Sort:
Open Access Research Article Issue
Polarization-controlled tri-state optical modulation in Au–ITO heterostructured metasurfaces via plasmon-induced hot electron injection
Nano Research 2026, 19(2): 94908336
Published: 23 January 2026
Abstract PDF (13.2 MB) Collect
Downloads:88

Metal-semiconductor plasmonic metasurfaces enable precise optical field manipulation at the subwavelength scale; however, most existing designs rely on external fields and exhibit only binary responses, thereby restricting the realization of multistate logic operations. Here, we present an in-situ polarization-controlled approach based on an Au–indium tin oxide (ITO) bilayer nanocrescent with a Schottky heterojunction for achieving polarization-dependent tristate optical modulation. Polarization-selective excitation of distinct localized plasmon modes facilitates directional hot-electron injection across the Au–ITO interface, thereby producing three distinct programmable states—positive, zero, and negative—at a single detection wavelength. This symmetric bilayer design is applicable to other metal-semiconductor composites and offers generalizable design principles for ternary logic, multistate optical encoding, and ultrafast photonic information processing. The proposed concept is validated through both experimental measurements and numerical simulations.

Total 1