Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures

Andrea Rossetti; Huatian Hu; Tommaso Venanzi; Adel Bousseksou; Federico De Luca; Thomas Deckert; Valeria Giliberti; Marialilia Pea; Isabelle Sagnes; Gregoire Beaudoin; Paolo Biagioni; Enrico Baù; Stefan A. Maier; Andreas Tittl; Daniele Brida; Raffaele Colombelli; Michele Ortolani; Cristian Ciracì

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01783-4

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Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures

Original Articles

- Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 7, Pages: 1979-1988(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, 162a avenue de la Faïencerie, Luxembourg L-1511, Luxembourg
  2.Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Barsanti 14, Arnesano 73010, Italy
  3.Center for Life Nano- and Neuro-Science, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Viale Regina Elena 291, Rome 00161, Italy
  4.Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, CNRS UMR 9001, Université ParisSaclay, Palaiseau 91120, France
  5.Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, New York 10031 NY, USA
  6.Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome 00133, Italy
  7.Physics Department, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Milan 20133, Italy
  8.Chair in Hybrid Nanosystems, Nano-Institute Munich, Faculty of Physics, LudwigMaximilians-Universtität München, Königinstraße 10, München 80539, Germany
  9.School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton VIC 3800, Australia
  10.The Blackett Laboratory, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Wellington Rd, London SW72AZ, UK
  11.Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, Rome 00185, Italy
  12.Present address: Neurophos Inc., Austin, TX, USA
- Author bio：
  
  Michele Ortolani (michele.ortolani@uniroma1.it)
  Cristian Ciracì (cristian@neurophos.com)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01783-4
  CLC：
- Received：20 August 2024，
  
  Revised：21 January 2025，
  
  Accepted：09 February 2025，
  
  Published Online：13 May 2025，
  
  Published：31 July 2025
- Accepted：
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Rossetti, A. et al. Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1979-1988 (2025).
DOI：

Rossetti, A. et al. Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1979-1988 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01783-4.

摘要

Abstract

The efficiency of nanoscale nonlinear elements in photonic integrated circuits is hindered by the physical limits to the nonlinear optical response of dielectrics

which cannot be engineered as it is a fundamental material property. Here

we experimentally demonstrate that ultrafast optical nonlinearities in doped semiconductors can be engineered and can easily exceed those of conventional undoped dielectrics. The electron response of heavily doped semiconductors acquires in fact a hydrodynamic character that introduces nonlocal effects as well as additional nonlinear sources. Our experimental findings are supported by a comprehensive computational analysis based on the hydrodynamic model. In particular

by studying third-harmonic generation from plasmonic nanoantenna arrays made out of heavily n-doped InGaAs with increasing levels of free-carrier density

we discriminate between hydrodynamic and dielectric nonlinearities. Most importantly

we demonstrate that the maximum nonlinear efficiency as well as its spectral location can be engineered by tuning the doping level. Crucially

the maximum efficiency can be increased by almost two orders of magnitude with respect to the classical dielectric nonlinearity. Having employed the common material platform InGaAs/InP that supports integrated waveguides

our findings pave the way for future exploitation of plasmonic nonlinearities in all-semiconductor photonic integrated circuits.

关键词

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references

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