Large optical nonlinearity of indium tin oxide in its epsilon-near-zero region

Nonlinear optical phenomena are crucial for a broad range of applications, such as microscopy, all-optical data processing, and quantum information. However, materials usually exhibit a weak optical nonlinearity even under intense coherent illumination. We report that indium tin oxide can acquire an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2016-05, Vol.352 (6287), p.795-797
Main Authors: Alam, M. Zahirul, De Leon, Israel, Boyd, Robert W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data processing
Information Processing
Nanoscience
Nonlinear systems
Optics
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Summary:Nonlinear optical phenomena are crucial for a broad range of applications, such as microscopy, all-optical data processing, and quantum information. However, materials usually exhibit a weak optical nonlinearity even under intense coherent illumination. We report that indium tin oxide can acquire an ultrafast and large intensity-dependent refractive index in the region of the spectrum where the real part of its permittivity vanishes. We observe a change in the real part of the refractive index of 0.72 ± 0.025, corresponding to 170% of the linear refractive index. This change in refractive index is reversible with a recovery time of about 360 femtoseconds. Our results offer the possibility of designing material structures with large ultrafast nonlinearity for applications in nanophotonics.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aae0330