title: Ultrafast modulation of optical metamaterials.
abstract: We show by pump-probe spectroscopy that the optical response of a fishnet metamaterial can be modulated on the femtosecond time scale. The modulation dynamics is dominated by pump-induced changes in the constituting dielectric medium, but the strength of modulation is dramatically enhanced through the plasmon resonance. The pump-induced spectral responses of the metamaterial provide understanding on how the resonance is modified by pump excitation. Our study suggests that metamaterials can be used as high-speed amplitude/phase modulators with terahertz-bandwidth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ponizovskaya
authors.forename: Pratik
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chaturvedi
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bratkovsky
authors.forename: Shih-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Y Ron
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*