Actively Tunable Polar-Dielectric Optical Devices
AssigneeThe Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsJames Peter Long, Joshua D. Caldwell, Jeffrey C. Owrutsky, Orest J. Glembocki
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Abstract
Optical devices that include one or more structures fabricated from polar-dielectric materials that exhibit surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs), where the SPhPs alter the optical properties of the structure. The optical properties lent to these structures by the SPhPs are altered by introducing charge carriers directly into the structures. The carriers can be introduced into these structures, and the carrier concentration thereby controlled, through optical pumping or the application of an appropriate electrical bias.
Claims10
An actively tunable polar-dielectric optical device, comprising:
- a plurality of local surface phonon-polariton (LSPhP) resonators situated on a substrate and a source of heat energy configured to heat the LSPhP resonators, the LSPhP resonators being fabricated from a polar-dielectric material configured to thermally excite LSPhPs that will emit photons when the material is raised to a higher temperature than its surroundings by the source of heat energy, a value of a thermal emission spectrum of the polar-dielectric material being dependent on a concentration of charge carriers in the polar-dielectric materials;
- and
- a controllable source of charge carriers coupled to the polar-dielectric materials;
- wherein the thermal emission spectrum from at least some of the LSPhP resonators can be actively tuned by controllably injecting charge carriers from the charge carrier source directly into the at least some of the resonators.
An actively tunable polar-dielectric optical device, comprising:
- at least one polar-dielectric structure fabricated from a polar-dielectric metamaterial configured to exhibit surface polar phonon polaritons (SPhPs) affecting at least one optical property of the device when the metamaterial is subjected to an external stimulation, a value of the at least one optical property of the structure being dependent on a concentration of charge carriers in the metamaterial;
- and
- a source of charge carriers controllably coupled to the device;
- wherein the value of the at least one optical property is actively tuned by controllably injecting charge carriers from the charge carrier source directly into the polar-dielectric device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.