Ultrafast sub‐100 fs all‐optical modulation and efficient third‐harmonic generation in Weyl semimetal niobium phosphide thin films
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Since their experimental discovery in 2015, Weyl semimetals generated a large amount of attention due their intriguing physical properties that arise from their linear electron dispersion relation and topological surface states. In particular in the field of nonlinear (NL) optics and light harvesting, Weyl semimetals have shown outstanding performances and achieved record NL conversion coefficients. In this context, we perform first steps towards Weyl semimetal nanophotonics by thoroughly characterizing the linear and NL optical behavior of epitaxially grown niobium phosphide (NbP) thin films, covering the visible to near-infrared regime of the electromagnetic spectrum. Despite the measured high linear absorption, third-harmonic generation studies demonstrate high conversion efficiencies up to 10-4%, that can be attributed to the topological electron states at the surface of the material. Furthermore, nondegenerate pump-probe measurements with sub-10 fs pulses reveal a maximum modulation depth of about 1%, completely decaying within 100 fs and therefore suggesting the possibility of developing devices based on NbP with all-optical switching bandwidths of up to 10 THz. Altogether, our work reveals promising NL optical properties of Weyl semimetal thin films that are outperforming bulk crystals of the same material, laying the grounds for nanoscale applications, enabled by top-down nanostructuring, such as light-harvesting, on-chip frequency conversion and all-optical processing.
Date Issued
2022-04-14
Date Acceptance
2022-02-01
Citation
Advanced Materials, 2022, 34 (15), pp.1-7
ISSN
0935-9648
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
1
End Page
7
Journal / Book Title
Advanced Materials
Volume
34
Issue
15
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Identifier
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202106733
Grant Number
EP/M013812/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chemistry, Physical
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Chemistry
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Materials Science
Physics
nonlinear optics
pump-probe spectroscopy
thin films
ultrafast optics
Weyl semimetals
3RD HARMONIC-GENERATION
INDIUM TIN OXIDE
NONLINEARITY
Weyl semimetals
nonlinear optics
pump-probe spectroscopy
thin films
ultrafast optics
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
02 Physical Sciences
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-02-16