This talk will review our research efforts on tunable meta/ENZ-optics for developing new optical applications. I will present our recent advances on the use of transparent conducting oxide materials to demonstrate gate-tunable ultrathin optical metasurfaces that can tune the optical phase and amplitude for light steering and nonlinear/quantum emission control [1]. In addition, broadband and field-effect tunable ENZ mode properties in ultrathin ENZ meta-film fabricated by atomic layer deposition technique will be discussed [2-4]. I will also present the active controllable and enhanced emission properties of quantum emitters/2D materials through the coupling of ENZ resonances and the largely enhanced ultrafast zero-index optical nonlinearity. Those studies are significant for developing enhanced Raman/coherent anti-Stoke Raman/photoluminescence spectroscopy and novel nano/single photon light/laser sources. Finally, I will present our study on a new type of “meta”-optical fiber which merges the sciences of metasurfaces, zero-index/plasmonic materials, and optical fibers. The development of the first ultrathin optical fiber metalens and color filter for potential laser surgery and medical imaging endoscope applications, excitation of ENZ and plasmonic resonances on holey optical fiber for advanced optical/bio sensing, novel in-fiber laser and tip-enhanced Raman molecular spectroscopy will be discussed [5-7]. These advanced “meta”/ENZ-optical fibers open the path to revolutionary in-fiber lasers/spectroscopies, optical imaging/sensing, and optical/quantum communication devices [8].
References:
1. Y. W. Huang, H. W. Lee, R. Sokhoyan, R. Pala, K. Thyagarajan, S. Han, D. P. Tsai, and H. A. Atwater, “Gate-tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces,” Nano Lett. 16, 5319-5325 (2016).
2. A. Anopchenko, L. Tao, C. Arndt, H. W. Lee, “Field-effect tunable and broadband Epsilon-near-zero perfect absorbers with deep subwavelength thickness,” ACS Photonics 5, 2631 (2018).
3. A. Anopchenko, S. Gurung, L. Tao, C. Arndt, H. W. Lee, “Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultra-thin and smooth Al-doped ZnO for Zero-Index Photonics”, Materials Research Express, 5, 014012 (2018).
4. A. Anopchenko, S. S. Bej, N. Danz, G. S. Agarwal, H. W. Lee, “Field Enhancement of Epsilon-near-Zero Modes in Real Ultra-Thin Absorbing Films,” submitted to Physical Review Letters (2019).
5. K. Minn, A. Anopchenko, J. Yang, H. W. Lee, “Excitation of epsilon-near-zero resonance in ultra-thin indium tin oxide shell embedded nanostructured optical fiber,” Nature Scientific Reports 8, 2342 (2018).
6. J. Yang, I Ghirmire, P. C. Wu, S. Gurung, C. Arndt, D. P. Tsai, H. W. Lee, “Photonic crystal fiber metalens”, Nanophotonics 8, 443-449 (2019).
7. J. Yang, K. Minn, A. Anopchenko, S. Gurung, H. W. Lee, “Coupling to Epsilon-near-Zero Mode on Ultrathin Atomic Layer Deposited Conducting Oxide Film in Optical Fiber”, submitted to Nano Letters (2019).
8. G. K. L. Wong, M. S. Kang, H. W. Lee, F. Biancalana, C. Conti, T. Weiss and P. St.J. Russell, “Orbital angular momentum resonances in helically twisted photonic crystal fiber,” Science 337, 446-449 (2012)
Biography:
Dr. Howard Lee is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Baylor University and IQSE Fellow and visiting professor in the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE) at Texas A&M. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech, working with Prof. Harry Atwater in active plasmonics/metasurfaces. He received his PhD in Physics from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Philip Russell (2015 President of OSA). His work on nano-optics and plasmonics has led to 35 journal publications in various journals, such as Science, Nano Letters, ACS Photonics, Advanced Materials, and Optics Letters as well as 45 invited talks and 130 conference papers. Dr. Lee is a recipient of a 2019 DARPA Director’s Fellowship, a 2019 OGC Young Scientist Award, a 2018 NSF CAREER Award, a 2017 DARPA Young Faculty Award, a 2018 OSA Ambassador, a 2017 APS Robert S. Hyer Award, a 2018 Baylor Young Investigator Award, a 2016 Baylor Proposal Development Award, and a 2012 Croucher Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has organized seven technical conference sessions on advanced optical metasrufaces (META, PQE, and OSA Advanced Photonics 2016-2019) and he will serve as Symposium Chair for Material Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting 2019, Spring Meeting 2020, and Fall Meeting 2020. He currently serves as a Founding Associate Editor for OSA Continuum and Associate Editor for Nature Scientific Report journals. His group has awarded external grants with total amount of > $3.7M in the first four years at Baylor University.