Thermo-optic epsilon-near-zero effects

Nonlinear epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) nanodevices featuring vanishing permittivity and CMOS-compatibility are attractive solutions for large-scale-integrated systems-on-chips. Such confined systems with unavoidable heat generation impose critical challenges for semiconductor-based ENZ performances. While their optical properties are temperature-sensitive, there is no systematic analysis on such crucial dependence. Here, we experimentally report the linear and nonlinear thermo-optic ENZ effects in indium tin oxide. We characterize its temperature-dependent optical properties with ENZ frequencies covering the telecommunication O-band, C-band, and 2-μm-band. Depending on the ENZ frequency, it exhibits an unprecedented 70–93-THz-broadband 660–955% enhancement over the conventional thermo-optic effect. The ENZ-induced fast-varying large group velocity dispersion up to 0.03–0.18 fs2nm−1 and its temperature dependence are also observed for the first time. Remarkably, the thermo-optic nonlinearity demonstrates a 1113–2866% enhancement, on par with its reported ENZ-enhanced Kerr nonlinearity. Our work provides references for packaged ENZ-enabled photonic integrated circuit designs, as well as a new platform for nonlinear photonic applications and emulations.