Superluminal and stopped light due to mode coupling in confined hyperbolic metamaterial waveguides.

Anisotropic metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion can be used to design waveguides with unusual properties. We show that, in contrast to planar waveguides, geometric confinement leads to coupling of ordinary (forward) and extraordinary (backward) modes and formation of hybrid waveguided modes, which near the crossing point may exhibit slow, stopped or superluminal behavior accompanied by very strong group velocity dispersion. These modes can be used for designing stopped-light nanolasers for nanophotonic applications and dispersion-facilitated signal reshaping in telecom applications.

Eliminating material constraints for nonlinearity with plasmonic metamaterials.

Nonlinear optical materials comprise the foundation of modern photonics, offering functionalities ranging from ultrafast lasers to optical switching, harmonic and soliton generation. Optical nonlinearities are typically strong near the electronic resonances of a material and thus provide limited tuneability for practical use. Here we show that in plasmonic nanorod metamaterials, the Kerr-type nonlinearity is not limited by the nonlinear properties of the constituents.

Ultrafast all-optical modulation with hyperbolic metamaterial integrated in Si photonic circuitry.

The integration of optical metamaterials within silicon integrated photonic circuitry bears significantly potential in the design of low-power, nanoscale footprint, all-optical functionalities. We propose a novel concept and provide detailed analysis of an on-chip ultrafast all-optical modulator based on an hyperbolic metamaterial integrated in a silicon waveguide. The anisotropic metamaterial based on gold nanorods is placed on top of the silicon waveguide to form a modulator with a 300x440x600 nm(3) footprint.