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Czaplewski, David A.

Publications and source records attributed to Czaplewski, David A..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Trapping light in air with membrane metasurfaces for vibrational strong coupling

Optical metasurfaces can manipulate electromagnetic waves in unprecedented ways at ultra-thin engineered interfaces. Specifically, in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) region, metasurfaces have enabled numerous biochemical sensing, spectroscopy, and vibrational strong coupling (VSC) applications via enhanced light-matter interactions in resonant cavities. However, mid-IR metasurfaces are usually fabricated on solid supporting substrates, which degrade resonance quality factors (Q) and hinder efficient sample access to the near-field electromagnetic hotspots. Besides, typical IR-transparent substrate materials with low refractive indices, such as CaF 2 , NaCl, KBr, and ZnSe, are usually either water-soluble, expensive, or not compatible with low-cost mass manufacturing processes. Here, we present novel free-standing Si-membrane mid-IR metasurfaces with strong light-trapping capabilities in accessible air voids. We employ the Brillouin zone folding technique to excite tunable, high-Q quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBIC) resonances with our highest measured Q-factor of 722. Leveraging the strong field localizations in accessible air cavities, we demonstrate VSC with multiple quantities of PMMA molecules and the qBIC modes at various detuning frequencies. Our new approach of fabricating mid-IR metasurfaces into semiconductor membranes enables scalable manufacturing of mid-IR photonic devices and provides exciting opportunities for quantum-coherent light-matter interactions, biochemical sensing, and polaritonic chemistry. The authors introduce a mid-IR metasurface fabricated by decorating a free-standing Si-membrane with air holes. The enhanced light-matter interactions in such air cavities enable vibrational strong coupling and advanced biochemical sensing.

infrared spectroscopy↗
DOE OSTI2024

Atomic Magnetometry Using a Metasurface Polarizing Beamsplitter in Silicon-on-Sapphire

Here, we demonstrate atomic magnetometry using a metasurface polarizing beamsplitter fabricated on a silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) platform. The metasurface splits a beam that is near-resonant with the rubidium atoms (795 nm) into orthogonal linear polarizations, enabling the measurement of magnetically sensitive circular birefringence in rubidium vapor through balanced polarimetry. We incorporated the metasurface into an atomic magnetometer based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation and measured subnanotesla sensitivity, which is limited by low-frequency technical noise and transmission loss through the metasurface. To our knowledge, this work represents the first demonstration of SOS nanophotonics for atom-based sensing and paves the way for highly integrated, miniaturized atomic sensors with enhanced sensitivity and portability.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Infrared phase-change chiral metasurfaces with tunable circular dichroism

Integrating phase-change materials in metasurfaces has emerged as a powerful strategy to realize optical devices with tunable electromagnetic responses. Here, phase-change chiral metasurfaces based on GST-225 material with the designed trapezoid-shaped resonators are demonstrated to achieve tunable circular dichroism (CD) responses in the infrared regime. The asymmetric trapezoid-shaped resonators are designed to support two chiral plasmonic resonances with opposite CD responses for realizing switchable CD between negative and positive values using the GST phase change from amorphous to crystalline. The electromagnetic field distributions of the chiral plasmonic resonant modes are analyzed to understand the chiroptical responses of the metasurface. Furthermore, the variations in the absorption spectrum and CD value for the metasurface as a function of the baking time during the GST phase transition are analyzed to reveal the underlying thermal tuning process of the metasurface. The demonstrated phase-change metasurfaces with tunable CD responses hold significant promise in enabling many applications in the infrared regime such as chiral sensing, encrypted communication, and thermal imaging.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Wavelength-tunable infrared chiral metasurfaces with phase-change materials

Optical phase-change materials exhibit tunable permittivity and switching properties during phase transition, which offers the possibility of dynamic control of optical devices. Here, a wavelength-tunable infrared chiral metasurface integrated with phase-change material GST-225 is demonstrated with the designed unit cell of parallelogram-shaped resonator. By varying the baking time at a temperature above the phase transition temperature of GST-225, the resonance wavelength of the chiral metasurface is tuned in the wavelength range of 2.33 µm to 2.58 µm, while the circular dichroism in absorption is maintained around 0.44. The chiroptical response of the designed metasurface is revealed by analyzing the electromagnetic field and displacement current distributions under left- and right-handed circularly polarized (LCP and RCP) light illumination. Moreover, the photothermal effect is simulated to investigate the large temperature difference in the chiral metasurface under LCP and RCP illumination, which allows for the possibility of circular polarization-controlled phase transition. The presented chiral metasurfaces with phase-change materials offer the potential to facilitate promising applications in the infrared regime, such as chiral thermal switching, infrared imaging, and tunable chiral photonics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-Quality Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Large-Area Sodium Nanostructures

Sodium (Na) is predicted to be an ideal plasmonic material with ultralow optical loss across visible to near-infrared (NIR). However, there has been limited research on Na plasmonics. We develop a scalable fabrication method for Na nanostructures by combining phase-shift photolithography and a thermo-assisted spin-coating process. Using this method, we fabricated Na nanopit arrays with varying periodicities (300-600 nm) and with tunable surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes spanning visible to NIR. We achieved SPP resonances as narrow as 9.3 nm. In addition, Na nanostructures showed line width narrowing from visible toward NIR, showing their prospect operating in the NIR. To address the challenges associated with the high reactivity of Na, we designed a simple encapsulation strategy and stabilized the Na nanostructures in ambient conditions for more than two months. As a low-cost and low-loss plasmonic material, Na offers a competitive option for nanophotonic devices and plasmon-enhanced applications.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Controllable branching of robust response patterns in nonlinear mechanical resonators

In lieu of continuous time active feedback control in complex systems, nonlinear dynamics offers a means to generate desired long-term responses using short-time control signals. This type of control has been proposed for use in resonators that exhibit a plethora of complex dynamic behaviors resulting from energy exchange between modes. However, the dynamic response and, ultimately, the ability to control the response of these systems remains poorly understood. Here, we show that a micromechanical resonator can generate diverse, robust dynamical responses that occur on a timescale five orders of magnitude larger than the external harmonic driving and these responses can be selected by inserting small pulses at specific branching points. We develop a theoretical model and experimentally show the ability to control these response patterns. Hence, these mechanical resonators may represent a simple physical platform for the development of springboard concepts for nonlinear, flexible, yet robust dynamics found in other areas of physics, chemistry, and biology.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Freestanding high-aspect-ratio gold masks for low-energy, phase-based x-ray microscopy

High-resolution, x-ray phase contrast microscopy, a key technique with promising potential in biomedical imaging and diagnostics, is based on narrow-slit high-aspect-ratio gold gratings. Here we present the development, fabrication details, and experimental testing of the freestanding 10 μm thick gold membrane masks with an array of 0.9–1.5 μm void slit apertures for a novel low-energy x-ray microscope. The overall mask size is 4 mm × 4 mm, with a grating pitch of 7.5 μm, 6.0–6.6 μm wide gold bars are supported by 3 μm wide crosslinks at 400 μm intervals. The fabrication process is based on gold electroplating into a silicon mold coated with various thin films to form a voltage barrier, plating base, and sacrificial layer, followed by the mold removal to obtain the freestanding gold membrane with void slit apertures. We discuss key aspects for the materials and processes, including gold structures homogeneity, residual stresses, and prevention of collapsing of the grid elements. We further demonstrate the possibility to obtain high-resolution, high contrast 2D images of biological samples using an incoherent, rotating anode x-ray tube.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mid-infrared chiral metasurface absorbers with split-ellipse structures

Natural chiral materials usually have very weak circular dichroism (CD) responses. Here, in this study, we design and demonstrate one type of mid-infrared chiral metasurface absorber with strong chiroptical effects, which can achieve high CD in absorption above 0.57 over the wavelength range of 5 to 5.9 μm. The maximum absorption of the chiral metasurface absorber under circularly polarized light can reach 0.90 and the maximum CD in absorption is 0.63. Meanwhile, the chiral resonance wavelength and the CD value can be tuned by varying the geometric parameters of the metasurface. A thermal analysis of the metasurface absorber further shows the strong connection between CD in absorption and temperature difference. The demonstrated chiral metasurface absorbers can be used in many promising applications such as molecular sensing, thermophotovoltaics and chiral spectroscopy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dual-band selective circular dichroism in mid-infrared chiral metasurfaces

Most chiral metamaterials and metasurfaces are designed to operate in a single wavelength band and with a certain circular dichroism (CD) value. Here, mid-infrared chiral metasurface absorbers with selective CD in dual-wavelength bands are designed and demonstrated. The dual-band CD selectivity and tunability in the chiral metasurface absorbers are enabled by the unique design of a unit cell with two coupled rectangular bars. It is shown that the sign of CD in each wavelength band can be independently controlled and flipped by simply adjusting the geometric parameters, the width and the length, of the vertical rectangular bars. The mechanism of the dual-band CD selection in the chiral metasurface absorber is further revealed by studying the electric field and magnetic field distributions of the antibonding and bonding modes supported in the coupled bars under circularly polarized incident light. Furthermore, the chiral resonance wavelength can be continuously increased by scaling up the geometric parameters of the metasurface unit cell. The demonstrated results will contribute to the advance of future mid-infrared applications such as chiral molecular sensing, thermophotovoltaics, and optical communication.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Low Index Contrast Valley Hall Topological Photonics for Robust Transport in the Visible Spectrum

We report topological photonics is an emerging platform to study light-matter interactions with promising features such as robust edge state transmission that could be advantageous for quantum information applications. However, applying common topological photonic designs for visible wavelength light-matter interactions is challenging because materials compatible with the visible spectrum have lower refractive index contrasts. We design and demonstrate a novel valley Hall topological photonic crystal that can support a complete topological band gap in the visible spectrum. We also show an overetch procedure can be used to reduce the leakage loss common for low index contrast materials. To demonstrate these advantages, we fabricate topological photonic devices following these design principles and show that edge states at energies in the complete band gap have robust transmission around sharp corners. The compatibility of this photonic structure with straightforward fabrication methods will facilitate the study of interactions between topologically nontrivial photons and nanomaterials active in the visible spectrum.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

High-Frequency 3D Photoacoustic Computed Tomography Using an Optical Microring Resonator

3D photoacoustic computed tomography (3D-PACT) has made great advances in volumetric imaging of biological tissues, with high spatial-temporal resolutions and large penetration depth. The development of 3D-PACT requires high-performance acoustic sensors with a small size, large detection bandwidth, and high sensitivity. In this work, we present a new high-frequency 3D-PACT system that uses a microring resonator (MRR) as the acoustic sensor. The MRR sensor has a size of 80 μ m in diameter and was fabricated using the nanoimprint lithography technology. Using the MRR sensor, we have developed a transmission-mode 3D-PACT system that has achieved a detection bandwidth of ~23 MHz, an imaging depth of ~8 mm, a lateral resolution of 114 μ m, and an axial resolution of 57 μ m. We have demonstrated the 3D PACT’s performance on in vitro phantoms, ex vivo mouse brain, and in vivo mouse ear and tadpole. The MRR-based 3D-PACT system can be a promising tool for structural, functional, and molecular imaging of biological tissues at depths.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Optimizing photonic ring-resonator filters for OH-suppressed near-infrared astronomy

Near-infrared wavelength observations are crucial for understanding numerous fields of astrophysics, such as supernova cosmology and positronium annihilation detection. However, current ground-based observations suffer from an enormous background due to OH emission in the upper atmosphere. One promising way to solve this problem is to use ring-resonator filters to suppress OH emission lines. Here, we discuss our optimization of ring-resonator filter performance from five perspectives: resonance wavelength matching, polarization-independent operation, low insertion loss, low-loss coupling to astronomical instruments, and broadband operation. In the end, we discuss next steps needed for reliable supernova and positronium observations, thus providing a roadmap for future advances in near-infrared astronomy.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Chiral plasmonic metasurface absorbers in the mid-infrared wavelength range

Chiral metamaterials in the mid-infrared wavelength range have tremendous potential for studying thermal emission manipulation and molecular vibration sensing. In this work, we present one type of chiral plasmonic metasurface absorber with high circular dichroism (CD) in absorption of more than 0.56 across the mid-infrared wavelength range of 5-5.5 mu m. The demonstrated chiral metasurface absorbers exhibit a maximum chiral absorption of 0.87 and a maximum CD in absorption of around 0.60. By adjusting the geometric parameters of the unit cell structure of the metasurface, the chiral absorption peak can be shifted to different wavelengths. Due to the strong chiroptical response, the thermal analysis of the designed chiral metasurface absorber further shows the large temperature difference between the left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light. The demonstrated results can be utilized in various applications such as molecular detection, mid-infrared filter, thermal emission, and chiral imaging.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Plasmon-phonon coupling between mid-infrared chiral metasurfaces and molecular vibrations

Plasmon-phonon coupling between metamaterials and molecular vibrations provides a new path for studying mid-infrared light-matter interactions and molecular detection. So far, the coupling between the plasmonic resonances of metamaterials and the phonon vibrational modes of molecules has been realized under linearly polarized light. Here, mid-infrared chiral plasmonic metasurfaces with high circular dichroism (CD) in absorption over 0.65 in the frequency range of 50 to 60 THz are demonstrated to strongly interact with the phonon vibrational resonance of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) molecules at 52 THz, under both left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized (LCP and RCP) light. The mode splitting features in the absorption spectra of the coupled metasurface-PMMA systems under both circular polarizations are studied in PMMA layers with different thicknesses. The relation between the mode splitting gap and the PMMA thickness is also revealed. The demonstrated results can be applied in areas of chiral molecular sensing, thermal emission, and thermal energy harvesting.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Approaching the Strain-Free Limit in Ultrathin Nanomechanical Resonators

Ultrathin mechanical structures are ideal building platforms to pursue the ultimate limit of nanomechanical resonators for applications in sensing, signal processing, and quantum physics. Unfortunately, as the thickness of the vibrating structures is reduced, the built-in strain of the structural materials plays an increased role in determining the mechanical performance of the devices. As a consequence, it is very challenging to fabricate resonators working in the modulus-dominant regime, where their dynamic behavior is exclusively determined by the device geometry. In this Letter, we report ultrathin doubly clamped nanomechanical resonators with aspect ratios as large as L/t similar to 5000 and working in the modulus-dominant regime. Here, we observed room temperature thermomechanically induced motion of multiple vibration modes with resonant frequencies closely matching the predicted values of Euler-Bernoulli beam theory under an axial strain of 6.3 x 10 -8 . The low strain of the devices enables a record frequency tuning ratio of more than 50 times. These results illustrate a new strategy for the quantitative design of nanomechanical resonators with unprecedented performance.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Broadband infrared circular dichroism in chiral metasurface absorbers

Chirality is ubiquitous in nature and it is essential in many fields, but natural materials possess weak and narrow-band chiroptical effects. In this work, chiral plasmonic metasurface absorbers are designed and demonstrated to achieve large broadband infrared circular dichroism (CD). The broadband chiral absorber is made of multiple double-rectangle resonators with different sizes, showing strong absorption of left-handed or right-handed circularly polarized (LCP or RCP) light above 0.7 and large CD in absorption more than 0.5 covering the wavelength range from 1.35 mu m to 1.85 mu m. High broadband polarization-dependent local temperature increase is also obtained. The switchable infrared reflective chiral images are further presented by changing the wavelength and polarization of incident light. The broadband chiral metasurface absorbers promise future applications in many areas such as polarization detection, thermophotovoltaics, and chiral imaging.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗