In this work, the kinetics of photoinduced changes in sputtered ternary Ge29Sb8Se63 chalcogenide thin films with different thicknesses is studied. The optical bandgap energy of virgin thin films is 1.87±0.02 eV and the refractive index at 1 550 nm is 2.55±0.01 as determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry using Cody-Lorentz oscillator model. An annealing treatment caused bleaching of thin films resulting in optical bandgap energy increase to 1.96±0.02 eV accompanied with refractive index decrease down to 2.54±0.01. Subsequently, the photoinduced shift of the absorption edge was determined by the analysis of transmission data obtained by fibre-coupled high-resolution spectrometer. The irradiation of virgin thin films by near-bandgap light coming from continuous-wave diode-pumped solid-state laser leads to a fast photodarkening (PD) followed by slow photobleaching (PB) effect. The PB effect persists in virgin films and the maximum magnitude of this effect was found in film with the thickness of ~ 350 nm. Rise of the optical bandgap energy was ~ 0.04±0.02 eV using optical intensity of 125.0±5.0 mW ∙ cm−2. On the other hand, in annealed thin films, only PD occurs under the same conditions indicating that the PB component of the photoinduced change disappears when the film is annealed. Maximum decrease in optical bandgap energy due to the PD effect in annealed films was about ~ 0.05±0.02 eV found in film with the thickness of ~ 650 nm. An influence of the thickness and laser optical intensity onto the kinetics of photoinduced changes is discussed.
Merging the fields of plasmonics and nonlinear optics authorizes a variety of fascinating and original physical phenomena. In this study, we specifically study the combination of the strong light confinement ability of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) with the beam self-trapping effect that occur in nonlinear optical Kerr medium. Although this idea of plasmon-soliton has been the subject of several theoretical or numerical articles, no experimental evidence has been revealed yet. One reason is that in the proposed configurations the requested nonlinear refractive index change amplitude to generate a plasmon-soliton is too high to be reached in available material. Another limitation is due to the large propagation losses associated with plasmons. In the present study, a proper architecture has been designed and then fabricated allowing the first experimental observation of hybrid coupling between a spatial optical soliton and a SPP in a metal-Kerr dielectric structure.
To be able to trigger the nonlinearity at moderate light power and simultaneously to allow propagation over several millimetres distance, a metal-dielectric structure was designed. It consists of a four-layer planar geometry made of a transparent Kerr dielectric layer placed on a lower refractive index medium, with on its top surface a thin dielectric layer covered by a metallic film deposited on top. The Kerr medium is a 3µm thick chalcogenide film (Ge28.1Sb6.3Se65.6) with a high refractive index deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on an oxidized silicon substrate. The thickness of the thin SiO2 layer is 10 nm while the top gold layer is 30 nm. Samples are about 5-6 mm along propagation direction (z-axis).
As shown by numerical simulations, the designed planar nonlinear waveguide with its top silica and gold layer supports a fundamental TE mode profile at NIR wavelengths whose transverse profile along y (perpendicular to the layers) is not affected by the metal layer while the TM mode is clearly localized near the SiO2-metal-chalcogenide interfaces due to its plasmonic part. The estimated nonlinear parameter γ of the TM mode is nearly three times larger than the TE one. Consequently, in nonlinear regime an enhanced self-focusing effect is expected for this TM wave. Experiments are performed with a tunable optical parametric oscillator emitting 200 fs pulses at 1.55 µm with a repetition rate of 80 MHz. The experimental analysis consists in injecting a typical 4 × 30 μm2 (FWHM in x-y cross section) elliptical laser beam into the waveguide and monitoring the output beam spatial profile evolution versus light power. Different arrangements are tested that unambiguously reveal the plasmon-soliton coupling. For instance, experiments are conducted with and without the metallic layer and for both TE and TM polarizations. In addition, different positions on the sample of the metal part with several lengths chosen between 0.1 to 2mm are tested. Additional experiments are in progress to analyze the beam evolution with near-field scanning microscopy and simulations of the beam propagation in the full structure are developed to reach a better and fully quantitative description of the observed phenomena.
The unique properties of amorphous chalcogenides such as wide transparency in the infrared region, low phonon energy, photosensitivity and high linear and nonlinear refractive index, make them prospective materials for photonics devices. The important question is whether the chalcogenides are stable enough or how the photosensitivity could be exacerbated for demanded applications. Of this view, the Ge-Sb-Se system is undoubtedly an interesting glassy system given the antinomic behavior of germanium and antimony with respect to photosensitivity. The amorphous Ge-Sb-Se thin films were fabricated by a rf-magnetron co-sputtering technique employing the following cathodes: GeSe2, Sb2Se3 and Ge28Sb12Se60. Radio-frequency sputtering is widely used for film fabrication due to its relative simplicity, easy control, and often stoichiometric material transfer from target to substrate. The advantage of this technique is the ability to explore a wide range of chalcogenide film composition by means of adjusting the contribution of each target. This makes the technique considerably effective for the exploration of properties mentioned above. In the present work, the influence of the composition determined by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy on the optical properties was studied. Optical bandgap energy Egopt was determined using variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry. The morphology and topography of the selenide sputtered films was studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The films structure was determined using Raman scattering spectroscopy.
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