key roles in photonic technology enabling light modulators, optical data storage, sensors and numerous spectroscopic techniques
Optical phenomena that depend on the simultaneous application of external electric and magnetic fields in conventional media are barely detectable and technologically insignificant
In an artificial chevron nanowire structure fabricated on an elastic nano-membrane, the Lorentz force drives reversible transmission changes on application of a fraction of a volt when the structure is placed in a fraction-of-tesla magnetic field
Summary
Electro- and magneto-optical phenomena play key roles in photonic technology enabling light modulators, optical data storage, sensors and numerous spectroscopic techniques. We first recall the well-known linear electro-optical or Pockels effect of changing or inducing birefringence of crystals in the presence of static electric field E that is used in numerous light-modulation applications. We report the observation of a magneto-electro-optical effect that manifests itself as strong changes of optical properties of a metamaterial in response to simultaneous application of external electric and magnetic fields and does not depend on reversal of the propagation direction of the wave. It may be described by the following term in the constitutive equation: deij 1⁄4 wðij3kÞlEkHl
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