Dielectric Metamaterials Research Articles

High-Q triple-mode quasi-bound states in the continuum in an asymmetric dielectric metamaterial

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) in metamaterials have attracted much attention due to their high efficiency in field enhancing. In this paper, we numerically demonstrated the triple-mode symmetry-protected BICs (SP-BICs) in an all-dielectric microtube metamaterial. By moving the hollows transversely and longitudinally in microtubes, three SP-BICs are transformed into high quality-factor (Q-factor) quasi-BICs (q-BICs), which are supported by asymmetric magnetic toroidal dipole electric hexapolar resonances respectively. The maximum Q-factor of q-BICs enabled by asymmetric magnetic toroidal dipole reaches 67647. This high Q-factor triple-mode q-BICs in all-dielectric microtube metamaterial has great potential in the applications of sensing, laser generation, and nonlinear optics.

Achieving high efficiency and bandwidth enhancement of DRA arrays: Synergic effects of LiMg4AlO6 microwave dielectric ceramic and 2D metamaterials

In this paper, LiMg4AlO6 ceramics with a sintering temperature of 1380 °C to 1460 °C are prepared, and the microwave dielectric properties of the ceramics and their potential application in dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) arrays are investigated. Analysis techniques such as XRD and Rietveld refinement reveal that the LiMg4AlO6 ceramics are rock salt structures and the space group is Fm-3 m (225). The ceramic obtained excellent microwave dielectric properties (εr = 10.17, Q×f = 172, 558 GHz, and τf = - 32.5 ppm/ °C) at 1440 °C. The εr of LiMg4AlO6 ceramics exhibits minimal variation across a wide temperature range (-100 °C to 400 °C) without phase transition. Furthermore, the 2D metamaterials (metasurfaces) are introduced in the DRA, which can significantly improve the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. Measured results demonstrate that the antenna has a wide bandwidth ranging from 8.07 GHz to 8.57 GHz, with a maximum realized gain of 8.9 dBi and a peak radiation efficiency of 97%. The proposed ceramic antenna array combines the superior properties of 2D metamaterials and ceramic materials, which opens up a new avenue for ceramic antenna design and satellite communication applications.

Dielectric metamaterials with effective self-duality and full-polarization omnidirectional brewster effect

Conventional dielectric solid materials, both natural and artificial, lack electromagnetic self-duality and thus require additional coatings to achieve impedance matching with free space. Here, we present a class of dielectric metamaterials that are effectively self-dual and vacuum-like, thereby exhibiting full-polarization omnidirectional impedance matching as an unusual Brewster effect extended across all incident angles and polarizations. With both birefringence and reflection eliminated regardless of wavefront and polarization, such anisotropic metamaterials could establish the electromagnetic equivalence with “stretched free space” in transformation optics, as substantiated through full-wave simulations and microwave experiments. Our findings open a practical pathway for realizing unprecedented polarization-independence and omnidirectional impedance-matching characteristics in pure dielectric solids.

Enhanced spontaneous radiation of quantum dots based on modulated anapole states in dielectric metamaterial

Dielectric nanostructures exhibit low-loss electrical and magnetic resonance, making them ideal for quantum information processing. In this study, the periodic double-groove silicon nanodisk (DGSND) is used to support the anapole state. Based on the distribution properties of the electromagnetic field in anapole states, the anapoles are manipulated by cutting the dielectric metamaterial. Quantum dots (QDs) are used to stimulate the anapole and control the amplification of the photoluminescence signal within the QDs. By opening symmetrical holes in the long axis of the nanodisk in the dielectric metamaterial, the current distribution of Mie resonance can be adjusted. As a result, the toroidal dipole moment is altered, leading to an enhanced electric field (E-field) and Purcell factor. When the dielectric metamaterial is deposited on the Ag substrate separated by the silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer, the structure exhibits ultra-narrow perfect absorption with even higher E-field and Purcell factor enhancement compared to silicon (Si) nanodisks.

Controlling the broadband enhanced light chirality with L-shaped dielectric metamaterials

The inherently weak chiroptical responses of natural materials limit their usage for controlling and enhancing chiral light-matter interactions. Recently, several nanostructures with subwavelength scale dimensions were demonstrated, mainly due to the advent of nanofabrication technologies, as a potential alternative to efficiently enhance chirality. However, the intrinsic lossy nature of metals and the inherent narrowband response of dielectric planar thin films or metasurface structures pose severe limitations toward the practical realization of broadband and tailorable chiral systems. Here, we tackle these problems by designing all-dielectric silicon-based L-shaped optical metamaterials based on tilted nanopillars that exhibit broadband and enhanced chiroptical response in transmission operation. We use an emerging bottom-up fabrication approach, named glancing angle deposition, to assemble these dielectric metamaterials on a wafer scale. The reported strong chirality and optical anisotropic properties are controllable in terms of both amplitude and operating frequency by simply varying the shape and dimensions of the nanopillars. The presented nanostructures can be used in a plethora of emerging nanophotonic applications, such as chiral sensors, polarization filters, and spin-locked nanowaveguides.

Strong field enhancement and ultra-narrow linewidth based on the coupling of anapole/gap modes in silicon nanodimer-ring arrays

All-dielectric metamaterials have recently received significant attention in the field of nanophotonics, due to their negligible dissipative losses and strong polariton response compared with metallic metamaterials. However, simultaneously achieving an ultra-narrow resonance linewidth and a significant field enhancement in the all-dielectric metamaterials is still a great challenge, limiting their further practical application. In this work, a novel nanostructure composed of silicon ring and nanodimer arrays is theoretically proposed and numerically simulated. Through introducing the coupling between the anapole mode originating from the ring arrays and the gap mode deriving from the nanodimer arrays, the as-designed dielectric metamaterial manifests dual-band high-quality resonance characteristics with strong electric field enhancement reaching up to 300 times, an ultra-narrow linewidth as narrow as 0.35 nm, and a large Q-factor of 4223.43 synchronously. Benefiting from the exceptional optical spectral characteristics, the proposed dielectric nanodimer-ring metamaterial can work as a high-available refractive index sensor, whose sensitivity can reach 307.69 nm RIU−1 with its figure of merit attaining 879.11 RIU−1, efficiently distinguishing an index change of less than 0.01. This research opens up a promising path for achieving extremely narrow spectral linewidth and significant enhancement of the electric field, exhibiting immense possibilities in applications such as biochemical sensing, nonlinear optics, and surface enhanced spectroscopy.

Analog electromagnetic induced transparency of T-type Si-based metamaterial and its applications

A T-type silicon-based metamaterial is proposed, which realizes electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) by using the asymmetry of its structure. This dielectric metamaterial exhibits an ultranarrow EIT transparent window, with a transmittance of 91% and a Q factor of 180. Measuring its sensing performance, a refractive index sensor with a sensitivity of 466 nm RIU−1 is obtained. In addition, by analyzing the dispersion characteristics of the structure, the maximum group delay value is 2.84 ps, and the corresponding group refractive index is 4250. Therefore, dielectric metamaterials with this structure are expected to be used in refractive index sensing and slow light devices.

Narrow-band and highly absorbing fano resonance in a cavity-coupled dielectric metasurface

Metamaterial resonance offers a flexibility in engineering the frequency and bandwidth of light absorption for a variety of optoelectronic applications such as wavelength-selective photodetection, optical sensing and infrared camouflaging etc. In this paper, we demonstrate a class of metal-dielectric thin-film cavity-coupled dielectric metasurfaces, which feature Fano resonances with both narrow bandwidth and strong light absorption. Our fabricated metasurface consists of a Si cuboid array on top of a SiO2 film backed with a metallic Cu layer. The weak coupling between electric mie mode in Si cuboid and Fabry–Perot mode within the SiO2 spacer layer yields a Fano resonance at 4.19 μm wavelength, which exhibits a strong light absorption of 65.8% and a quality (Q) factor of 112. The strongly absorbing Fano resonance is tunable within the 3–5 μm band by varying geometric parameters of the metasurface. To reveal potential application of the metasurface, the Fano resonance is applied in refractive index sensing and exhibits a sensitivity of 518.75 nm RIU−1 and a figure-of-merit (FoM) of 14.82 RIU−1. These results suggest that cavity-coupling presents an effective way in reducing the resonance bandwidth and enhancing light absorption in dielectric metamaterials, which holds promise for expanding the properties and device functionalities of metamaterials.

Topological Darkness: How to Design a Metamaterial for Optical Biosensing with Ultrahigh Sensitivity.

Due to the absence of labels and fast analyses, optical biosensors promise major advances in biomedical diagnostics, security, environmental, and food safety applications. However, the sensitivity of the most advanced plasmonic biosensor implementations has a fundamental limitation caused by losses in the system and/or geometry of biochips. Here, we report a "scissor effect" in topologically dark metamaterials which is capable of providing ultrahigh-amplitude sensitivity to biosensing events, thus solving the bottleneck sensitivity limitation problem. We explain how the "scissor effect" can be realized via the proper design of topologically dark metamaterials and describe strategies for their fabrication. To validate the applicability of this effect in biosensing, we demonstrate the detection of folic acid (vitamin important for human health) in a wide 3-log linear dynamic range with a limit of detection of 0.22 nM, which is orders of magnitude better than those previously reported for all optical counterparts. Our work provides possibilities for designing and realizing plasmonic, semiconductor, and dielectric metamaterials with ultrasensitivity to binding events.

Highly tunable ε'-negative and ε'-near-zero response at extremely low frequency region of CaCu3Ti4O12/graphitized-MWCNT metacomposites

CaCu3Ti4O12/graphitized-multiwall carbon nanotube (CCTO/g-MWCNT) nanocomposites were designed according to classical percolation theory. It is found that the ε'-negative response correlates with free carrier density and percolative g-MWCNT networks. The ε'-near-zero response was achieved at ∼802 kHz, which could be explained by the electrical dipole resonance of interconnected g-MWCNT clusters. Once the percolative g-MWCNT networks are formed in nanocomposites, Drude-type ε'-negative response is obtained at kHz region due to the low-frequency plasma oscillation. This work provides a design paradigm of epsilon-negative property by ceramic nanocomposites which will facilitate their practical application of epsilon-negative materials on dielectric ceramics, metamaterials, and electromagnetic shielding.

Graphitized-MWCNT/CaCu3Ti4O12 metacomposites for tunable ε′-negative and ε′-near-zero response with enhanced electromagnetic shielding

Metacomposites with extraordinary electromagnetic (EM) parameters recently offered a brand-new strategy for EM shielding, but still suffered from the unclear paradigm and regulation mechanism for ε′-negative and ε′-near-zero response. Herein, we presented an effective paradigm of binary composites consisting of CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) and graphitized-multiwall carbon nanotube (g-MWCNT) which was designed by percolation theory. The ε′ switched from positive to negative with increasing frequency was obtained in g-MWCNT/CCTO composites, which could be explained by electrical dipole resonance of interconnected g-MWCNT clusters. Once the percolated g-MWCNT network is formed, Drude-type ε′-negative response would be obtained due to the low-frequency plasma oscillation. Epsilon-near-zero effect (at ∼385 MHz and ∼135 MHz) were tuned by adjusting g-MWCNT content, which respectively corresponds to the loss peaks. The EM medium of CCTO/g-MWCNT composites with ε′-negative or ε′-near-zero response showed great EM shielding performance at specific frequency region. The g-MWCNT/CCTO metacomposites provide a classical paradigm of ceramic matrix composites for ε′-negative and ε′-near-zero response which will guide the practical application of metacomposites in dielectric ceramics and metamaterials, and promote the next steps in EM shielding field.

Terahertz wideband wave plates designed by stacking multilayered metasurface with different geometries

AbstractThe use of metamaterials in terahertz (THz) polarization wave plates is widespread. Metallic metamaterials, however, typically operate within a constrained bandwidth and have a large ohmic loss. All‐dielectric metamaterials could address these issues. To achieve an ultrawide‐band at THz frequencies, a multilayered silicon metasurface with elliptical or rectangular pillars has been employed. According to simulations, the achromatic relative bandwidth of the dielectric metamaterial can remain flat within a broadband with the appropriate structural parameters. Additionally, a scoring system with error analysis is added to help with choosing the geometry of terahertz polarization wave plates with various layers of metasurface. Due to its flexible polarization control capability, the proposed multilayer metasurface may open the door for arbitrary phase delays of incident waves.

Dual symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum enabled by toroidal dipoles in dielectric metamaterials

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are a special kind of resonant states that remain localized even though they coexist with a continuous spectrum of radiating waves. They have already emerged as an important design principle for creating systems with high-quality ([Formula: see text] factor states to enhance light–matter interaction. Many approaches have been proposed to achieve BICs, but it is still of great challenge to design multiple BICs simultaneously, and especially working at terahertz (THz) frequencies. In this paper, we propose an all-dielectric metamaterial, consisting of four hollow cylinders in each unit cell. We show dual BICs exist in such a simple structure, and as breaking the symmetry via varying the inner radius of two diagonal cylinders, they will turn to quasi-BICs with high yet finite Q-factor. These quasi-BICs are manifested themselves as two new dips in the transmission spectrum, of which the resonance shapes can be well described by the Fano formula with a few fitting parameters. We find the evolution of their Q-factors still follows the simple linear relationship with respect to the inverse square of the asymmetry parameter. Based on the multipole decomposition method, two BICs are further investigated to show different multipole components for them. Interestingly, the higher frequency BIC is closely related to the excitation of toroidal dipole (TD), which will split into two TDs as breaking the symmetry. The proposed metamaterial provides an alternative platform to merge the physics of BICs, Fano, and TD, and to pave the way for potential device applications (since the states of extremely high-Q factor).

Adaptive long wave-infrared camouflage using an all-dielectric metasurface

All-dielectric metamaterials consisting of high-index, sub-wavelength, and periodically decorated arrays allow for efficient manipulation of electromagnetic permittivity and permeability with lower losses at the optical frequencies. In this study, we propose a planar multilayer structure composed of dielectric interlayers (Al2O3/Ge/ITO/Soda Lime Glass) to achieve perfect and broadband absorption of mid- and long-infrared (IR) wavelengths. Analyzing the spectral properties of the designed structure proved that it possesses exquisite importance in thermal application when considering the IR signature reduction in the long wavelength range, as well as the reduced radiated energy dissipation along with the undetected band and the requirements for IR camouflage. This intrinsic merit of dielectric metamaterials stems from their inherent selective absorption/emission. In that respect, Kirchhoff's law states that the emissive and absorptive powers of all bodies are similar for radiation of the same wavelength at the same temperature. The temperature difference may occur not only from the properties of the surfaces but also from the optical properties of materials and environmental conditions. Studying the thermal camouflage at different background temperatures found that the camouflage material substantially reduces the contrast between the target and the background. Beyond that, extensive assessments validated that the contrast in the resulting short tips is due to the differences in the reflective properties of the material and the background. Our simulations and experiments lay the groundwork for structuring cost-effective all-dielectric thermal camouflage metaplatforms with high performance and the strong potential to be employed in practical military and defense applications.

Coupled magnetic Mie resonances induced extraordinary optical transmission and its non-linear tunability

Dielectric metamaterials with low ohmic losses and resonating in the local magnetic mode are preferable for enhancing material non-linearity. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate broadband extraordinary electromagnetic transmission (EET) behavior, which is induced by the coupling of magnetic modes of two ceramic cuboids. It is shown that extraordinary electromagnetic transmission behavior through a perforated metal sheet with a subwavelength aperture can be achieved by exciting the first-order magnetic mode Mie resonant coupling of these cuboids. Our findings indicate that the transmission bandwidth and amplitude are dependent on the strength of coupling between the two ceramic cuboids. Additionally, we utilized non-linear effects within the dielectric cuboids to achieve tunable extraordinary electromagnetic transmission behavior. Our results are promising for developing non-linearly tunable microwave devices such as filters and modulators of their strong light-matter interactions.

Dual symmetry breaking tunable bound states in the continuum in all dielectric split ring metamaterials

Dual-symmetry breakings including permittivity asymmetry and geometry asymmetry have been studied in all dielectric split-ring metamaterials supported bound states in the continuum. For any single symmetry breaking, the proposed metamaterials can support simultaneously dual quasi-bound states in the continuum (quasi-BICs). Multipolar decomposition reveals that dual quasi-BICs induced by permittivity asymmetry are both governed by magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole, whereas dual quasi-BICs induced by geometry asymmetry are governed by magnetic dipoles. Under the combined effect of the two types of symmetry breaking, it is found that the quasi-BIC can be weaken and vanished, which is different from enhanced quasi-BIC effect induced by a single symmetry breaking. In addition, asymmetric magnetic and electric field distributions can be realized by selecting different type of symmetry breaking, providing a new way of indirectly manipulating the localized magnetic fields. We show that dual-symmetry breakings point to a unique routine to analyze the physical mechanism of quasi-BICs, which furthermore provide a useful insight into their tuning behavior.

Electrodynamic and Probabilistic Models of Electrically Controlled THz Filters Based on Graphene–Dielectric Metamaterials

Electrodynamic and Probabilistic Models of Electrically Controlled THz Filters Based on Graphene–Dielectric Metamaterials

Design of Frequency-Reconfigurable Antenna on Dielectric and Magnetic Metamaterial Composite Substrate

Reconfigurable planar antennas are essential in multifunctional wireless communication devices. This letter presents the design of a frequency-reconfigurable patch antenna printed on a composite substrate made of a dielectric and a magnetic metamaterial (MMM). The MMM comprises magnetized ferrite slabs with embedded split-ring resonators (SRR). The constructive coupling between the resonances of the magnetized ferrites and SRR is optimized to achieve promising reconfigurable properties. The proposed frequency-reconfigurable antenna demonstrates a 158% increase in the frequency tuning range. Furthermore, the simulated results are experimentally verified, and the composite substrate shows slight effects on the antenna radiation characteristics.

Enhanced Förster resonance energy transfer on layered metal-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterials: an excellent platform for low-threshold laser action.

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a well-known physical phenomenon, which has been widely used in a variety of fields, spanning from chemistry, and physics to optoelectronic devices. In this study, giant enhanced FRET for donor-acceptor CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) pairs placed on top of Au/MoO3 multilayer hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) has been realized. An enhanced FRET transfer efficiency as high as 93% was achieved for the energy transfer from a blue-emitting QD to a red-emitting QD, greater than that of other QD-based FRET in previous studies. Experimental results show that the random laser action of the QD pairs is greatly increased on a hyperbolic metamaterial by the enhanced FRET effect. The lasing threshold with assistance of the FRET effect can be reduced by 33% for the mixed blue- and red-emitting as QDs compared to the pure red-emitting QDs. The underlying origins can be well understood based on the combination of several significant factors, including spectral overlap of donor emission and acceptor absorption, the formation of coherent closed loops due to multiple scatterings, an appropriate design of HMMs, and the enhanced FRET assisted by HMMs.

Inverse design of slow light devices at telecommunication band based on metamaterials using a deep learning attempt

Slow light devices have important applications in many fields such as optical communication, optical storage, optical signal shaping and synchronization. Although a variety of high-performance slow light devices can be purchased in the market, it is still a worthwhile research topic to design slow light devices according to specific wavelengths and requirements. Here we employ machine learning method to inverse design electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) based slow light devices in communication band using metal–dielectric hybrid metamaterials. Three characteristic points of transmittance as well as the group refractive index and bandwidth are chosen as input parameters. By replacing the complex fully connected layer with a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1DCNN) layer to optimize the fully connected network, the proposed model can break the limitation of passive modulation and find the best slow light structure parameters. The slow light parameters could reach a bandwidth of 38.71 nm and average group refractive index of 10.51. In addition, the model can predict hybrid metamaterial structure parameters of slow light devices in the communication band from 1400 nm to 1600 nm. By combining active and passive modulation technologies, our proposed method improves the adjustment range of design parameters of slow light devices. The procedure can be potentially applied in the design of other nano optical devices.