Optical Metasurfaces are planar structures that are patterned with subwavelength structures and are very thin compared to the wavelength of light. Despite their thinness, these structured materials can strongly interact with incident light to effect the functionalities of conventional optical components, such as rotation of the polarization state, beam steering, lensing, spectral filtering, and holography, to name a few. Metasurfaces can also facilitate nonlinear optical effects, such as the mixing of beams at different frequencies to generate a beam at a new frequency.
The ability to alter the behavior of a metasurface during operation is highly desired for applications such as computing and sensing, and has been approached in many ways, depending on the spectral range of interest. Graphene holds promise for mid-infrared applications, a region that contains the spectral signatures of many molecules due to their vibrational modes, as well as some atmospheric spectral windows which could prove useful for long-range communications. Graphene’s optical properties are tunable through the application of a voltage and has been demonstrated to have fast electro-optic switching capability (10s of GHz) with the right environment.
In this dissertation, I present work utilizing graphene with patterned gold nanostructures that form a coupled plasmonic system, and which can tune the transmitted light with a modulation of up to 17% at 11.5 m, a region which lies within an atmospheric window. In addition, this system is shown to enable a nonlinear four-wave mixing process that can be electrically turned on and off over a broad range of mid-infrared inputs, with a modulation of the nonlinear output up to 8 times stronger when switched on compared to the “off” state. In principle, the design can be extended to locally shape the wavefront at a subwavelength scale to enable applications such as lensing and holography, both in linear and non-linear operations. This work represents a step towards tunable optical components for the mid-infrared.
","abstract_html":"<p>Optical Metasurfaces are planar structures that are patterned with subwavelength structures and are very thin compared to the wavelength of light. Despite their thinness, these structured materials can strongly interact with incident light to effect the functionalities of conventional optical components, such as rotation of the polarization state, beam steering, lensing, spectral filtering, and holography, to name a few. Metasurfaces can also facilitate nonlinear optical effects, such as the mixing of beams at different frequencies to generate a beam at a new frequency.</p> <p>The ability to alter the behavior of a metasurface during operation is highly desired for applications such as computing and sensing, and has been approached in many ways, depending on the spectral range of interest. Graphene holds promise for mid-infrared applications, a region that contains the spectral signatures of many molecules due to their vibrational modes, as well as some atmospheric spectral windows which could prove useful for long-range communications. Graphene’s optical properties are tunable through the application of a voltage and has been demonstrated to have fast electro-optic switching capability (10s of GHz) with the right environment.</p> <p>In this dissertation, I present work utilizing graphene with patterned gold nanostructures that form a coupled plasmonic system, and which can tune the transmitted light with a modulation of up to 17% at 11.5 m, a region which lies within an atmospheric window. In addition, this system is shown to enable a nonlinear four-wave mixing process that can be electrically turned on and off over a broad range of mid-infrared inputs, with a modulation of the nonlinear output up to 8 times stronger when switched on compared to the “off” state. In principle, the design can be extended to locally shape the wavefront at a subwavelength scale to enable applications such as lensing and holography, both in linear and non-linear operations. This work represents a step towards tunable optical components for the mid-infrared.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Feinstein, Matthew"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Physics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Euclides Almeida"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Timothy Benseman","Gabriele Grosso","Matthew Sfeir","Vinod Menon"],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:04Z","subjects":["Nanoscience and Nanotechnology","Optics","Physics","Mid-infrared","Four-Wave Mixing","Experiment"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5577","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Euclides Almeida"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Timothy Benseman","Gabriele Grosso","Matthew Sfeir","Vinod Menon"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Feinstein, Matthew"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-03-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Physics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Nanoscience and Nanotechnology","Optics","Physics","Mid-infrared","Four-Wave Mixing","Experiment"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5577"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Optical Metasurfaces are planar structures that are patterned with subwavelength structures and are very thin compared to the wavelength of light. Despite their thinness, these structured materials can strongly interact with incident light to effect the functionalities of conventional optical components, such as rotation of the polarization state, beam steering, lensing, spectral filtering, and holography, to name a few. Metasurfaces can also facilitate nonlinear optical effects, such as the mixing of beams at different frequencies to generate a beam at a new frequency.
The ability to alter the behavior of a metasurface during operation is highly desired for applications such as computing and sensing, and has been approached in many ways, depending on the spectral range of interest. Graphene holds promise for mid-infrared applications, a region that contains the spectral signatures of many molecules due to their vibrational modes, as well as some atmospheric spectral windows which could prove useful for long-range communications. Graphene’s optical properties are tunable through the application of a voltage and has been demonstrated to have fast electro-optic switching capability (10s of GHz) with the right environment.
In this dissertation, I present work utilizing graphene with patterned gold nanostructures that form a coupled plasmonic system, and which can tune the transmitted light with a modulation of up to 17% at 11.5 m, a region which lies within an atmospheric window. In addition, this system is shown to enable a nonlinear four-wave mixing process that can be electrically turned on and off over a broad range of mid-infrared inputs, with a modulation of the nonlinear output up to 8 times stronger when switched on compared to the “off” state. In principle, the design can be extended to locally shape the wavefront at a subwavelength scale to enable applications such as lensing and holography, both in linear and non-linear operations. This work represents a step towards tunable optical components for the mid-infrared.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Tunable Linear and Nonlinear Metasurfaces Based on Hybrid Gold-Graphene Plasmons"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Euclides Almeida"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Timothy Benseman","Gabriele Grosso","Matthew Sfeir","Vinod Menon"],"dc:creator":["Feinstein, Matthew"],"dc:date.available":["2024-03-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Optical Metasurfaces are planar structures that are patterned with subwavelength structures and are very thin compared to the wavelength of light. Despite their thinness, these structured materials can strongly interact with incident light to effect the functionalities of conventional optical components, such as rotation of the polarization state, beam steering, lensing, spectral filtering, and holography, to name a few. Metasurfaces can also facilitate nonlinear optical effects, such as the mixing of beams at different frequencies to generate a beam at a new frequency.
The ability to alter the behavior of a metasurface during operation is highly desired for applications such as computing and sensing, and has been approached in many ways, depending on the spectral range of interest. Graphene holds promise for mid-infrared applications, a region that contains the spectral signatures of many molecules due to their vibrational modes, as well as some atmospheric spectral windows which could prove useful for long-range communications. Graphene’s optical properties are tunable through the application of a voltage and has been demonstrated to have fast electro-optic switching capability (10s of GHz) with the right environment.
In this dissertation, I present work utilizing graphene with patterned gold nanostructures that form a coupled plasmonic system, and which can tune the transmitted light with a modulation of up to 17% at 11.5 m, a region which lies within an atmospheric window. In addition, this system is shown to enable a nonlinear four-wave mixing process that can be electrically turned on and off over a broad range of mid-infrared inputs, with a modulation of the nonlinear output up to 8 times stronger when switched on compared to the “off” state. In principle, the design can be extended to locally shape the wavefront at a subwavelength scale to enable applications such as lensing and holography, both in linear and non-linear operations. This work represents a step towards tunable optical components for the mid-infrared.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5577"],"dc:subject":["Nanoscience and Nanotechnology","Optics","Physics","Mid-infrared","Four-Wave Mixing","Experiment"],"dc:title":["Tunable Linear and Nonlinear Metasurfaces Based on Hybrid Gold-Graphene Plasmons"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Physics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:04Z"}