Thermo-optic epsilon-near-zero effects.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38278795.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-45054-z and PMC identifier 10817958.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Nonlinear epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) nanodevices featuring vanishing permittivity and CMOS-compatibility are attractive solutions for large-scale-integrated systems-on-chips. Such confined systems with unavoidable heat generation impose critical challenges for semiconductor-based ENZ performances. While their optical properties are temperature-sensitive, there is no systematic analysis on such crucial dependence. Here, we experimentally report the linear and nonlinear thermo-optic ENZ effects in indium tin oxide. We characterize its temperature-dependent optical properties with ENZ frequencies covering the telecommunication O-band, C-band, and 2-μm-band. Depending on the ENZ frequency, it exhibits an unprecedented 70-93-THz-broadband 660-955% enhancement over the conventional thermo-optic effect. The ENZ-induced fast-varying large group velocity dispersion up to 0.03-0.18 fs<sup>2</sup>nm<sup>-1</sup> and its temperature dependence are also observed for the first time. Remarkably, the thermo-optic nonlinearity demonstrates a 1113-2866% enhancement, on par with its reported ENZ-enhanced Kerr nonlinearity. Our work provides references for packaged ENZ-enabled photonic integrated circuit designs, as well as a new platform for nonlinear photonic applications and emulations.