Manifestation of the spontaneous parity-time symmetry breaking phase transition in hot-electron photodetection based on a tri-layered metamaterial

Nanophotonics

article

Qiang Bai¹ 

[1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University

关键词: parity-time symmetry;    phase transition;    hot electron;    metamaterial;    photodetection;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2018-0207

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

We theoretically and numerically demonstrate that the spontaneous parity-time (PT) symmetry breaking phase transition can be realized respectively by using two independent tuning ways in a tri-layered metamaterial that consists of periodic array of metal-semiconductor Schottky junctions. The existence conditions of PT symmetry and its phase transition are obtained by using a theoretical model based on the coupled mode theory. A hot-electron photodetection based on the same tri-layered metamaterial is proposed, which can directly show the spontaneous PT symmetry breaking phase transition in photocurrent and possesses dynamical tunability and switchability. This work extends the concept of PT symmetry into the hot-electron photodetection, enriches the functionality of the metamaterial and the hot-electron device, and has varieties of potential and important applications in optoelectronics, photodetection, photovoltaics, and photocatalytics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY