Optical Materials Express 

About: Optical Materials Express is an academic journal published by Optica Publishing Group. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Laser & Thin film. It has an ISSN identifier of 2159-3930. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 4066 publications have been published receiving 67468 citations. The journal is also known as: Opt Mater Express & Optical Materials Express.

Oxides and nitrides as alternative plasmonic materials in the optical range [Invited]

Abstract: As alternatives to conventional metals, new plasmonic materials offer many advantages in the rapidly growing fields of plasmonics and metamaterials. These advantages include low intrinsic loss, semiconductor-based design, compatibility with standard nanofabrication processes, tunability, and others. Transparent conducting oxides such as Al:ZnO, Ga:ZnO and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) enable many high-performance metamaterial devices operating in the near-IR. Transition-metal nitrides such as TiN or ZrN can be substitutes for conventional metals in the visible frequencies. In this paper we provide the details of fabrication and characterization of these new materials and discuss their suitability for a number of metamaterial and plasmonic applications.

Titanium nitride as a plasmonic material for visible and near-infrared wavelengths

Abstract: The search for alternative plasmonic materials with improved optical properties, easier fabrication and integration capabilities over those of the traditional materials such as silver and gold could ultimately lead to real-life applications for plasmonics and metamaterials. In this work, we show that titanium nitride could perform as an alternative plasmonic material in the visible and near-infrared regions. We demonstrate the excitation of surface-plasmon-polaritons on titanium nitride thin films and discuss the performance of various plasmonic and metamaterial structures with titanium nitride as the plasmonic component. We also show that titanium nitride could provide performance that is comparable to that of gold for plasmonic applications and can significantly outperform gold and silver for transformation-optics and some metamaterial applications in the visible and near-infrared regions.

Linear refractive index and absorption measurements of nonlinear optical liquids in the visible and near-infrared spectral region

Abstract: Liquid-filled photonic crystal fibers and optofluidic devices require infiltration with a variety of liquids whose linear optical properties are still not well known over a broad spectral range, particularly in the near infrared. Hence, dispersion and absorption properties in the visible and near-infrared wavelength region have been determined for distilled water, heavy water, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, toluene, ethanol, carbon disulfide, and nitrobenzene at a temperature of 20 °C. For the refractive index measurement a standard Abbe refractometer in combination with a white light laser and a technique to calculate correction terms to compensate for the dispersion of the glass prism has been used. New refractive index data and derived dispersion formulas between a wavelength of 500 nm and 1600 nm are presented in good agreement with sparsely existing reference data in this wavelength range. The absorption coefficient has been deduced from the difference of the losses of several identically prepared liquid filled glass cells or tubes of different lengths. We present absorption data in the wavelength region between 500 nm and 1750 nm.

Fabrication of β-Ga_2O_3 thin films and solar-blind photodetectors by laser MBE technology

Abstract: Laser molecular beam epitaxy technology has been employed to deposit β-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) on (0001) sapphire substrates. After optimizing the growth parameters, (2¯01)-oriented β-Ga2O3 thin film was obtained. Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum demonstrates that the prepared β-Ga2O3 thin film shows excellent solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) characteristic with a band gap of 5.02 eV. A prototype photodetector device with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure has been fabricated using high quality β-Ga2O3 film. The device exhibits obvious photoresponse under 254 nm UV light irradiation, suggesting a potential application in solar-blind photodetectors.

Refractive index less than two: photonic nanojets yesterday, today and tomorrow [Invited]

Abstract: Materials with relatively small refractive indices (n<2), such as glass, quartz, polymers, some ceramics, etc., are the basic materials in most optical components (lenses, optical fibres, etc.). In this review, we present some of the phenomena and possible applications arising from the interaction of light with particles with a refractive index less than 2. The vast majority of the physics involved can be described with the help of the exact, analytical solution of Maxwell’s equations for spherical particles (so called Mie theory). We also discuss some other particle geometries (spheroidal, cubic, etc.) and different particle configurations (isolated or interacting) and draw an overview of the possible applications of such materials, in connection with field enhancement and super resolution nanoscopy.