Role of hot electron scattering in epsilon-near-zero optical nonlinearity

Abstract

The physical origin of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) optical nonlinearity lies in the hot-electron dynamics, in which electron scattering plays an important role. With the damping factor defined by hot electron scattering time, the Drude model could be extended to modeling ENZ optical nonlinearity completely. We proposed a statistical electron scattering model that takes into account the effect of electron distribution in a nonparabolic band and conducted the investigation on indium tin oxide (ITO) with femtosecond-pump continuum-probe experiment. We found that ionized impurity scattering and acoustic phonon scattering are the two major scattering mechanisms, of which the latter had been neglected before. They dominate at low-energy and high-energy electrons, respectively, and are weakened or boosted for high electron temperature, respectively. The electron energy–dependent scattering time contributed from multiple scattering mechanisms shows the electron density–dependent damping factor. The comprehensive understanding of electron scattering in ITO will help to develop a complete model of ENZ optical nonlinearity.