Controlling ultrafast light with dispersive metamaterials

Because metamaterials often utilize strong resonances, a strong group delay dispersion (GDD) is also possible. This property is an important parameter for ultrafast laser pulse propagation. The Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan (MIIPS) technique was used to measure the GDD directly over the bandwidth of an ultrafast laser. The measured GDD of a double-chirped dielectric mirror with a strong resonance was an order of magnitude larger than that of a dispersive optical glass three orders of magnitude thicker and was shown to be highly wavelength dependent. The impact of the measured dispersion of this dielectric mirror was explored computationally and the impact on pulse shape of ultrashort pulses of light with a bandwidth comparable to the wavelength-dependent features of the GDD is shown.