Title:  Plasmonic Metamaterials and an Optoelectronic Platform for Active and Nonlinear Nanophotonics

Committee:

Dr. Wenshan Cai, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Ali Adibi, ECE

Dr. Bernard Kippelen, ECE

Dr. Azad Naeemi, ECE

Dr. Michael Filler, ChBE

Abstract:

The ultimate goal of this thesis is to develop meta-structured devices that simultaneously sustain both electrical and optical functionalities. An asymmetric plasmonic grating was designed for not only the excitation of dark modes featured with an ultrasharp spectrum but also the generation of an electric potential via a plasmoelectric effect. An electrically tunable second-harmonic signal and optical rectification are both realized from a perfect absorber metamaterial. Beyond the solid state structures, electrically tunable harmonic generation was also demonstrated from plasmonic metamaterials in electrolyte solutions. Moreover, by applying electrically induced nonlinear optics, this thesis demonstrated a decade-old prediction, backward phase-matching in negative-index materials, using a plasmonic waveguide scenario. The results revealed the potential of plasmonic metamaterials as self-contained, dynamic electrooptic systems with intrinsically embedded electrical functions and exotic optical properties for signal processing, light switching, and sensing applications.