Epsilon-Near-Zero Mode for Active Optoelectronic Devices

Simon Vassant (1) , Alexandre Archambault (1) , François Marquier (1) , Fabrice Pardo (2) , Ulf Gennser (2) , Antonella Cavanna (2) , Jean-Luc Pelouard (2) , Jean-Jacques Greffet (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Naphel
2 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

The electromagnetic modes of a GaAs quantum well between two AlGaAs barriers are studied. At the longitudinal optical phonon frequency, the system supports a phonon polariton mode confined in the thickness of the quantum well that we call epsilon-near-zero mode. This epsilon-near-zero mode can be resonantly excited through a grating resulting in a very large absorption localized in the single quantum well. We show that the reflectivity can be modulated by applying a voltage. This paves the way to a new class of active optoelectronic devices working in the midinfrared and far infrared at ambient temperature..

Domains: Optics / Photonic; Optics [physics.optics]

Simon Vassant, Alexandre Archambault, François Marquier, Fabrice Pardo, Ulf Gennser, et al.. Epsilon-Near-Zero Mode for Active Optoelectronic Devices. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 109 (23), pp.237401. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.237401⟩. ⟨hal-00785260⟩