Polariton excitation in epsilon-near-zero slabs: transient trapping of slow light

Abstract

We numerically investigate the propagation of a spatially localized and quasi-monochromatic electromagnetic pulse through a slab with Lorentz dielectric response in the epsilon-near-zero regime, where the real part of the permittivity vanishes at the pulse carrier frequency. We show that the pulse is able to excite a set of virtual polariton modes supported by the slab, the excitation undergoing a generally slow damping due to absorption and radiation leakage. Our numerical and analytical approaches indicate that in its transient dynamics the electromagnetic field displays the very same enhancement of the field component perpendicular to the slab, as in the monochromatic regime. The transient trapping is inherently accompanied by a significantly reduced group velocity ensuing from the small dielectric permittivity, thus providing a novel platform for achieving control and manipulation of slow light.

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• Waveguide Modes in Weyl Semimetals with Tilted Dirac Cones
• Bound States in Continuum and Zero-Index Metamaterials: A Review
• Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov Shifts for Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials
• All-optical modulation in wavelength-sized epsilon-near-zero media
• Strongly confined Mid-infrared to Terahertz Phonon Polaritons in Ultra-thin SrTiO3
• Leveraging Epsilon Near Zero phenomena for on-chip photonic modulation
• Unlocking the full potential of wave-matter nonlinear coupling in the epsilon-near-zero regime