Antimony thin films demonstrate programmable optical nonlinearity

Members of Professor Harish Bhaskaran's Advanced Nanoscale Engineering Group, along with those working with Professor Martin Booth in the Department of Engineering, have demonstrated for the first time that nanoscale films of a pure metal, Antimony (Sb) can exist in two optically distinguishable states at room temperature, and can then also be programmed with both electrical signals and optical sub-picosecond pulses.

Such switching of a single-metallic element between two highly distinguishable, stable optical states at room temperature provides an immediately applicable material for nanoscale devices.

The research was curated by two undergraduate students; Samuel Humphrey and Tara Milne.

The full paper can be read in Science Advances.