Ortwin Hess

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Ortwin Hess
Born1966
Alma mater Technical University of Berlin
University of Erlangen
Scientific career
Institutions Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Stanford University
Tampere University of Technology
University of Edinburgh
University of Marburg
University of Stuttgart
Website www.imperial.ac.uk/people/o.hess

Ortwin Hess (born 1966) is a German-born theoretical physicist at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Imperial College London (UK), working in condensed matter optics. Bridging condensed matter theory and quantum optics he specialises in quantum nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials and semiconductor laser dynamics. Since the late 1980s he has been an author and coauthor of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, the most popular of which, called "'Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials", was cited more than 400 times. He pioneered active (gain enhanced) nanoplasmonics and metamaterials with quantum gain and in 2014 he introduced the "stopped-light lasing" principle as a novel route to cavity-free (nano-) lasing and localisation of amplified surface plasmon polaritons, giving him an h-index of 33. [1]

Contents

Early life

Hess is a graduate of the University of Erlangen and Technical University of Berlin. From 1995 to 2003 he was post-doc at both Edinburgh and Marburg Universities following by becoming faculty staff at the Institute of Technical Physics in Stuttgart, Germany in 1997. In 1998 he became adjunct professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Stuttgart and subsequently also became Docent of Photonics at the Finnish Tampere University of Technology. From 1997 to 1998 he was visiting professor at Stanford University and in 1999/2000 visiting professor at the University of Munich. [2] In July 2012 he was a visiting professor from Abbe School of Photonics. Hess currently holds the Leverhulme Chair in Metamaterials at London's Imperial College and is co-director of the Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials. [3]

Research

Investigating slow light in metamaterials Hess has discovered and explained the ‘trapped-rainbow’ principle [4] by which the constituent colours of a light pulse are brought to a complete stand-still at different points inside a metamaterial (or plasmonic) heterostructre. He pioneered active metamaterials [5] with quantum gain, [6] developed the theory for optical chirality in self-organised nanoplasmonic metamaterials [7] [8] and recently introduced ‘stopped-light lasing’ [9] as a novel route to cavity-free nanolasing and localisation of amplified surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) that is reminiscent of SPP-condensation.

Interest in the field of ‘slow’ and ‘stopped’ light arises from the prospect of obtaining much better control over light signals, with extremely nonlinear effects in interactions between light and matter, and optical quantum memories facilitating new architectures to process quantum information. [10] With conventional dielectric materials, having a positive refractive index, it is impossible to ‘stop’ travelling light signals completely, not least because of the presence of structural disorder. [10] This was an important observation, which Hess made from his extensive studies of slow light in semiconductor quantum dots [11] [12] and the dynamics of their spontaneous emission close to the stopped-light point in photonic crystals. [13] Hess showed theoretically that a way to overcome this fundamental limitation of conventional media was to use nanoplasmonic waveguide structures. [9] [10]

Hess has also made contributions to spatiotemporal and nonlinear dynamics in semiconductor lasers [12] [14] [15] [16] and research in computational photonics. Algorithms and codes developed in his group run on high-performance parallel computers and have been used to elucidate a rich variety of aspects of modern nano-physics ranging from the definition of temperature in nanoscale systems, [17] to optimisation of ultrashort pulses in experimentally realised quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers. [12] Since 2011, Hess developed the theory of optical activity in chiral nanoplasmonic metamaterials [8] that provided explanation of experiments on tunability in self-organised gold metamaterials. [7]

Recently Hess has started to develop "meta-lasers" and proposed "stopped-light nanolasing". This exploits and unites his competence in nanoplasmonic metamaterials, quantum photonics and semiconductor lasers. Initially the motivation for the work was to compensate dissipative losses in metamaterials by introducing gain. [18] But now, one aims at realising a new class of ultrafast ‘stopped-light nanolasers’, with unprecedented design features such as being smaller than a fifth of the wavelength and ultrafast and providing a platform to integrate both light and amplified plasmons, [9] [10] to enable integration at the nanoscale with semiconductor chips for telecommunications.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plasmon</span> Quasiparticle of charge oscillations in condensed matter

In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantization of plasma oscillations, just like phonons are quantizations of mechanical vibrations. Thus, plasmons are collective oscillations of the free electron gas density. For example, at optical frequencies, plasmons can couple with a photon to create another quasiparticle called a plasmon polariton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metamaterial</span> Materials engineered to have properties that have not yet been found in nature

A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is rarely observed in naturally occurring materials. They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence. Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their newly designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.

Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. It often involves dielectric structures such as nanoantennas, or metallic components, which can transport and focus light via surface plasmon polaritons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surface plasmon</span>

Surface plasmons (SPs) are coherent delocalized electron oscillations that exist at the interface between any two materials where the real part of the dielectric function changes sign across the interface. SPs have lower energy than bulk plasmons which quantise the longitudinal electron oscillations about positive ion cores within the bulk of an electron gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Shalaev</span> American optical physicist

Vladimir (Vlad) M. Shalaev is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Scientific Director for Nanophotonics at Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University.

A spaser or plasmonic laser is a type of laser which aims to confine light at a subwavelength scale far below Rayleigh's diffraction limit of light, by storing some of the light energy in electron oscillations called surface plasmon polaritons. The phenomenon was first described by David J. Bergman and Mark Stockman in 2003. The word spaser is an acronym for "surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The first such devices were announced in 2009 by three groups: a 44-nanometer-diameter nanoparticle with a gold core surrounded by a dyed silica gain medium created by researchers from Purdue, Norfolk State and Cornell universities, a nanowire on a silver screen by a Berkeley group, and a semiconductor layer of 90 nm surrounded by silver pumped electrically by groups at the Eindhoven University of Technology and at Arizona State University. While the Purdue-Norfolk State-Cornell team demonstrated the confined plasmonic mode, the Berkeley team and the Eindhoven-Arizona State team demonstrated lasing in the so-called plasmonic gap mode. In 2018, a team from Northwestern University demonstrated a tunable nanolaser that can preserve its high mode quality by exploiting hybrid quadrupole plasmons as an optical feedback mechanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terahertz metamaterial</span>

A terahertz metamaterial is a class of composite metamaterials designed to interact at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The terahertz frequency range used in materials research is usually defined as 0.1 to 10 THz.

A nanolaser is a laser that has nanoscale dimensions and it refers to a micro-/nano- device which can emit light with light or electric excitation of nanowires or other nanomaterials that serve as resonators. A standard feature of nanolasers includes their light confinement on a scale approaching or suppressing the diffraction limit of light. These tiny lasers can be modulated quickly and, combined with their small footprint, this makes them ideal candidates for on-chip optical computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonic metamaterial</span> Type of electromagnetic metamaterial

A photonic metamaterial (PM), also known as an optical metamaterial, is a type of electromagnetic metamaterial, that interacts with light, covering terahertz (THz), infrared (IR) or visible wavelengths. The materials employ a periodic, cellular structure.

A metamaterial absorber is a type of metamaterial intended to efficiently absorb electromagnetic radiation such as light. Furthermore, metamaterials are an advance in materials science. Hence, those metamaterials that are designed to be absorbers offer benefits over conventional absorbers such as further miniaturization, wider adaptability, and increased effectiveness. Intended applications for the metamaterial absorber include emitters, photodetectors, sensors, spatial light modulators, infrared camouflage, wireless communication, and use in solar photovoltaics and thermophotovoltaics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surface plasmon polariton</span> Electromagnetic waves that travel along an interface

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic waves that travel along a metal–dielectric or metal–air interface, practically in the infrared or visible-frequency. The term "surface plasmon polariton" explains that the wave involves both charge motion in the metal and electromagnetic waves in the air or dielectric ("polariton").

A plasmonic metamaterial is a metamaterial that uses surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature. Plasmons are produced from the interaction of light with metal-dielectric materials. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Once launched, the SPPs ripple along the metal-dielectric interface. Compared with the incident light, the SPPs can be much shorter in wavelength.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Localized surface plasmon</span>

A localized surface plasmon (LSP) is the result of the confinement of a surface plasmon in a nanoparticle of size comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light used to excite the plasmon. When a small spherical metallic nanoparticle is irradiated by light, the oscillating electric field causes the conduction electrons to oscillate coherently. When the electron cloud is displaced relative to its original position, a restoring force arises from Coulombic attraction between electrons and nuclei. This force causes the electron cloud to oscillate. The oscillation frequency is determined by the density of electrons, the effective electron mass, and the size and shape of the charge distribution. The LSP has two important effects: electric fields near the particle's surface are greatly enhanced and the particle's optical absorption has a maximum at the plasmon resonant frequency. Surface plasmon resonance can also be tuned based on the shape of the nanoparticle. The plasmon frequency can be related to the metal dielectric constant. The enhancement falls off quickly with distance from the surface and, for noble metal nanoparticles, the resonance occurs at visible wavelengths. Localized surface plasmon resonance creates brilliant colors in metal colloidal solutions.

Photonic molecules are a form of matter in which photons bind together to form "molecules". They were first predicted in 2007. Photonic molecules are formed when individual (massless) photons "interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass". In an alternative definition, photons confined to two or more coupled optical cavities also reproduce the physics of interacting atomic energy levels, and have been termed as photonic molecules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid plasmonic waveguide</span>

A hybrid plasmonic waveguide is an optical waveguide that achieves strong light confinement by coupling the light guided by a dielectric waveguide and a plasmonic waveguide. It is formed by separating a medium of high refractive index from a metal surface by a small gap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plasmonics</span>

Plasmonics or nanoplasmonics refers to the generation, detection, and manipulation of signals at optical frequencies along metal-dielectric interfaces in the nanometer scale. Inspired by photonics, plasmonics follows the trend of miniaturizing optical devices, and finds applications in sensing, microscopy, optical communications, and bio-photonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanowire lasers</span>

Semiconductor nanowire lasers are nano-scaled lasers that can be embedded on chips and constitute an advance for computing and information processing applications. Nanowire lasers are coherent light sources as any other laser device, with the advantage of operating at the nanoscale. Built by molecular beam epitaxy, nanowire lasers offer the possibility for direct integration on silicon, and the construction of optical interconnects and data communication at the chip scale. Nanowire lasers are built from III–V semiconductor heterostructures. Their unique 1D configuration and high refractive index allow for low optical loss and recirculation in the active nanowire core region. This enables subwavelength laser sizes of only a few hundred nanometers. Nanowires are Fabry–Perot resonator cavities defined by the end facets of the wire, therefore they do not require polishing or cleaving for high-reflectivity facets as in conventional lasers.

Spoof surface plasmons, also known as spoof surface plasmon polaritons and designer surface plasmons, are surface electromagnetic waves in microwave and terahertz regimes that propagate along planar interfaces with sign-changing permittivities. Spoof surface plasmons are a type of surface plasmon polariton, which ordinarily propagate along metal and dielectric interfaces in infrared and visible frequencies. Since surface plasmon polaritons cannot exist naturally in microwave and terahertz frequencies due to dispersion properties of metals, spoof surface plasmons necessitate the use of artificially-engineered metamaterials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Päivi Törmä</span> Finnish professor of physics

Päivi Törmä is a Finnish physics professor at Aalto University. She works in the fields of quantum many-body physics, superconductivity, and nanophotonics.

Mark Stockman was a Soviet-born American physicist. He was a professor of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University. Best known for his contributions to plasmonics, Stockman has co-theorized plasmonic lasers, also known as spasers, in 2003.

References

  1. ↑ "Ortwin Hess". Google Scholar . Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Professor Ortwin Hess". University of Surrey. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ortwin Hess". Abbe School of Photonics. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  4. ↑ Tsakmakidis, K. L.; Boardman, A. D.; Hess, O. (2007). "'Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials". Nature . 450 (7168): 397–401. Bibcode:2007Natur.450..397T. doi:10.1038/nature06285. PMID   18004380. S2CID   34711078.
  5. ↑ Hess, O.; Pendry, J. B.; Maier, S. A.; Oulton, R.; et al. (2012). "Active nanoplasmonic metamaterials". Nature Materials . 11 (7): 573–584. Bibcode:2012NatMa..11..573H. doi:10.1038/nmat3356. PMID   22717488.
  6. ↑ Hess, O.; Tsakmakidis, K. L. (2013). "Metamaterials with Quantum Gain". Science . 339 (6120): 654–655. Bibcode:2013Sci...339..654H. doi:10.1126/science.1231254. PMID   23393252. S2CID   206545802.
  7. 1 2 Salvatore, S.; Demetriadou, A.; Vignolini, S.; Oh S. S.; et al. (2013). "Tunable 3D Extended Self-Assembled Gold Metamaterials with Enhanced Light Transmission". Adv. Mater. 25 (19): 2713–2716. Bibcode:2013AdM....25.2713S. doi: 10.1002/adma.201300193 . PMID   23553887. S2CID   40084235.
  8. 1 2 Oh, S. S.; Demetriadou, A.; Wuestner, S.; Hess, O. (2012). "On the Origin of Chirality in Nanoplasmonic Gyroid Metamaterials". Adv. Mater. 25 (4): 612–617. doi:10.1002/adma.201202788. PMID   23108851. S2CID   33216292.
  9. 1 2 3 Pickering, T.; Hamm, J. M.; Page, A. F.; Wuestner, S.; et al. (2014). "Cavity-free plasmonic nanolasing enabled by dispersionless stoopped light". Nature Communications . 5 (4972): 4972. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.4972P. doi:10.1038/ncomms5972. PMC   4199200 . PMID   25230337.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Tsakmakidis, K. L.; Pickering, T. W.; Hamm, J. M.; Page, A. F.; et al. (2014). "Completely Stopped and Dispersionless Light in Plasmonic Waveguides" (PDF). Physical Review Letters . 112 (167401): 167401. Bibcode:2014PhRvL.112p7401T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.167401. hdl: 10044/1/19446 . PMID   24815668.
  11. ↑ Hess, O.; Gehrig E. (2011). "Photonics of Quantum Dot Nanomaterials and Devices: Theory and Modelling". London: Imperial College Press.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. 1 2 3 Gehrig, E.; van der Poel, M.; Mork, J.; Hvam, J. M.; et al. (2006). "Dynamic spatiotemporal speed control of ultrashort pulses in quantum-dot SOAs" (PDF). IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 42 (9–10): 1047–1054. Bibcode:2006IJQE...42.1047G. doi:10.1109/JQE.2006.881632. S2CID   114706.
  13. ↑ Hermann, C.; Hess, O. (2002). "Modified spontaneous-emission rate in an inverted-opal structure with complete photonic bandgap". J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 19 (3013): 3013. Bibcode:2002JOSAB..19.3013H. doi:10.1364/JOSAB.19.003013.
  14. ↑ Hartmann, M.; Mahler, G.; Hess, O. (2004). "Existence of temperature on the nanoscale". Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (80402): 080402. arXiv: quant-ph/0312214 . Bibcode:2004PhRvL..93h0402H. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.080402. PMID   15447159. S2CID   8052791.
  15. ↑ Fischer, I.; Hess, O.; Elsasser, W.; Goebel, E. (1994). "High-dimensional chaotic dynamics in an external-cavity semiconductor laser". Phys. Rev. Lett. 73 (2188): 2188–2191. Bibcode:1994PhRvL..73.2188F. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.42.7188 . doi:10.1103/physrevlett.73.2188. PMID   10056995.
  16. ↑ Gehrig, E.; Hess, O. (2003). "Spatio-Temporal Dynamics and Quantum Fluctuations of Semiconductor Lasers". Springer Tracts in Modern Physics. Berlin: Springer-Verlang. 189. Bibcode:2003STMP..189.....H. doi:10.1007/b13584. ISBN   978-3-540-00741-8.
  17. ↑ Hartmann, M.; Mahler, G.; Hess, O. (2004). "Existence of temperature on the nanoscale". Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (80402): 080402. arXiv: quant-ph/0312214 . Bibcode:2004PhRvL..93h0402H. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.080402. PMID   15447159. S2CID   8052791.
  18. ↑ Wuestner, S.; Pusch, A.; Tsakmakidis, K. L.; Hamm, J. M.; et al. (2011). "Gain and plasmon dynamics in negative-index metamaterials". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A . 369 (1950): 3144–3550. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2011.0140 . hdl: 10044/1/10160 . PMID   21807726.
  1. Hamm, J. M., & Hess, O. (2013). Two Two-Dimensional Materials are Better Than One, Science 340, 1298–1299.
  2. Pusch, A., Wuestner, S., Hamm, J. M., Tsakmakidis, K. L., & Hess, O. (2012). Coherent Amplification and Noise in Gain-Enhanced Nanoplasmonic Metamaterials: A Maxwell-Bloch Langevin Approach. ACS Nano, 6, 2420–2431.
  3. Hamm, J. M., Wuestner, S., Tsakmakidis, K. L., & Hess, O. (2011). Theory of light amplification in active fishnet metamaterials. Phys Rev Lett, 107, 167405.
  4. Wuestner, S., Pusch, A., Tsakmakidis, K. L., Hamm, J. M., & Hess, O. (2010). Overcoming losses with gain in a negative refractive index metamaterial. Phys Rev Lett, 105, 127401.
  5. Hess, O. (2008). Optics: Farewell to flatland. Nature, 455, 299–300.
  6. Bohringer, K., & Hess, O. (2008). A full-time-domain approach to spatio-temporal dynamics of semiconductor lasers. I. Theoretical formulation. Prog Quant Electron, 32, 159–246.
  7. Ruhl, T., Spahn, P., Hermann, C., Jamois, C., & Hess, O. (2006). Double-inverse-opal photonic crystals: The route to photonic bandgap switching. Adv Funct Materials, 16, 885.
  8. Gehrig, E., Hess, O., Ribbat, C., Sellin, R. L., & Bimberg, D. (2004). Dynamic filamentation and beam quality of quantum-dot lasers. Appl Phys Lett, 84, 1650.
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