Dynamic switching from coherent perfect absorption to parametric amplification in a nonlinear spoof plasmonic waveguide

Coherent perfect absorption (CPA) and amplification of electromagnetic waves are converse phenomena, where incoming radiations are coherently dissipated or amplified by structured incidences. Realizing such two phenomena simultaneously in a single device may benefit various applications such as biological sensing, photo detection, radar stealth, solar-thermal energy sharing, and wireless communications. However, previous experimental realizations of CPA and amplification generally require precise controls to the loss and gain of a system, making dynamic switching between the absorption and amplification states a challenge. To this end, we propose a nonlinear approach to realize CPA and parametric amplification (PA) simultaneously at the same frequency and demonstrate experimentally dynamic switch from the CPA to PA states in a judiciously designed nonlinear spoof plasmonic waveguide. The measured output signal gain can be continuously tuned from −33 dB to 22 dB in a propagation length of 9.2 wavelengths. Compared to the traditional linear CPA, our approach relaxes the stringent requirements on device dimensions and material losses, opening a new route to actively modulate the electromagnetic waves with giant amplification-to-absorption contrast in a compact platform. The proposed nonlinear plasmonic platform has potential applications in on-chip systems and wireless communications. © The Author(s) 2024.