All-optical control of semiconductor nanostructure scattering/absorption via photothermal effect

The recent evolution of semiconductor nanodevices, including nanoresonators and metasurfaces, has provided active tunability of optical functionality by efficiently utilizing various mechanisms such as mechanical deformation, carrier concentration modulation, and a tunable liquid crystal medium. Among these ideas, thermally induced nonlinear light–matter interaction holds great potential to realize all-optical control of signal intensity with exceptionally large modulation depth. Here, we review recent innovations on all-optical photothermal control of resonant semiconductor nanophotonics devices by using pulse-excited transient modulation, the thermo-optic effect under continuous wave laser excitation, and chalcogenide phase change materials.