Imagine tiny cubs full of energy. Such fluffy bundles of joy can be potentially realized by nanometer-sized capacitors filled with nonlinear optical materials which beautifully convert incident electromagnetic radiation into electric energy for the benefit of society. An important scientific step towards this goal is the clear identification of the contribution of electro-optic rectification of light to the voltage measured across an illuminated capacitor. A solution to this yet unresolved problem will pave the way for real-world applications of optical rectification devices, e.g., next-generation solar energy harvesters and broad-band photodetectors.

Somayeh Mirzaee and Jean-Michel Nunzi designed a novel experimental methodology to distinguish between the contributions of electro-optic rectification, multiphoton absorption, and thermal excitation to the voltage measured across a tiny capacitor filled with a nanometer-thin gold film and illuminated by 1550-nm laser light. The article reports the observation of photovoltages originating from electro-optical rectification of laser light utilizing bare metal films in capacitor configuration for the first time. This discovery is promising in view of the simplicity of the material and its relevance in electronics manufacturing. The experimental results reported by Mirzaee and Nunzi are exciting because, surprisingly, the analysis identifies the cause of the observed electro-optic rectification of  laser light as electric-field-induced electro-optic rectification (EFIOR), a third-order nonlinear polarization process, instead of the initially expected second-order electro-optic rectification (EOR), the inverse of the electric-optic (or Pockel’s) effect.

---

---

 Add Comment

You must log in to add comments.