Photothermal Effects for Advanced Control of Optical Resonances in Dielectric Metasurfaces

  • 11 July 2019
Abstract
Arrays of optically resonant dielectric nanostructures featuring electric and magnetic resonances are usually fabricated by means of planar technologies, which limit the degrees of freedom in tunability and scalability of the fabricated system. In this work, we explore photothermal effects induced by ultrashort-pulse laser irradiation to tailor pre-processed amorphous silicon metasurfaces beyond lateral dimensions. We present two complimentary methods for control of their optical resonances: crystallization of amorphous material, leading to a change of the refractive index, and photothermal reshaping, based on shape transition of molten material to the lowest surface energy. We utilize the resonant behavior of nanostructures to induce specific electromagnetic field distributions and absorption profiles, which subsequently lead to a localized heating and customized modifications. As a result, single pulse laser-induced shape and structural changes provide advanced control of the optical resonances and substantially reduce the complexity in the fabrication of non-uniform nanostructure-based optical systems.