Large optical nonlinearity of ITO nanorods for sub-picosecond all-optical modulation of the full-visible spectrum.
Nonlinear optical responses of materials play a vital role for the development of active nanophotonic and plasmonic devices. Optical nonlinearity induced by intense optical excitation of mobile electrons in metallic nanostructures can provide large-amplitude, dynamic tuning of their electromagnetic response, which is potentially useful for all-optical processing of information and dynamic beam control. Here we report on the sub-picosecond optical nonlinearity of indium tin oxide nanorod arrays (ITO-NRAs) following intraband, on-plasmon-resonance optical pumping, which enables modulation of the full-visible spectrum with large absolute change of transmission, favourable spectral tunability and beam-steering capability. Furthermore, we observe a transient response in the microsecond regime associated with slow lattice cooling, which arises from the large aspect-ratio and low thermal conductivity of ITO-NRAs. Our results demonstrate that all-optical control of light can be achieved by using heavily doped wide-bandgap semiconductors in their transparent regime with speed faster than that of noble metals.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Peijun
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5732-7061
P
Guo
Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.|Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Richard D
RD
Schaller
Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
Leonidas E
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4990-1064
LE
Ocola
Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
Benjamin T
BT
Diroll
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
John B
JB
Ketterson
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Robert P H
RP
Chang
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