Abstract
We demonstrate an electrically controlled vanadium dioxide (VO2)–metal metasurface for the mid-wave infrared regime that simultaneously functions as a tunable optical switch, an optical limiter with a tunable limiting threshold and a nonlinear optical isolator with a tunable operating range. The tunability is achieved via Joule heating through the metal comprising the metasurface, resulting in an integrated optoelectronic device. As an optical switch, the device has an experimental transmission ratio of ~100 when varying the bias current. Operating as an optical limiter, we demonstrated the tunability of the limiting threshold from 20 to 180 mW of incident laser power. Similar degrees of tunability are also achieved for nonlinear optical isolation, which enables asymmetric (non-reciprocal) transmission.
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The data that support the plots within this paper are available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24093792.v1 (ref. 49), or from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Code availability
Files for the COMSOL and Lumerical models used in our Article are available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24093792.v1 (ref. 49), or from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge funding support from The Office of Naval Research (N00014-20-1-2297, received by M.A.K.) and from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-18-1-0250, received by S.R.).
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M.A.K. and C.W. conceived the project, with M.A.K. providing the overall supervision. C.W. led the device design and optimization with input from J.K. The VO2 films were synthesized by T.J.P. and Z.Z., and supervised by S.R. C.W. and J.K. performed the remaining fabrication processes. The experimental setup and characterization were undertaken by C.W., J.K. and S.D. The photothermal simulations were conducted by C.W. and J.K. The data analysis was led by C.W., J.K. and M.A.K., with contributions from all co-authors. The manuscript was principally written by J.K., C.W. and M.A.K., with contributions from all co-authors.
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King, J., Wan, C., Park, T.J. et al. Electrically tunable VO2–metal metasurface for mid-infrared switching, limiting and nonlinear isolation. Nat. Photon. 18, 74–80 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01324-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01324-8
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