Ultrafast all-optical switching via coherent modulation of metamaterial absorption
- 7 April 2014
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 104 (14)
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870635
Abstract
We report on the demonstration of a femtosecond all-optical modulator providing, without nonlinearity and therefore at arbitrarily low intensity, ultrafast light-by-light control. The device engages the coherent interaction of optical waves on a metamaterial nanostructure only 30 nm thick to efficiently control absorption of near-infrared (750–1040 nm) femtosecond pulses, providing switching contrast ratios approaching 3:1 with a modulation bandwidth in excess of 2 THz. The functional paradigm illustrated here opens the path to a broad family of meta-devices for ultrafast optical data processing in coherent networks.Keywords
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