Optical Limiting via Plasmonic Parametric Absorbers

Abstract

Optical sensors are increasingly prevalent devices whose costs tend to increase with their sensitivity. A hike in sensitivity is typically associated with fragility, rendering expensive devices vulnerable to threats of high intensity illumination. These potential costs and even security risks have generated interest in devices that maintain linear transparency under tolerable levels of illumination, but can quickly convert to opaque when a threshold is exceeded. Such a device is deemed an optical limiter. Copious amounts of research have been performed over the last few decades on optical nonlinearities and their efficacy in limiting. This work provides an overview of the existing literature and evaluates the applicability of known limiting materials to threats that vary in both temporal and spectral width. Additionally, we introduce the concept of plasmonic parametric resonance (PPR) and its potential for devising a new limiting material, the plasmonic parametric absorber (PPA). We show that this novel material exhibits a reverse saturable absorption behavior and promises to be an effective tool in the kit of optical limiter design.