We investigate the pulsed laser-induced damage performance and optoelectronic properties (at wavelength ~ 1 µm) of model nanophotonic thin films including gold, indium tin oxide, and alternative refractory materials such as titanium nitride and titanium oxynitride. We find that gold exhibits the best laser damage resistance compared to other plasmonic films of comparable thicknesses. We show that large absorption losses arising from high carrier concentrations and low mobilities in alternative plasmonic thin films, lead to exacerbated degradation and poorer laser damage performance. We will also present advanced strategies for engineering damage resistance and optical performance of nanophotonic thin films for high laser power applications.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-ABS-XXXXXX. LLNL-ABS-834545
Directed propulsion of lightsails to relativistic speeds by laser radiation pressure demands for passive stabilization, which can be achieved with subwavelength metasurface elements. Our tailored nanophotonic design based on silicon nitride is predicted to give rise to restoring forces and torques upon small perturbations in its dynamics. By measuring the angles and intensities of the diffracted orders, we infer the light-induced pressures on our lightsail prototype. Using Michelson interferometry and laser deflection spectroscopy, we can directly observe the dynamical stability of spring-supported suspended membrane designs. Our results pave the way for lab-scale experiments on optical manipulation of microscopic lightsails.
Active metasurfaces represent a new class of flat optical elements, which can dynamically control the wavefront of the reflected or transmitted light at a subwavelength scale. Here, we theoretically investigate thermal performance of gate-tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces, which are illuminated with high-power laser beams (~kW/cm2). We develop strategies to mitigate and limit temperature increase of our active metasurfaces. To anchor our approach, we experimentally investigate the short pulse laser-induced damage of thin gold, indium tin oxide, and titanium nitride films. Our analysis reveals that our metasurfaces can support irradiances necessary for free space optical communication or light detection and ranging applications.
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