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Light-Induced Structural Phase Transition in Confining Gallium and Associated Gigantic Optical Nonlinearity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

V. Albanis ,
S. Dhanjal ,
V. Emelyanov ,
P. Petropoulos ,
D. J. Richardson  and
N. I. Zheludev
V. Albanis
Affiliation:
Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK, n.i.zheludev@soton. ac.uk
S. Dhanjal
Affiliation:
Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK, n.i.zheludev@soton. ac.uk
V. Emelyanov
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119899, Russia.
P. Petropoulos
Affiliation:
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
D. J. Richardson
Affiliation:
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
N. I. Zheludev
Affiliation:
Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK, n.i.zheludev@soton. ac.uk
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Abstract

We report a light-induced, surface-assisted structural phase transition from a common orthorhombic phase of crystalline gallium (α-gallium) to a highly reflective, metastable phase of more ‘metallic’ nature. The transition has been observed at the interface of gallium with fused silica at temperatures just below the metal's bulk melting point and affects only several tens of gallium atomic layers. The transition is fully reversible and occurs on a nanosecond/microsecond time scale. The transition appears to show some characteristic features of a second order structural phase transition, including an increase of the transition relaxation times at the critical temperature (of approximately 30°C). The transition has no apparent optical intensity threshold, and is induced by radiation of very low intensity of only 10−4 − 10−5 W/μm2. The two gallium phases involved in the phase transition have significantly different dielectric properties which gives rise to a gigantic cubic optical nonlinearity, χ(3) ∼ 1 esu. The transition can be stimulated by light at any wavelength in the visible and the infrared ranges out to at least 1.55μm. The effect is therefore of great interest for applications requiring light by light control at milliwatt power levels.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 543: Symposium W – Dynamics in Small Confining Systems IV , 1998 , 275
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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References

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