The future of photonic devices involves harnessing non-linear effects, for applications such as frequency upconversion and down-conversion, optical switching, and emission control. To effectively do this, the optical properties of designed material systems are needed. Metamaterials can be fabricated in a layered form to operate in many wavelength bands, and they exhibit strong non-linear effects. To make the layered metamaterial, alternating layers of metal and dielectric were used. Samples were fabricated using physical vapor deposition for the material system ITO-SiO2, with varying layer thicknesses for each sample. First, the linear properties of the samples were measured using variable angle spectral ellipsometry, and then the non-linear properties were measured using the Z-scan technique. The linear results show a good agreement with effective medium theory, which signifies that the metamaterials are suited for computer-aided design. Also, the non-linear results show strong non-linear properties, of n2 = 1 ∗ 1014 cm2/W, and β = 2 ∗ 1010 cm/W, which is larger than many natural materials. This demonstrates the potential for use in non-linear applications.
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