4.8 Article

Harnessing structural darkness in the visible and infrared wavelengths for a new source of light

Journal

NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages 60-+

Publisher

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2015.228

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Funding

  1. Kaust
  2. [CRG-1-2012-FRA-005]

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Engineering broadband light absorbers is crucial to many applications, including energy-harvesting devices and optical interconnects. The performances of an ideal absorber are that of a black body, a dark material that absorbs radiation at all angles and polarizations. Despite advances in micrometre-thick films, the absorbers available to date are still far from an ideal black body. Here, we describe a disordered nanostructured material that shows an almost ideal black-body absorption of 98-99% between 400 and 1,400 nm that is insensitive to the angle and polarization of the incident light. The material comprises nanoparticles composed of a nanorod with a nanosphere of 30 nm diameter attached. When diluted into liquids, a small concentration of nanoparticles absorbs on average 26% more than carbon nanotubes, the darkest material available to date. By pumping a dye optical amplifier with nanosecond pulses of similar to 100 mW power, we harness the structural darkness of the material and create a new type of light source, which generates monochromatic emission (similar to 5 nm wide) without the need for any resonance. This is achieved through the dynamics of light condensation in which all absorbed electromagnetic energy spontaneously generates single-colour energy pulses.

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