Singh 2012 Pacs 03
Singh 2012 Pacs 03
Singh 2012 Pacs 03
1515/nanoph-2012-0007
Ranjan Singh1,*, Jie Xiong1,2, Abul K. Azad1, Keywords: Metamaterials; terahertz; high-temperature
Hao Yang1,3, Stuart A. Trugman1, Q. X. Jia1, superconductor; split-ring resonator; photoexcitation;
Antoinette J. Taylor1 and Hou-Tong Chen1,* ultrafast dynamics.
1
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, 1. Introduction
USA, e-mail: ranjan@lanl.gov; chenht@lanl.gov
2
State Key Lab of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated An important issue in resonant electromagnetic metamateri-
Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of als is how to overcome the loss, particularly in the optical
China, Chengdu 610054, China frequency range where the Drude response provides limited
3
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films, School of Physical conductivity in metals [1–3]. However, one may also take
Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou advantage of the typically undesirable loss to realize function-
215006, China alities such as switching and modulation of electromagnetic
* Corresponding author waves [4], where the metamaterial resonant response plays a
critical role in obtaining strong enhancement of light-matter
interactions. Based on such considerations, there have been
Abstract many approaches developed to realize tunability in hybrid
metamaterials, where materials including semiconductors and
Through the integration of semiconductors or complex complex oxides serve as the metamaterial substrate or spacer,
oxides into metal resonators, tunable metamaterials have or are integrated into specific regions of metamaterial resona-
been achieved by a change of environment using an external tors [5–25]. The resonant response in hybrid metamaterials
stimulus. Metals provide high conductivity to realize a strong can be switched and/or frequency shifted when an external
resonant response in metamaterials; however, they contrib- stimulus, such as temperature [5–8], voltage bias [9–14], or
ute very little to the tunability. The complex conductivity in photoexcitation [15–25], is applied. The optical approach has
high-temperature superconducting films is highly sensitive to received the most intensive attention in metamaterial photon-
external perturbations, which provides new opportunities in ics due to its simplicity, addressability, and capability of ultra-
achieving tunable metamaterials resulting directly from the fast tuning. However, in all of these approaches, the metals
resonant elements. Additionally, superconducting metama- that compose metamaterial resonators contribute very little to
terials are expected to enable strong nonlinear response and the active components, merely providing high conductivity to
quantum effects, particularly when Josephson junctions are realize a strong resonance.
integrated into the metamaterial resonant elements. Here we It has been shown that metal conductivity as well as thick-
demonstrate ultrafast dynamical tuning of resonance in the ness can affect the metamaterial resonance [26, 27], although
terahertz (THz) frequency range in YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) the tunability is through design and fabrication. Noble metals
split-ring resonator (SRR) arrays excited by near infrared are still the material of choice for fabricating metamaterial
femtosecond laser pulses. The photoexcitation breaks the structures because of their high conductivity, which, how-
superconducting Cooper pairs to create quasiparticles. This ever, makes the resonance tuning rely on the integration of
dramatically modifies the imaginary part of the complex con- additional materials able to respond to external stimuli. The
ductivity and consequently the metamaterial resonance on complex conductivity in high-temperature superconducting
an ultrafast timescale, although the real conductivity does films is highly sensitive to external perturbations, including
not change significantly. We observed resonance switching temperature, magnetic fields, optical excitation, and electrical
accompanied by substantial frequency tuning as a function of current. In fact, there have been a few recent demonstrations
photoexcitation fluence, which also strongly depends on the of superconducting metamaterials, which are of particular
nanoscale thickness of the superconducting films. All of our interest in loss reduction and resonance tuning [28–38], the
experimental results agree with calculations using an analyti- latter has mostly been achieved by a change of temperature
cal model, which takes into account the contributions of the [28–34, 37, 38] and application of magnetic fields [30, 35],
complex conductivity of the YBCO films to SRR resistance two approaches that are uniquely suitable for manipulation
and kinetic inductance. The theoretical calculations reveal of properties in superconductors. Although loss reduction in
that the increasing SRR resistance upon increasing photoex- superconducting metamaterials is limited to frequencies up
citation fluence is responsible for the reduction of resonance to the terahertz (THz) regime due to the strong frequency
strength, and changes in both the resistance and kinetic induc- dependence of the complex conductivity as well as the energy
tance cause the resonance frequency shifts. band gap in superconductors, superconducting metamaterials
are expected to have great potential for THz generation [39] 1.2
and detection [40], particularly when Josephson junctions are LAO
integrated into the structures.
In this work, we systematically investigate the resonant YBCO
Transmission
0.2 10
pump-probe time delay increases, the transmitted THz signal 0
0.0
decreases due to the recombination of quasiparticles to form
0.8
Cooper pairs. Under low fluence excitation, the relaxation
0.6
time is approximately 5 ps, and there is a clearly observable
second peak ∼7 ps after the main transmission peak arising 0.4
from reflected laser pulses at the back surface of the substrate. 0.2 C D
Increasing the pump fluence causes a larger relaxation time 0.0
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
and results in a much longer tail, most likely due to thermal Frequency (THz)
effects. We have also carried out similar measurements for
1.0
bare YBCO films, and the results are very similar to those
shown in Figure 1.
The amplitude spectra of THz transmission through the 0.8
100-nm-thick metamaterial sample were then measured at
20 K for various photoexcitation fluences at four time delays Pump power (mW)
0.6
indicated by the arrows in Figure 1. In the absence of a pump 100
pulse, the metamaterial exhibits a strong resonant response, 0.4 60
as shown by the red curves in Figures 2A–2D with a resonant 30
transmission minimum of 10% or power transmission of 1%, 10
0.2
which is comparable to that in metamaterial samples fabri- 0
Transmission
cated from gold with the same thickness. This also facilitates E
0.0
the use of high-temperature superconductors in metamateri-
als replacing noble metals with additional tuning capability.
Figure 2A shows the resonant transmission spectra for various 0.8
pump powers when THz pulses pass through the metamate-
rial sample a few picoseconds before the optical pump pulses 0.6
Pump power (mW)
(time position I in Figure 1). The small resulting change 1000
indicates that the excitation in the YBCO metamaterial has 0.4 500
relaxed nearly completely during the time interval of 1 ms
200
between the optical pump pulses. Immediately following the
0.2 50
femtosecond photoexcitation (time position II), the metama-
0
terial resonance is significantly weakened and red-shifted F
0.0
with increasing pump power, as shown in Figure 2B. The 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
resonance disappears at a pump power of 100 mW. Increasing Frequency (THz)
the pump-probe time delay results in recovery of metamate-
rial resonance strength due to carrier relaxation, as revealed in Figure 2 THz transmission amplitude spectra of YBCO metama-
Figures 2C and 2D for positions III and IV, respectively, both terials for various pump powers. The spectra shown in A–D are for
of which are before the arrival of the reflected optical pulse the 100-nm-thick YBCO metamaterial at the respective pump-probe
from the back surface of the substrate. With the same pump time positions I–IV. E and F, THz transmission amplitude spectra for
YBCO metamaterials with 50 and 200 nm thicknesses, respectively,
power, the resonance strength increases and its frequency
measured at the pump-probe time position III.
shifts back when the time delay increases. However, when
the pump power is high, e.g., 500 mW, the thermal effects last
much longer and the metamaterial resonance does not recover YBCO film thickness results in a higher resonance fre-
within the time delay of tens picoseconds in our measure- quency, stronger resonance strength, smaller frequency tun-
ments, which is consistent with the dynamics measurements ing range, and requiring higher pump power in tuning the
shown in Figure 1. resonance. In the absence of a pump pulse, the resonance
It has been shown that the resonance tuning in supercon- frequency is 0.460, 0.553, and 0.612 THz, and the resonance
ducting metamaterials through change of temperature is transmission minimum is 0.28, 0.11, and 0.03, respectively,
strongly dependent on the film thickness [34]. We also fab- for the YBCO metamaterials with thickness of 50, 100, and
ricated identical metamaterial structure from YBCO films 200 nm. For the 50-nm-thick YBCO metamaterial, 100 mW
with two other thicknesses of 50 and 200 nm. Measured at pump laser power is sufficient to completely switch off the
the pump-probe time delay position III, the pump power resonance; while for the 200-nm-thick YBCO metamaterial,
dependent resonant transmission spectra are shown in even 1000 mW pump laser power is insufficient to switch
Figures 2E and 2F. These spectra reveal that increasing off the resonance.
4
A B 20
A B
Surface resistance/reactance (Ω/Sq.)
3
XS
Imaginary
2 RS
Conductivity (106 S/m)
Real 10
1
0 0
C D 20 C D
3
2
10
1
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400 500
Pump power (mW) Pump power (mW)
Figure 3 Experimentally measured complex conductivity at 20 Figure 4 Calculated surface impedance as a function of pump
K as a function of pump power for the 100-nm-thick bare YBCO power for the 100-nm-thick bare YBCO film. A–D, The surface
film. A–D, Real and imaginary parts of the complex conductiv- resistance and reactance are calculated using the experimental con-
ity are retrieved at 0.55 THz for pump-probe time positions I–IV, ductivity shown in Figure 3 for the respective pump-probe time posi-
respectively. tions I–IV.
0.54
ing the pump fluence also introduces significant thermal
Experiment
0.52 effects with a much longer relaxation time. The dynamics
Calculation
0.50 of the metamaterial resonance follows that of the super-
E F conducting films. Using experimentally measured complex
0.48
conductivity of the superconducting films, we are able to
0.54 reproduce such behavior through calculations by including
0.52 the ohmic resistance and kinetic inductance. The theoreti-
cal calculations reveal that the increasing SRR resistance
0.50
G H upon increasing photoexcitation fluence is responsible
0.48 for the reduction of the resonance strength, and both the
0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60 80
resistance and kinetic inductance contribute to the shifting
Pump power (mW)
of the resonance frequency. We have also shown that the
Figure 5 Experimentally measured and theoretically calculated nanoscale thickness of the superconducting films plays an
transmission minimum and resonance frequency. A–D, Resonant important role in the frequency tuning range and require-
transmission minimum, and E–H, resonance frequency as a function ment of optical pump fluence. Thinner superconducting
of pump power for the 100-nm-thick YBCO metamaterial sample at metamaterials require lower pump fluences to switch the
the pump-probe time positions I–IV, respectively. resonance and result in a larger frequency tuning range.
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Opt Express 2010;18(9):9015–9. Received February 21, 2012; accepted March 24, 2012