Intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces for high-contrast ultra-fast power limiting and optical switching
Open accessAbstract
Nonlinear intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces support one of the strongest known ultrafast nonlinear responses in the mid-infrared frequency range across all condensed matter systems. Beyond harmonic generation and frequency mixing, these nonlinearities can be leveraged for ultrafast optical switching and power limiting, based on tailored transitions from strong to weak polaritonic coupling. Here, we demonstrate synergistic optimization of materials and photonic nanostructures to achieve large reflection contrast in ultrafast polaritonic metasurface limiters. The devices are based on optimized semiconductor heterostructure materials that minimize the intersubband transition linewidth and reduce absorption in optically-saturated nanoresonators, achieving a record-high reflection contrast of 54% experimentally. We also discuss opportunities to further boost the metrics of performance of this class of ultrafast limiters, showing that reflection contrast as high as 94% may be realistically achieved using all-dielectric intersubband polaritonic metasurfaces.
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The saturation of SHG conversion efficiency at higher pump powers has previously been observed in plasmonic intersubband metasurfaces and explained by intensity saturation of ISTs.
“this effect has previously been observed in plasmonic intersubband metasurfaces and explained by the intensity saturation of the ISTs [48].”
From Inverse Design of an All-Dielectric Nonlinear Polaritonic Metasurface. (2025) · cites this paper as [48]
The nonlinear-reflection discussion (Fig. 3, page unavailable) describes an ISB transition becoming fully saturated at high intensity. But the paper reports intensity-dependent reflection, not saturation of second-harmonic-generation conversion efficiency. The cited source therefore supports the proposed saturation mechanism in a different optical response, not the claimed SHG observation. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Cited by
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Inverse Design of an All-Dielectric Nonlinear Polaritonic Metasurface.
Stich, S., Mohajan, J., de Ceglia, D., Carletti, L., Jung, H., Karl, N., Brener, I., Rodriguez, A. W., Belkin, M. A., & Sarma, R. (2025) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c16934 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Cotrufo, M., Krakofsky, J. H., Mann, S. A., Boehm, G., Belkin, M. A., & Alù, A.
- Affiliations
- City University of New York (US)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- Corresponding author
- Belkin, Mikhail A.
- Alù, Andrea
- Venue
- npj Nanophotonics
- Published
- 2024-07-01
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2948-216X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4400207627
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2025-03-04)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- npj Nanophotonics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- City University of New York
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (506515587)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Strong Light-Matter Interactions
- Keywords
- intersubband polaritons, optical switching, semiconductor heterostructures, mid-infrared nonlinear optics, dielectric metasurfaces
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