Grupo de Procesado por Láser del Instituto de Óptica “Daza de Valdés”

Ref: JAEINT21_EX_0703

Training plan offered by researcher Rosalia Serna Galán and entitled: New active plasmonic metasurfaces based on phase change nanostructures
Deadline: April 12 2021

Meta-surfaces based on metal-dielectric nanostructures have revolutionized nanophotonics in the last decade by providing a versatile design platform that enables control of the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light in compact, integrable devices. Currently, these devices are formed mainly by Ag, Au and Al nanostructured metallic resonators due to their excellent plasmonic response. However, the metasurfaces thus developed do not allow plasmonic response modulation. For this reason, the use of nanostructures of these metals with dielectrics whose properties are modulable by phase change (VO2 or GeSbTe (GST)) has been explored with some success. In our group (Laser Processing Group, lpg.io.csic.es) we have demonstrated a more efficient alternative based on which nanostructured resonators are formed by semi-metals or topological insulators of the p block of the periodic table [1]. These elements show a plasmonic response in the ultraviolet-visible, and also have phase transitions at low temperatures (~ 270 ºC) that lead to important changes in the plasmonic response [1-2]. The combination of these properties has led us to demonstrate active metasurfaces based on Bi nanostructures that allow analog modulation of the phase of light [3]. At present the development of these metasurfaces is still in its infancy, and its excellent potential has yet to be developed, such as the study of the dynamics of the temporal response of the metasurfaces under irradiation of ultrafast laser pulses [3] that will allow the implementation of fully optical active devices.
The successful candidate will join a dynamic, experimental and well-funded research group with national and European projects. The candidate will carry out a multidisciplinary research that includes the design of the new metasurfaces, their preparation using laser processing techniques, and the study of their optical response, and the novel control of their switching by phase change with laser pulses.
References:
1. J. Toudert, R. Serna, Opt. Mater. Express. 7, 2299 (2017)
2. J. Toudert, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C. 121, 3511-3521 (2017).
3. M. Garcia-Pardo et al, Nanophotonics. 9, 885–896 (2020).
4. J. Siegel, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 89,3642–3649 (2001)

For any questions about this offer please write to: rosalia.serna@csic.es

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