This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9547, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Invited Panel Discussion, and Conference Committee listing.

We will present the experimental and theoretical studies of the photonic spin-orbit coupling effects facilitated by a nanoparticle near a planar surface. Due to spin-orbit coupling, circularly polarized light of opposite handedness may take different trajectories when interacting with such a system, e.g. impinging on a polarizable particle placed above a metallic surface supporting surface plasmon polaritons or other guided modes. The transverse spin carried by surface plasmons is intimately linked to the polarisation of light after their scattering on nanostructures. Circular polarizations of opposite handedness are radiated into mirror-symmetric directions, dependent on the surface plasmon propagation direction. This spin-orbit coupling effect is an optical analogue of the inverse spin Hall effect and has important implications for optical forces, optical information processing, quantum optical technology and topological surface metrology.

The practical development of quantum plasmonic circuits incorporating non-classical interference [1] and sources of entangled states calls for a versatile quantum theoretical framework which can fully describe the generation and detection of entangled photons and plasmons. However, majority of the presently used theoretical approaches are typically limited to the toy models assuming loss-less and nondispersive elements or including just a few resonant modes. Here, we present a rigorous Green function approach describing entangled photon-plasmon state generation through spontaneous wave mixing in realistic metal-dielectric nanostructures. Our approach is based on the local Huttner-Barnett quantization scheme [2], which enables problem formulation in terms of a Hermitian Hamiltonian where the losses and dispersion are fully encoded in the electromagnetic Green functions. Hence, the problem can be addressed by the standard quantum mechanical perturbation theory, overcoming mathematical difficulties associated with other quantization schemes. We derive explicit expressions with clear physical meaning for the spatially dependent two-photon detection probability, single-photon detection probability and single-photon density matrix. In the limiting case of low-loss nondispersive waveguides our approach reproduces the previous results [3,4]. Importantly, our technique is far more general and can quantitatively describe generation and detection of spatially-entangled photons in arbitrary metal-dielectric structures taking into account actual losses and dispersion. This is essential to perform the design and optimization of plasmonic structures for generation and control of quantum entangled states. [1] J.S. Fakonas, H. Lee, Y.A. Kelaita and H.A. Atwater, Nature Photonics 8, 317(2014) [2] W. Vogel and D.-G. Welsch, Quantum Optics, Wiley (2006). [3] D.A. Antonosyan, A.S. Solntsev and A.A. Sukhorukov, Phys. Rev. A 90 043845 (2014) [4] L.-G. Helt, J.E. Sipe and M.J. Steel, arXiv: 1407.4219

We propose a conceptually novel scheme for generation and beaming of optical angular momentum using plasmonic multilayer nanostructure We calculate the optical modes generated by the structure in near and far-field. Our proposed structure architecture, consisting of a plasmonic vortex lens is shown to convert impinging light to an almost pure and well defined orbital angular momentum state capable of propagating to the far-field.

When an applied magnetic field has an arbitrary direction with respect to the lattice axes of a periodically nano-structured metal-dielectric metamaterial, the macroscopic or bulk effective permittivity tensor becomes anisotropic and all its components can be nonzero. This effect can be especially strong and significant in the vicinity of surface plasmon and cyclotron resonances (the frequencies of which are also sensitive to the value and direction of the applied external magnetic field). A similar effect for the case of dc effective conductivity is already verified experimentally (since magneto-conductivity tensor can be measured directly). However, this prediction for the permittivity has not yet been tested experimentally (since the permittivity tensor cannot be measured directly). What can be measured directly is the Voigt rotation, for which general exact analytical expressions were not published previously. In this work we have studied analytically and numerically the rotation and ellipticity of polarization of the light propagating through a metamaterial film with periodic nanostructure for arbitrary direction of the applied static magnetic field, including both Voigt and Faraday configurations. In the Voigt configuration we found a strong dependence of the above mentioned effects on the direction of the applied magnetic field.

An exact calculation of the local electric field E(r) is described for the case of a monochromatic (∼ e^−iωt) source or incident field in an ∈₁, ∈₂ composite structure. For this purpose we expand the local electric field E(r) in a complete set of eigenstates of the full Maxwell equations. The eigenvalues appear as special, non-physical values of ∈₁ when ∈₂ is given. These eigenstates are then used to write an exact expansion for the physical values of E(r) in the system characterized by physical values of ∈₁(ω) and ∈₂(ω). The application of this approach to the analysis of a Veselago Lens is discussed. In that case the ∈₁ constituent has the shape of a flat slab in the otherwise uniform ∈₂ constituent. The eigenstates of the full Maxwell equations for this structure are easy to find. This will allow an in depth analysis of the Veselago Lens to be developed, including the possibility of attaining an optical image with sub-wavelength resolution

Image potential states are well established surface states of metallic films [1]. For a single metallic nanostructure these surface states can be localized in the near-field arising from illumination by a strong laser field. Thus single metallic nanostructures offer the unique possibility to study quantum systems with both high spatial and ultrafast temporal resolution. Here, we investigate the dynamics of Rydberg states localized to a sharp metallic nanotaper. For this purpose we realized a laser system delivering few-cycle pulses tunable over a wide wavelength range [2]. Pulses from a regenerative titanium:sapphire amplifier generate a white light continuum, from which both a proportion in the visible and in the infrared are amplified in two non-collinear optical parametric amplification (NOPA) stages. Difference frequency generation (DFG) of both stages provides pulses in the near-infrared. With a precisely delayed sequence of few-cycle pulses centered around 600 nm (NOPA#1 output) and 1600 nm (DFG output) we illuminate the apex of a sharply etched gold tip. Varying the delay we observe an exponential decay of photoemitted electrons with a distinctly asymmetric decay length on both sides, indicating the population of different states. Superimposed on the decay is a clearly discernible quantum beat pattern with a period of <50 fs, which arises from the motion of Rydberg photoelectrons bound within their own image potential. These results therefore constitute a step towards controlling single electron wavepackets released from a gold tip opening up fascinating perspectives for applications in ultrafast electron microscopy [3]. [1] Hofer, U. et al. Science 277, 1480 (1997) [2] Vogelsang, J., Robin J. et al. Opt. Express 22, 25295 (2014) [3] Petek, H. et al. ACS Nano 8, 5 (2014)

Plasmon nanolasers, also known as SPASERs, were suggested by Bergman and Stockman in 2003. Quantum plasmonics attract much attention in recent years due to the numerous potential applications in the plasmonics. We consider thermal effects in the metal nanoresonator immersed in the active, laser medium. The size of the resonator is much less than the wavelength. The plasmon field inside the nanoresonator operates as a quantum object. Due to the nanosize of the resonator, the internal plasmon electric field is about the atomic field even for few plasmon quants. The coupling between the plasmon field and plasmon resonator is anomalous strong. We develop the quantum dynamics of the plasmon field and show that the SPASER may be the subject of thermal instability. The loss in SPASER increases with increasing the temperature when the average number of the plasmons is maintained at the stationary level. Therefore, the heat generation increases with increasing the temperature. This positive feedback results in the thermal instability. When the energy, accumulated in the plasmon nanoresonator, exceeds the instability threshold the temperature increases exponentially. We find the increment of the temperature growth and lifetime as function of the loss in metal and the structure of the plasmon resonator. We consider how the thermal instability influences the luminescence and find how the lasing threshold is changed. The coherence of the light emitted by the plasmon laser is also considered. The thermal stability of the nanolaser is crucial for any practical application.

Perhaps the most successful application of plasmonics to date has been in sensing, where the interaction of a nanoscale localized field with analytes leads to high-sensitivity detection in real time and in a label-free fashion. However, all previous designs have been based on passively excited surface plasmons, in which sensitivity is intrinsically limited by the low quality factors induced by metal losses. It has recently been proposed theoretically that surface plasmon sensors with active excitation (gain-enhanced) can achieve much higher sensitivities due to the amplification of the surface plasmons. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an active plasmon sensor that is free of metal losses and operating deep below the diffraction limit for visible light. Loss compensation leads to an intense and sharp lasing emission that is ultrasensitive to adsorbed molecules. We validated the efficacy of our sensor to detect explosives in air under normal conditions and have achieved a sub-part-per-billion detection limit, the lowest reported to date for plasmonic sensors with 2,4-dinitrotoluene and ammonium nitrate. The selectivity between 2,4-dinitrotoluene, ammoniumnitrate and nitrobenzene is on a par with other state-of-the-art explosives detectors. Our results show that monitoring the change of the lasing intensity is a superior method than monitoring the wavelength shift, as is widely used in passive surface plasmon sensors. We therefore envisage that nanoscopic sensors that make use of plasmonic lasing could become an important tool in security screening and biomolecular diagnostics.

Understanding light-matter interactions such as the dynamic response of a metal to incident light is essential for advancing fundamental research and technological applications e.g. designing plasmonic devices such as nanoantenna directional emitters. The near-field response is determined on a length scale that is intrinsically smaller than the optical diffraction limit and so we use electrons to image the near-field distribution. We combine photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) with a variable wavelength laser light source, an optical parametric oscillator (OPO), to perform near-field imaging and spectroscopy of whispering gallery resonator (WGR)1 arrays. These ultrahigh spatially and spectrally resolved measurements show characteristic spectral peaks and near-field mode distributions due to the excitation of different plasmon resonances. Controlling the interference between dipole and quadrupole modes allows us to direct the emission from the nanoantenna. Additionally we perform femtosecond 2-dimensional coherence spectroscopy2 on a microcavity system containing two well separated WGR nanoantennas. Hybridization of a propagating surface plasmon polariton and the localized surface plasmon in a cavity enables energy transfer between the two coupled nanoantennas. [1] E. J. R. Vessseur, F. J. García de Abajo and A. Polman Nano Letters 9 3147 (2009) [2] M. Aeschlimann et al, Science 333, 1723 (2011)

Publisher’s Note: This conference presentation, originally published on 5 October 2015, was withdrawn per author request.

A scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) is a powerful tool to investigate optical effects that are smaller than Abbe’s limit. Its greatest strength is the simultaneous measurement of high-resolution topography and optical nearfield data that can be correlated to each other. However, the resolution of an aperture SNOM is always limited by the probe. It is a technical challenge to fabricate small illumination tips with a well-defined aperture and high transmission. The aperture size and the coating homogeneity will define the optical resolution and the optical image whereas the tip size and shape influence the topographic accuracy. Although the technique has been developing for many years, the correlation between simulated near-field data and measurement is still not convincing. To overcome this challenge, the mapping of near-field plasmonic interactions of silver nanoparticles is investigated. Different nanocluster samples with diverse distributions of silver particles are characterized via SNOM in illumination and collection mode. This will lead to topographical and optical images that can be used as an input for SNOM simulations with the aim of estimating optical artifacts. Including tip, particles, and substrate, our finite-elementmethod (FEM) simulations are based on the realistic geometry. Correlating the high-precision SNOM measurement and the detailed simulation of a full image scan will enable us to draw conclusions regarding near-field enhancements caused by interacting particles.

The plasmonic properties of individual gold nanowires (NW) have been investigated using both two-photon luminescence (2PL) coupled to atomic force microscopy (AFM) and photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) associated to low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) measurements. Using these complementary near-field characterization techniques, comparative studies between wires made either by colloidal chemistry (CC) or by e-beam lithography (EBL) have been undertaken towards a better understanding of the role of the wires crystallinity regarding its optical properties. Considering comparable excitation conditions, we show that wires made by colloidal synthesis exhibits quite similar field enhancement effects ("hot spots") as EBL NW, however their 2PL emission spectrum clearly reveals their crystalline properties.

When a quantum dot is in the vicinity of a metallic nanoparticle and is driven by a laser field, quantum coherence can renormalize the plasmon field of the metallic nanoparticle, forming a coherent-plasmonic field (CP field). We demonstrate that for a given form of variation of this laser field with time, the CP field around the metallic nanoparticle can offer different forms of ultrafast field dynamics, depending on the location. In other words, we show the coherent exciton-plasmon coupling in such a system allows it to act as coherent nanoantenna capable of generation position-dependent coherent-plasmonic dynamics, designating each location around the metallic nanoparticle with characteristic time-position coordinates. These investigations are carried out by demonstrating that the coherent dynamics responsible for these effects can persist in the presence of the ultrafast polarization dephasing of the quantum dots. This highlights the prospect of generation and preservation of quantum coherence effects in hybrid quantum dot-metallic nanoparticle systems at elevated temperatures. Therefore, even when the decoherence times of the quantum dots are of the order of several hundreds of femtoseconds, as observed at room temperature, such coherent dynamics can remain quite distinct and observable.

We study plasmonic nanostructures in single-crystal gold with scanning electron and femtosecond photoemission electron microscopies. We design an integrated laser coupling and nanowire waveguide structure by focused ion beam lithography in single-crystal gold flakes. The photoemission results show that the laser field is efficiently coupled into a propagating surface plasmon by a simple hole structure and propagates efficiently in an adjacent nano-bar waveguide. A strong local field is created by the propagating surface plasmon at the nano-bar tip. A similar structure, with a decreased waveguide width and thickness, displayed significantly more intense photoemission indicating enhanced local electric field at the sharper tip.

A plasmonic chip which is a metal coated substrate with grating structure can provide the enhanced fluorescence by the grating-coupled surface plasmon field. In our previous studies, bright epi-fluorescence microscopic imaging of neuron cells and sensitive immunosesnsing have been reported. In this study, two kinds of breast cancer cells, MCF-7 and MDA-MB231, were observed with epi-fluorescence microscope on the plasmonic chip with 2D hole-arrays . They were multicolor stained with 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and allophycocyanin (APC)-labeled anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody. Our plasmonic chip provided the brighter fluorescence images of these cells compared with the glass slide. Even in the cells including few EpCAM, the distribution of EpCAM was clearly observed in the cell membrane. It was found that the plasmonic chip can be one of the powerful tools to detect the marker protein existing around the chip surface even at low concentration.

We investigate optical properties of wire-bridged plasmonic nanoantennas. Here we found two spectral features: a dipolar plasmon in the visible and a Charge Transfer Plasmon (CTP) in the infrared. The CTP depends sensitively on the conductance of the junction wire, offering a controllable way for tuning the plasmon resonance to the desired wavelength regime via junction geometries. Here we use single-particle dark field spectroscopy from UV, visible to IR to identify plasmonic modes in different spectrum regimes. The simulations using Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method are in good agreement with experiment: Increasing the junction wire width and concurrently the junction conductance blue shifts resonance positions, and simultaneously modifies scattering strengths, the linewidth of CTP and dipolar plasmon. We notice that CTP in a much longer wavelength regime and preserving a narrow line width, an important implication for designing IR plasmons with a high quality factor for enhanced spectroscopy and sensing applications. We also extend the CTP to the IR regime by increasing the wire length to create IR plasmon while keeping the line width of the resonance. Our work offers a way for studying the charge transfer properties in plasmonic nanostructures. Not only it adds another degree in understanding the charge transfer properties in plasmonic nanostructures but also offers an optical platform for studying molecules transport at optical frequencies and related applications.

Nanoporous gold is a very promising and novel material platform for mid-infrared and THz plasmonics. Nanoporous gold can be formed by dealloying of Au–Ag alloys, previously grown by means of Ag-Au co-sputtering. The optical response is completely determined by the nanostructural film features, that depends on the initial alloy composition and on the preparation procedure. The behavior of the material in mid-infrared and its peculiar morphology with a very high surface/volume ratio can be applied for nanostructure fabrication, such for example nanoantennas. Here we report the design and fabrication of nanoporous antennas engineered to support resonances in the 1500-1700 cm^-1 range where them can be exploited, for example, in the detection of protein conformational states. This novel paradigm points toward the development of a new class of efficient and high-selective biosensors.

We develop a new approach for obtaining wide-angle, broadband and efficient reflection holography by utilizing coupled dipole-patch nano-antenna cells to impose an arbitrary phase profile on of the reflected light. The holograms were projected at angles of 45° and 20° with respect to the impinging light with efficiencies ranging between 40%-50% over an optical bandwidth exceeding 180nm. Excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions was found at a wide spectral range. The demonstration of such reflectarrays opens new avenues towards expanding the limits of large angle holography.

A plasmonic cavity composed from metasurface is designed and experimentally demonstrated. Due to the symmetry breaking of the metasurface, the degeneracy of the different polarized cavity states is lifted. It shifts the resonating frequencies of two polarized cavity modes, in which one is blue-shifted and another is red-shifted. Combining with a photothermal effect, we demonstrate that the polarized cavity states can be experimentally tuned by varying the reflection phase of the metasurface through the incident laser intensity. This reported metacavity can be applied in cavity quantum optics, lasers and other light-matter interaction processes.

We study cooperative effects in energy transfer (ET) from an ensemble of donors to an acceptor near a plasmonic nanostructure. We demonstrate that, in the cooperative regime, ET takes place from plasmonic superradiant and subradiant states rather than from individual donors leading to a significant increase in ET efficiency. The cooperative amplification of the ET relies on the large coupling of superradiant states to external fields and on the slow decay rate of subradiant states. We show that superradiant and subradiant ET mechanisms are efficient in different energy domains and, therefore, can be utilized independently. We present numerical results demonstrating the amplification effect for a layer of donors and an acceptor on a spherical plasmonic nanoparticle.

Employing fast response, Cu-doped (K_0.5Na_0.5)0.2(Sr_0.75 Ba_0.25)0.9Nb₂O₆ (KNSBN) crystals in modifying ITO coating to support visible surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to strengthen nonlinearity in KNSBN, we found: (1) a 2 dimensional diffraction pattern was observed with only two writing beams; (2) The reflectivity on the very first surface was changed 2.3%, equivalent to 0.023 refractive index change; (3) 3.0% energy transferring to the reflection on the first surface was measured, resulting unambiguously from energy transferring in subwavelength scale. All these results are consist with our theoretical consideration based on phase grating mediation SPP excitation, which is promising in designing photonic devices.

The second harmonic generations (SHG) from Au nanorods coated with the nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers will be presented. The thin films of the NLO polymers with the different transition frequencies were prepared. The SHG conversion efficiencies were highly enhanced by coating the NLO polymers on the nanorods. The conversion efficiencies were higher, as the transition wavelengths of the NLO polymers were closer either to the pump light wavelength or its second harmonic wavelength. About five-fold enhancement in the conversion efficiency was recorded from the nanorods of which absorption peak was almost exactly resonant to the second harmonic wavelength, comparing with that from the pristine PMMA coated nanorods.

We present a new numerical method for the analysis of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in one- and two-dimensional (1D, 2D) diffraction gratings containing centrosymmetric quadratically nonlinear materials. Thus, the nonlinear optical properties of a material are determined by its symmetry properties: non-centrosymmetric materials lack inversion symmetry and therefore allow local even-order SHG in the bulk of the material, whereas this process is forbidden in centrosymmetric materials. The inversion symmetry of centrosymmetric materials is broken at their surface whence they allow local surface SHG. Additionally, centrosymmetric materials give rise to nonlocal (bulk) SHG. Our numerical method extends the linear generalized source method (GSM), which is an efficient numerical method for solving the problem of linear diffraction in periodic structures of arbitrary geometry. The nonlinear GSM is a three-step algorithm: for a given excitation at the fundamental frequency the linear field is computed using the linear GSM. This field gives rise to a nonlinear source polarization at the second harmonic (SH) frequency. This nonlinear polarization comprises surface and bulk polarizations as additional source terms and is subsequently used to compute the nonlinear near- and far-field optical response at the SH. We study the convergence characteristics of the nonlinear GSM for 1D and 2D periodic structures and emphasize the numerical intricacies caused by the surface SH polarization term specific to centrosymmetric materials. In order to illustrate the practical significance of our numerical method, we apply it to metallic gratings made of Au and Ag as well as dielectric grating structures made of silicon and investigate the relative contribution of the bulk and surface nonlinearity to the nonlinear optical response at the SH. Particular attention is paid to optical effects that have a competing influence to the nonlinear optical response of the grating structures, namely the resonant local field enhancement and optical losses.

The last decade has been characterized by artificial electromagnetic (EM) materials, including photonic crystals (PCs) and photonic quasi-crystals (PQCs), making these very attractive given that there are new possibilities to control the EM field in innovative way. Quasiperiodic crystals (QCs) are a new class of materials that have fascinating optical properties lying somewhere between those of disordered and period structures. With the use of PCs and PQCs, it is possible to synthesize novel artificial structures characterized by selective EM responses, which, in turn, undergo significant frequency shifts, in presence of biological material. In the present work we studied artificial EM nanomaterials to develop innovative plasmonic nanobiosensors based on Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrates and working in the visible and NIR frequency bands. A fabricated gold PQC in a Thue Morse arrangement is proposed for the engineering of reproducible SERS substrates. Structural characterization of this surface is performed by SEM and AFM. Optical properties of this plasmonic nanostructure are evaluated via UV/ Vis absorption spectroscopy and surface–enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Using a molecular monolayer of pMA (p-mercaptoaniline) as a Raman reporter, we show that a high value of SERS enhancement factor (measured up to 1.4 x 10⁷) can be achieved in a properly optimized photonic structure, in good agreement with FDTD calculations. SERS enhancement factor is dependent on the plasmon absorption wavelength and laser wavelength used in these experiments.

Nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) has been applied in various applications of Nanosensors, Raman scattering, color tuning, light harvesting and organic light emitting structures. Due to the small range of donor-acceptor separation distance that NRET is effective, the improvement in energy transfer (ET) efficiency for thicker structures seems necessary. The plasmons resonance energy transfer (PRET) has been successfully employed to improve the NRET efficiency. The conventional plasmonic configuration consists of donor-metal nanostructure-acceptor shows remarkable improvement of PRET efficiency from the excited donor dipole to the acceptor molecule in longer separation distance. We report the first successful cascaded plasmons coupling in planar structure of donor/acceptor thin film that significantly gives rise to enhancement of ET efficiency. Moreover, the theoretical analysis shows an enhancement in induced electric field due to stratified metal-dielectric configuration compared to simple metal thin film. We observed ET efficiency increases more than 100% by applying dielectric layer between two metal films in plasmonic structure.

This work aims to study light-matter interaction at the nanoscale by integrating emitters with plasmonic structures. Our proposed structure consists of metallic nanoprisms in the center of ring diffraction gratings. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are generated by the ring grating which propagate and get focused on the nanoprism tip forming an intense electromagnetic hotspot in the region. FDTD numerical simulations are done to calculate the optimized angle of incidence needed for SPP excitation by the ring grating. Sample fabrication and optical characterization methods are presented to study the coupling between generated SPPs and CdSe quantum dots placed in the center. FDTD simulations as well as experimental observations are done to study the electromagnetic hotspot at the tip of the ring gratingnanoprism structure. This work will be extended further to include the coupling between SPPs and emitters placed in the hotspot which leads to their photoluminescence and lifetime enhancement.

In recent years, one has paid significant attention to plasmonic nanostructures due to their potential for practical applications. Especially, in most plasmonic nanostructures, the local density of optical states is strongly enhanced and confined in the nanogap region – like for example in plasmonic antennas – which results in the so-called electromagnetic hot spots. In this work, we use 4-nanorod structures made with silver to generate and tune Fano resonances exhibiting an asymmetric and narrow lineshape. In such a system, a strongly enhanced electromagnetic field is created in the nanogap when the two antenna modes undergo destructive interference, i.e. at the Fano resonance. The local near field is thus strongly enhanced since most of the energy is not radiated into the far field at that wavelength. We will show that using a 4-nanorod structure in silver, we can easily tune the Fano resonance through the fluorescence spectrum of the molecule under study, thus exploring the different resonance conditions between the molecule absorption/emission bands and the plasmonic nanostructure; both the excitation and emission rates of the molecule can be enhanced when it is placed within the hot spot. To this end, we have developed a double electron beam lithography process to fabricate the plasmonic nanostructures and then selectively immobilize the molecule in the hot spot, in order to investigate the fluorescence enhancement under well-controlled conditions. The fluorescence enhancement is demonstrated by measuring the fluorescence lifetime and the fluorescence count rate. The experimental results are supported by theoretical modelling and numerical calculations with the Green’s tensor method.

Light emission from metal nanoparticles has potential appications as a highly sensitive refractive index detector. In order for this protential to be realized the mechanics of plasmon enhanced photoluminescence (PL) in planar nanoparticle arrays must be understude. We present an experimental exploreation of emission spectra and realitive efficiency of gold PL in nanoplasmonic arrays. We demonstrate tunability of metal PL by nanoparticle size and discover the critical role of near-field interparticle coupling on emission efficiency. We show that direct excition of plasmon resonances by photoexcited electron-hole pairs is the primary contributer to the metalic nanoparticle emission spectrum. We additionally show that emission is quenched by near-field interactions between nanoparticles leading to spectral broading by increased non-radiative plasmon decay. Finally, we show a correlation between plasmon life-time and PL efficiency. We explore this phenominan for both linear and nonlinear PL. Experimental results are supported by numerical simulations of plasmon life-time.

Scattering by plasmon resonances of metallic nanoparticles can be tailored by particle material, size, shape, and local as well as long-range order. In this presentation we discuss a series of experiments in which long-range Fano-type coupling between grating resonances and localized surface palsmon (LSP) resonances were studied using second harmonic excitation (SH-E) spectroscopy. By tuning the excitation wavelength of a femtosecond laser and measuring the relative second harmonic (SH) signal we demonstrated that when long-range grating resonances spectrally overlap with those of the LSPs, electromagnetic field enhancement occurs on the surface of the nanoparticles leading to an increase in nonlinear scattering. This effect has been demonstrated for periodic arrays of monomers and dimers, bi-periodic antenna arrays for multi-spectral focusing to a single point, and chirped nanoparticle structures for broadband field enhancement. Results are supported by finite difference time domain simulations showing that electromagnetic fields are enhanced close on the surface of the nanoparticles when long-range structural resonances are excited. These studies have revealed design principles for engineering the interplay of photonic and plasmonic coupling for future linear and nonlinear plasmonic devices.

Coupled-resonances can be used in applications that include, but are not limited to, surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy (SEIRS), surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), biosensing, and index sensing. Fano resonance in analogue plasmonic systems has been described as the coupling of a bright (superradiant) mode and a dark (subradiant) mode via the near field.Dark and bright mode interactionsareinvestigated with the use of a Fano resonant metamaterial (FRMM) where the metamaterial is a dual nano-slot metasurface on a silicon cavity. The FRMM is numerically simulated using Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). The FRMM is coupled to the carbon double bond in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to demonstrate mode splitting and signal enhancement. Then the dual nano-slot is compared to the complementary dual nano-rod configuration.

In this work, enhancement of the second harmonic response of organic nanofibers deposited on encapsulated and robust plasmonic active substrate is experimentally demonstrated. Organic nanofibers grown from functionalized paraquaterphenylene (CNHP4) molecules have been transferred on lithographically defined regular arrays of gold nanostructures, which subsequently have been coated with thin films of diamond-like carbon with 25, 55 and 100 nm thickness. Femtosecond laser scanning microscopy enables us to identify enhancement of the second harmonic response of the fibers. This is facilitated by a preservation of the field enhancement effects, which appear on the nanostructures and remain significant on top of the coating layer.

We introduce a platform based on plasmonic metamaterials to design various optical devices. A simple structure brokenring with a nanodisk at the center is utilized to excite and hybridize the plasmon resonant modes. We show that the proposed nanoantenna is able to support strong sub- and superradiant plasmon resonances because of its unique geometrical features. Using the concentric ring/disk in a dimer orientation as a nanoantenna on a multilayer metasurface consisting of graphene monolayer, we induced double sharp plasmonic Fano resonant modes in the transmission window across the visible to the near-infrared region. Considering the strong polarization-dependency of the broken-ring/disk dimer antenna, it is shown that the proposed plasmonic metamaterial can be tailored as an optical router device for fast switching applications. This understanding opens new paths to employ plasmonic metamaterials with simple geometrical nanoscale blocks for sensing and switching applications.

All-semiconductor plasmonics gives the opportunity to build new plasmonic structures with embedded resonators of highly doped semiconductor (HDSC) in a matrix of un-doped semiconductor for mid-IR applications. In this work, we report on the excitation of Fano resonances in the mid-infrared range using plasmonic resonators based on HDSC. Using adequate semiconductors, InAsSb and GaSb grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), we have designed the right structure to obtain the expected optical properties. The samples are lattice matched to the GaSb substrate which offers the possibility to integrate the plasmonic resonators at the heart of photonic devices. The embedded nanostructures have been studied by high-resolution transmission electron-microscopy (HR-TEM) to accurately retrieve the geometrical parameters of the resonator. These actual geometrical parameters have then been used to model the optical properties of the HDSC resonators by the FDTD technique and a model based on Fano resonances. Excellent agreement has been achieved between simulation and experiments. We show that it is possible to control the optical properties of the plasmonic resonators by adjusting their geometrical parameters or the doping level of the HDSC. This work demonstrates the possibility to develop all-semiconductor plasmonics for photonic applications in the mid-IR range.

Metallic nanostructures interact strongly with light through surface plasmon modes and many application fields have been proposed during the past decade, including light harvesting, sensing and structural colors. However, their implementation for the industry requires the development of up scalable and cost effective manufacturing processes. The fabrication at wafer scale of plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials using nano imprint lithography is reported. After structuring, the evaporation of various plasmonic materials are performed with a tilt angle with respect to the substrate, which increases the light interactions with the different metallic layers as well as enlarges the design possibilities. A step and repeat process is used to increase further the area of nanostructured surface. The measured optical properties of the fabricated structures show a very good agreement compared to numerical calculations using the rigorous coupled wave analysis. These numerical calculations together which structural characterization, increase the process control and enable the design of the nanostructures for specific applications. In particular, nanostructures with a shape similar to split ring resonators and which support high order plasmonic modes showing Fano resonances are shown to be promising for sensing applications. The structures were designed in such a way to have a strong spectral response in the blue/green region of the visible spectrum. Examples of refractive index sensors and stretch sensors were finally discussed.

Theoretical work has identified a new type of hybrid nanoresonator akin to a loaded-gap antenna, wherein the gap between two collinearly aligned metal nanorods is filled with active dielectric material. The gap optical load has a profound impact on resonances supported by such a “nanogap” antenna, and thus provides opportunity for (i) active modulation of the antenna resonance and (ii) delivery of substantial energy to the gap material. To this end, we have (i) used a bottom-up technique to fabricate nanogap antennas (Au/CdS/Au); (ii) characterized the optical modes of individual antennas with polarization- and wavevector-controlled dark-field microscopy; (iii) mapped the spatial profiles of the dominant modes with electron energy loss spectroscopy and imaging; and (iv) utilized full-wave finite-difference time-domain simulations to reveal the nanoscopic origin of the radiating modes supported on such nanogap antennas. In addition to conventional transverse and longitudinal resonances, these loaded nanogap antennas support a unique symmetry-forbidden gap-localized transverse mode arising from the splitting of degenerate transverse modes located on the two gap faces. This previously unobserved mode is strong (E2 enhanced ~20), tightly localized in the nanoscopic (~30 nm separation) gap region, and is shown to red-shift with decreased gap size and increased gap dielectric constant. In fact, the mode is highly suppressed in air-gapped structures which may explain its absence from the literature to date. Understanding the complex modal structure supported on hybrid nanosystems is necessary to enable the multi-functional components many seek.

We have demonstrated remarkable enhancement of longitudinal and transverse magneto-optical Kerr effects in magnetoplasmonic crystals based on thin nanostructured films of nickel and iron due to resonant excitation of magnetoplasmonic waves in Faraday and Voight configurations . Manifestations of ultrafast time-dependent transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect are experimentally demonstrated in femtosecond laser pulses reflected from a one-dimensional magnetoplasmonic crystal. We show that exciting surface plasmon-polaritons with magnetization-dependent dispersion law allows one to control the shape of the refected pulse.

Graphene has emerged as a promising optoelectronic material because its optical properties can be rapidly and dramatically changed using electric gating. Graphene’s weak optical response, especially in the infrared part of the spectrum, remains the key challenge to developing practical graphene-based optical devices such as modulators, infrared detectors, and tunable reflect-arrays. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically demonstrated that a plasmonic metasurface with two Fano resonances can dramatically enhance the interaction of infrared light with single layer graphene. An order of magnitude modulation of the reflected light was accomplished by designing a novel type of a metasurface supporting double Fano resonances and integrating it with an under-layer of graphene. The unique aspect of such modulator is its high baseline reflectivity and large reflectivity extinction coefficient (modulation depth). Using laser interferometry, we demonstrate that the phase of the reflected infrared light can also be modulated by back-gating graphene. This work paves the way to future development of ultrafast opto-electronic devices such as dynamically reconfigurable holograms, single-detector imagers, dynamical beam-steering devices, and reconfigurable biosensors. Moreover, we will show that strong non-local response of graphene can be induced by exciting graphene plasmons which are confined inside the narrow gaps in the plasmonic metasurface. Such graphene plasmons excitation dramatically boosts the intensity of the infrared light confined by the metasurface.

Nanoporous TiO₂ anatase film has been investigated as sensitive layer in Surface Plasmon Resonance sensors for the detection of hydrogen and Volatile Organic Compounds, specifically methanol and isopropanol. The sensors consist of a TiO₂ nanoporous matrix deposited above a metallic plasmonic grating, which can support propagating Surface Plasmon Polaritons. The spectral position of the plasmonic resonance dip in the reflectance spectra was monitored and correlated to the interaction with the target gases. Reversible blue-shifts of the resonance frequency, up to more than 2 THz, were recorded in response to the exposure to 10000 ppm of H₂ in N₂ at 300°C. This shift cannot be explained by the mere refractive index variation due to the target gas filling the pores, that is negligible. Reversible red-shifts were instead recorded in response to the exposure to 3000 ppm of methanol or isopropanol at room temperature, of magnitudes up to 14 THz and 9 THz, respectively. In contrast, if the only sensing mechanism was the mere pores filling, the shifts should have been larger during the isopropanol detection. We therefore suggest that other mechanisms intervene in the analyte/matrix interaction, capable to produce an injection of electrons into the sensitive matrix, which in turn induces a decrease of the refractive index.

200 mm diameter wafer-scale fabrication, metrology, and optical modeling results are reviewed for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors based on 2-D metallic nano-dome and nano-hole arrays (NHA's) as well as 1-D photonic crystal sensors based on a leaky-waveguide mode resonance effect, with potential applications in label free sensing, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and surface-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy (SEFS). Potential markets include micro-arrays for medical diagnostics, forensic testing, environmental monitoring, and food safety. 1-D and 2-D nanostructures were fabricated on glass, fused silica, and silicon wafers using optical lithography and semiconductor processing techniques. Wafer-scale optical metrology results are compared to FDTD modeling and presented along with application-based performance results, including label-free plasmonic and photonic crystal sensing of both surface binding kinetics and bulk refractive index changes. In addition, SEFS and SERS results are presented for 1-D photonic crystal and 2-D metallic nano-array structures. Normal incidence transmittance results for a 550 nm pitch NHA showed good bulk refractive index sensitivity, however an intensity-based design with 665 nm pitch was chosen for use as a compact, label-free sensor at both 650 and 632.8 nm wavelengths. The optimized NHA sensor gives an SPR shift of about 480 nm per refractive index unit when detecting a series of 0-40% glucose solutions, but according to modeling shows about 10 times greater surface sensitivity when operating at 532 nm. Narrow-band photonic crystal resonance sensors showed quality factors over 200, with reasonable wafer-uniformity in terms of both resonance position and peak height.

Plasmonic nanostructures have been widely explored to improve absorption efficiency of conventional solar cells, either by employing them as a light scatterer, or as a source of local field enhancement. Unavoidable ohmic loss associated with the plasmonic metal nanostructures in visible spectrum, limits the efficiency improvement of photovoltaic devices by employing this local photon density of states (LDOS) engineering approach. Instead of using plasmonic structures as efficiency improving layer, recently, there has been a growing interest in exploring plasmoinc nanoparticle as the active medium for photovoltaic device. By extracting hot electrons that are created in metallic nanoparticles in a non-radiative Landau decay of surface plasmons, many novel plasmonic photovoltaic devices have been proposed. Moreover, these hot electrons in metal nanoparticles promises high efficiency with a spectral response that is not limited by the band gap of the semiconductors (active material of conventional solar cell). In this work, we will show a novel photovoltaic configuration of plasmonic nanoparticle that acts as an antenna by capturing free space ultrahigh frequency electromagnetic wave and rectify them through an ultrafast hot electron pump and eventually inject DC current in the contact of the device. We will introduce a bottom-up quantum mechanical approach model to explain fundamental physical processes involved in this hot electron pump rectifying antenna and it’s ultrafast dynamics. Our model is based on non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism, a robust theoretical framework to investigate transport and design nanoscale electronic devices. We will demonstrate some fundamental limitations that go the very foundations of quantum mechanics.

We present a systematic study of tunable, plasmon extinction characteristics of arrays of nanoscale antennas that have potential use as sensors, energy-harvesting devices, catalytic converters, in near-field optical microscopy, and in surfaced-enhanced spectroscopy. Each device is composed of a palladium triangular-prism antenna and a flat counterelectrode. Arrays of devices are fabricated on silica using electron-beam lithography, followed by atomic-layer deposition (ALD) of copper. Optical extinction is measured by employing a broadband light source in a confocal, transmission arrangement. We demonstrate that the plasmon resonance in the extinction may be tailored by varying lithography conditions and is modified significantly by ALD. Most important, is the ability to control the gap spacing between the two electrodes, which, along with overall size, morphology, and material properties, modifies the plasmon resonance. We employ Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations to demonstrate good agreement between experimental data and theory and use scanning electron microscopy to correlate plasmonic extinction characteristics with changes in morphology.

Chirality does naturally exist, and the building blocks of life (e.g. DNA, proteins, peptides and sugars) are usually chiral. Chirality inherently imposes chemical/biological selectivity on functional molecules; hence the discrimination in molecular chirality from an enantiomer to the other mirror image (i.e. enantioselection) has fundamental and application significance. Enantiomers interact with left and right handed circularly polarized light in a different manner with respect to optical extinction; hence, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) has been widely used for enantioselection. However, enantiomers usually have remarkably low ECD intensity, mainly owing to the small electric transition dipole moment induced by molecular sizes compared to the ECD-active wavelength in the UV-visible-near IR region. To enhance ECD magnitude, recently it has being developed 3D chiral nanoplasmonic structures having a helical path, and the dimensions are comparable to the ECD wavelength. However, it is still ambiguous the origin of 3D chiroplasmonics, and there is a lack of studying the interaction of 3D chiroplasmoncs with enantiomers for the application of enantioselection. Herein, we will present a one-step fabrication of 3D silver nanospirals (AgNSs) via low-substrate-temperature glancing angle deposition. AgNSs can be deposited on a wide range of substrates (including transparent and flexible substrates), in an area on the order of cm2. A set of spiral dimensions (such as spiral pitches, number of turns and handedness) have been easily engineered to tune the chiroptic properties, leading to studying the chiroplasmonic principles together with finite element simulation and the LC model. At the end, it will be demonstrated that 3D chiroplasmonics can differentiate molecular chirality of enantiomers with dramatic enhancement in the anisotropy g factor. This study opens a door to sensitively discriminate enantiomer chirality.

Fabrication of 3D chiral nanoplasmonic structures is always challenging, while the principles for their chiroptical properties are still ambiguous. We will present a combined experimental and theoretical study on 3D chiroplasmonic activity of silver nanospirals (AgNSs), fabricated on sapphire by low temperature glancing angle deposition. AgNSs exhibit bisignated CD spectra in the UV-visible range, in the form of not only individual AgNSs or an array. Compared to individual AgNSs, the array of AgNSs show CD with an intensity 3 order of magnitude higher. It is demonstrated the engineering of chiroplasmonic CD via adjusting spiral parameters, including spiral pitches, number of turns and handedness. Finite element simulations were performed and are in good agreement with the experiments. A LC theory is also employed to explain the difference of chiroplasmonic CD in the UV and visible region.

Nanosphere lithography (NSL) uses self-assembled layers of monodisperse micro-/nano-spheres as masks to fabricate plasmonic metal nanoparticles. Different variants of NSL have been proposed with the combination with dry etching and/or angled-deposition. These techniques have employed to fabricate a wide variety of plasmonic nanoparticles or nanostructures. Here we report another promising extension - moiré nanosphere lithography (MNSL), which incorporates in-plane twisting between neighboring monolayers, to extend the patterning capability of conventional NSL. In conventional NSL, the masks, either a monolayer or bilayer, are formed by spontaneous self-assembly. Therefore, the resulted colloidal crystal configurations are limited. In this work we used sequential stacking of polystyrene nanosphere monolayers to form a bilayer crystal at the air/water interfaces. During this layer-by-layer stacking process, a crystal domain in the top layer gains the freedom to positon itself in a relative angle to that in the bottom layer allowing for the formation of moiré patterns. Subsequent O₂ plasma etching results in a variety of complex nanostructures that have not been reported before. Using etched moiré patterns as masks, we further fabricated the corresponding gold nanostructures and characterized their scattering optical properties. We believe this facile technique provides a new strategy to fabricate novel and complex plasmonic nanostructures or metasurfaces.

Compared with some precise nanofabrication methods, such as EBL and FIB, holographic lithography (HL) is a convenient way to fabricate periodic structures in a large area and with superb uniformity. In this work, we developed the deep UV HL with 266 nm laser to obtain structure with a periodicity between 100 nm to 1μm, which cannot be achieved by traditional photolithography. We further developed a strategy to fabricate hybrid periodical dimmer arrays by deep UV HL and lift-off process, followed by selectively surface functionalization. Thermal treatment was employed to as an effective approach to tune the gap size, which provides an additionally adjustable factor. By coating the substrate with gold and the obtained nanostructures with gold or silver, we have obtained periodic plasmonic structure with excellent figure of merit based on refractive index change and strong and uniform SER activity. Such a hybrid periodical dimmer arrays can be used as an effective plasmonics structure, and have potential application as a platform for high-efficiency surface- and bio- analysis.

Plasmonic assisted mid-IR light trapping using 1D grating structures patterned in Ga-ZnO is demonstrated. FDTD simulations of these structures with proper grating period and depth show the light trapping into a resonant mode resulting in a close to 100% reflection dip in the 4-8 µm wavelength regime. The 1D grating structures of different periods are fabricated using standard photolithography followed by etching. The resonant reflection dips in the experimentally measured spectra well agree with the FDTD simulation, exhibiting light trapping in the mid-IR as predicted.

The metal wire-grid polarizer is a venerable device that is used on radiation throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. It usually consists of a 1D-periodic array of subwavelength metallic wires in free space or mounted on a low-loss dielectric substrate, the plane of the grid being oriented perpendicular to the propagation direction. Herein is presented a new structure, a subwavelength wire-grid polarizer for the terahertz region that acts not only as a wideband polarizer but also as a transparent electrode. This function is achieved by the addition of periodically placed metallic bridges that connect the parallel metal wires of the polarizer. The bridges allow for the uniform distribution of an electrostatic potential over all wires while maintaining the polarizing functionality of the metal wire grid polarizer.

Full-wave electromagnetic simulations were performed on the device. The transmittance was computed in both perpendicular polarization and parallel polarization from 100 to 4000 GHz, and the extinction ratio was calculated across the same range. Furthermore, fill-factor studies were performed to understand how device performance is affected by varying slot width and bridge length, as well as bridge offset. The simulation results showed extraordinary optical transmission through the device for perpendicular polarization, creating excellent transmittance and extinction ratios over the frequency range. The perpendicular polarization transmittance and extinction ratio at 1 THz was calculated to be -1 dB and -36 dB respectively. Meanwhile, the bridges allow the device to behave like a DC electrode.

Plasmonic nanostructures, which support highly localized and enhanced electromagnetic field are now actively researched as a means for efficient trapping of nanoscale objects, not addressable by conventional diffraction-limited optical tweezers. An issue of critical concern is how to efficiently transport and deliver the suspended particles to the illuminated plasmonic nanostructure. There are primarily two main approaches that researchers employ for trapping of particles with plasmonic nanostructure(s) on a substrate. The first approach involves illuminating arrays of closely-spaced plasmonic nanostructures. However resonant illumination of the nanostructures results in collective heating and this produces strong fluid convection that exerts drag forces on the particles. Elucidating the roles of these heating-induced forces and optical gradient forces arising from plasmonic field enhancement have so far remained elusive. The other scheme involves illuminating a single plasmonic nanostructure. However, due to the absence of thermoplasmonic convection in this case, the dynamics of the suspended particle to be trapped becomes dictated by Brownian motion- an inherently slow process. We will discuss a new fluid flow mechanism, which we have termed electrothermoplasmonic (ETP) flow to resolve this dilemma. ETP flow harnesses intrinsic plasmonic heating combined with AC electric field to generate on-demand fluid and particle transport, which means that particles could be rapidly transported for trapping in sub-wavelength plasmonic hotspots only when desired, and without any competition between heating-induced forces and optical gradient forces. These new capabilities certainly provide new directions for research in the field of plasmon-assisted optical trapping, which will be discussed.

In conventional optics the image is formed only by the propagating waves and the information encoded in the evanescent waves is lost, leading to limited resolution. A negative refractive index slab can amplify evanescent waves and enable the generation of an image by both propagating and non propagating waves, theoretically leading to unlimited resolution. Here we analyze the imaging of an oscillating dipole in a composite structure composed of an (epsilon)₁ slab surrounded by an (epsilon)₂ medium, where μ = 1 everywhere. For this purpose we calculate all the eigenstates and eigenvalues of the full Maxwell equations for the composite structure and develop an exact expansion for the local electric field E(r) in the system. Then we calculate the intensity and resolution for various permittivity values. We show that only the low order modes contribute to the expansion of the electric field which enables an efficient calculation of the physical quantities.

Metamaterials consisting of long, circular, cylinders are very popular. It is a fundamental challenge to characterize the effective electromagnetic response of such composites. In this framework, the radius of cylinder is assumed to be considerably smaller than the external wave length, thus the dominant scattered EM fields can be approximately replaced by dipole fields. Previous works dealt mainly with two dimensional (2D) scenarios, i.e., characterizing the effective electromagnetic response for light propagation perpendicular to the cylinder axis. In this work, we generalize this treatment to three dimensions (3D), i.e., we characterize the effective electromagnetic response for light propagation at any angle, and find that the resulting electromagnetic response is non-local, i.e., it depends on the wavevector component parallel to the cylinder axis. We retrieve analytically, the full polarizability tensor and show that it has different contributions for different polarized incoming EM waves (transverse electric and transverse magnetic with respect to the cylindrical axis). It is also diagonal, i.e., it contains no magneto-electric coupling, showing that claims in previous studies were incorrect. Having closed form expressions for polarizability allows us to use effective medium approximation methods, and tailor the spectral response for both electric and magnetic dipolar contributions. It is important to emphasize that for the first time, this gives a fully systematic way to characterize the magnetism. Our analysis holds for additional structures based on cylindrical geometry, such as hole arrays, all-dielectric metamaterials, and multi-layer cylinders. It can be used to explain the electromagnetic response of wire media attributed with a negative refractive index, effective magnetism and hyperbolic dispersion relations. In addition, this approach can be applied to more complex unit cells e.g., consisting of clusters of parallel cylinders.

The use of surface plasmons, charge density oscillations of conduction electrons of metallic nanostructures, could drastically alter how sunlight is converted into electricity or fuels by increasing the efficiency of light-harvesting devices through enhanced light-matter interactions. Surface plasmons can decay directly into energetic electron-hole pairs, or “hot” carriers, which can be used for photocurrent generation or photocatalysis. However, little has been understood about the fundamental mechanisms behind plasmonic carrier generation. Here we use metallic nano-wire based hot carrier devices on a wide-bandgap semiconductor substrate to show that plasmonic hot carrier generation is proportional to field intensity enhancement instead of bulk material absorption. We also show that interband carrier generation results in less energetic carriers than plasmon-induced generation, and a plasmon is required to inject electrons over a large energy barrier. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method is used for theoretical calculations, which match well with experimental results. This work points to a clear route to increasing the efficiency of plasmonic hot carrier devices and drastically simplifies the theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms of hot carrier generation.

We investigate the quadratic nonlinear optical response from metallic gold nanoparticles homogeneously dispersed in a medium or deposited on glass substrates. The nanoparticles are prepared by the wet chemistry method in solution used afterwards. The diameter of the gold nanoparticle is 80 nm. In a homogeneous medium, hyper Rayleigh scattering, effectively incoherent second harmonic generation is used to determine the origin of the response. It is shown that for 80 nm diameter gold nanoparticles, the overall response stems from the deviation of the shape of the nanoparticle from that of a perfect sphere and from retardation effects with a similar weight. The latter retardation effects occur because the diameter of the nanoparticle is no longer vanishing before the wavelength of the incoming electromagnetic field. For deposited nanoparticles, the sample is illuminated through the transparent glass slide and the light at the harmonic frequency, produced through the second harmonic generation phenomenon, is observed in the retro-reflection. From the collected SHG images, it can be unambiguously concluded that the origin of the nonlinearity in 80 nm diameter gold nanoparticles stems from the substrate influence normal to the interface. It can also be concluded that the gold nanoparticles can be used to map out the electromagnetic field in the focal volume.

Several works have already shown that the excitation of plasmonic structures through waveguides enables a strong light confinement and low propagation losses [1]. This kind of excitation is currently exploited in areas such as biosensing [2], nanocircuits[3] and spectroscopy[4]. Efficient excitation of surface plasmon modes (SPP) with guided modes supported by high-index-contrast waveguides, such as silicon-on-insulator waveguides, had already been shown [1,5], however, the use of weak-confined guided modes of an ion exchanged waveguide on glass as a source of excitation of SPP represents a scientific and technological breakthrough. This is because the integration of plasmonic structures into low-index-contrast waveguide increases the bandwidth of operation and compatibility with conventional optical fibers. In this work, we describe how an adiabatic tapered coupler formed by an intermediate high-index-contrast layer placed between a plasmonic structure and an ion-exchanged waveguide decreases the mismatch between effective indices, size, and shape of the guided modes. This hybrid structure concentrates the electromagnetic energy from the micrometer to the nanometer scale with low coupling losses to radiative modes. The electromagnetic mode confined to the high-index-contrast waveguide then works as an efficient source of SPP supported by metallic nanostructures placed on its surface. We theoretically studied the modal properties and field distribution along the adiabatic coupler structure. In addition, we fabricated a high-index-contrast waveguide by electron beam lithography and thermal evaporation on top of an ion-exchanged waveguide on glass. This structure was characterized with the use of near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). Numerical simulations were compared with the experimental results. [1] N. Djaker, R. Hostein, E. Devaux, T. W. Ebbesen, and H. Rigneault, and J. Wenger, J. Phys. Chem. C 114, 16250 (2010). [2] P. Debackere, S. Scheerlinck, P. Bienstman, R. Baets, Opt. Express 14, 7063 (2006).] [3] A. A. Reiserer, J.-S. Huang, B. Hecht, and T. Brixner. Opt. Express 18(11), 11810–11820 (2010). [4] R. Salas-Montiel, A. Apuzzo, C. Delacour, Z. Sedaghat, A. Bruyant et al. Appl. Phys Lett 100, 231109 (2012) [5] A. Apuzzo M. Févier, M. Salas-Montiel et al. Nano letters, 13, 1000-1006

Controlling light scattering and emission at subwavelength scale has significant implications for solar energy conversion, sensing, and nanophotonic devices. Plasmonic nanopatch antennas (PNAs), which consist of plasmonic nanoparticle coupled with metallic films, have shown directionality of radiation and large emission rate enhancement due to the strong plasmonic waveguide modes within the spacer layer. Herein, we comparatively study the light scattering and emission behaviors of a series of plasmonic nanopatch antennas (PNAs) with different plasmonic nanoparticles (i.e., nanosquare, nanotriangle, nanorod, and nanodisk) to develop the design rules of the PNAs. Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we show that the shape and size of plasmonic nanoparticles can be tuned to control the resonance peak, intensity, directionality, and spatial distribution of the scattering light as well as the directionality, spatial distribution, spontaneous emission rate, quantum efficiency, and radiation enhancement factor of light emission. For example, high radiative quantum efficiency (0.74) and radiation enhancement factor (>20) can be achieved by disk PNA, while triangle PNA shows remarkable spontaneous emission rate enhancement of over 2,500. The effects of locations of emitters relative to the PNAs on the emission properties are also examined. Our results pave the way towards the rational design of PNAs for the optimal light scattering and emission as required by targeted applications.

One of the main technical difficulties in the fabrication of optical antennas working as light detectors is the proper design and manufacture of auxiliary elements as load lines and signal extraction structures. These elements need to be quite small to reach the location of the antennas and should have a minimal effect on the response of the device. Unfortunately this is not an easy task and signal extraction lines resonate along with the antenna producing a complex signal that usually masks the one given by the antenna. In order to decouple the resonance from the transduction we present in this contribution a parametric analysis of the response of a bolometric stripe that is surrounded by resonant dipoles with different geometries and orientations. We have checked that these elements should provide a signal proportional to the polarization state of the incoming light.

The plasmonic coupling of nanoantennas could be explained by the plasmon hybridization model introduced. For symmetric nanoparticles pairs, the coupled mode can be shifted to higher or lower frequencies, depending on the phase of the fields from each nanoparticle. In p-polarization, the in-phase response is called bonding mode and out of phase response is called antibonding mode, which are analogous to the molecular orbital theory. The bonding mode, located at a lower energy level, could be strongly excited by normal incidence, but antibonding mode, located at a higher energy level, could hardly excited by normal incident plane wave and which is not easy to be observed. In literatures, the antibonding mode could only be excited by highly focused laser beams, the radiation from a local emitter, and the evanescent field produced by total internal reflection9. Although the observation is not easy, the antibonding mode has brought a lot of attention because of the slower radiative decay and narrower linewidths. However, there are not many researches discussing the sensor application of the plasmonic antibonding mode of nanoantenans arrays. In this work, gold nanoantennas antibonding mode in TM and TE polarized evanescent field is investigated and the sensitivity to the refractive index change of surrounding medium is compared to bonding mode in normal incidence. Furthermore, in normal incidence, due to the impedance mismatch between the dielectric and substrate, strong reflectance happens at the resonance in bonding mode which could reduce the coupling efficiency. In order to achieve higher energy coupling efficiency, total internal reflection could be used to minimize the impedance mismatch and transfer the input energy into antibonding mode plasmonic resonance.

Detecting molecules and their interactions lies at the heart of all biosensor devices, which have important applications in health, environmental monitoring and biomedicine. Achieving biosensing capability at the single molecule level is, moreover, a particularly important goal since single molecule biosensors would not only operate at the ultimate detection limit by resolving individual molecular interactions, but they could also monitor biomolecular properties which are otherwise obscured in ensemble measurements. For example, a single molecule biosensor could resolve the fleeting interaction kinetics between a molecule and its receptor, with immediate applications in clinical diagnostics. We have now developed a label-free biosensing platform that is capable of monitoring single DNA molecules and their interaction kinetics[1], hence achieving an unprecedented sensitivity in the optical domain, Figure 1. We resolve the specific contacts between complementary oligonucleotides, thereby detecting DNA strands with less than 2.4 kDa molecular weight. Furthermore we can discern strands with single nucleotide mismatches by monitoring their interaction kinetics. Our device utilizes small glass microspheres as optical transducers[1,2, 3], which are capable of increasing the number of interactions between a light beam and analyte molecules. A prism is used to couple the light beam into the microsphere. Ourr biosensing approach resolves the specific interaction kinetics between single DNA fragments. The optical transducer is assembled in a simple three-step protocol, and consists of a gold nanorod attached to a glass microsphere, where the surface of the nanorod is further modified with oligonucleotide receptors. The interaction kinetics of an oligonucleotide receptor with DNA fragments in the surrounding aqueous solution is monitored at the single molecule level[1]. The light remains confined inside the sphere where it is guided by total internal reflections along a circular optical path, similar to an acoustic wave guided along the wall of St. Paul’s Cathedral. These so called whispering gallery modes (WGM) propagate with little loss, so that even a whisper can be heard on the other side of the gallery. In the optical case, the light beam can travel many thousand times around the inside of the microsphere before being scattered or absorbed, thereby making numerous interactions with an analyte molecule, bound to microsphere from surrounding sample solution. The most part of the light intensity, however, remains inside the microsphere, just below the reflecting glass surface, resulting in a relatively weak interaction between the light and the bound molecule. To enhance this interaction further, we attach tiny 42 nm x 12 nm gold nanorods to the glass surface. When passing a nanorod, the lightwave induces oscillations of conduction electrons, resulting in so called plasmon resonance. These nanorod plasmons greatly enhance the light intensity on the nanorod, so that the interaction of the light with a molecule attached to the nanorod is also enhanced[4-6]. This enhanced interaction results in an increase in sensitivity by more than a factor of one thousand, putting our experiments of single DNA molecule detection within reach. For the specific detection of nucleic acids, we attach single-stranded DNA to the nanorod and immerse our device in a liquid solution. When a matching, i.e. complementary DNA fragment binds from solution to the “bait” on the nanorod, the enhanced interaction with the light results in an observable shift of the WGM wavelength. Since light propagates in a WGM only for a very precise resonance wavelength or frequency, this shift can be detected with great accuracy[3]. On our current biosensor platform, we detect wavelength shifts with an accuracy of less than one femtometer, resulting in an extremely high sensitivity for biosensing, which we leverage for the specific detection of single 8 mer oligonucleotides as well as the detection of less than 1 kDa intercalating small molecules[1]. [1] M. D. Baaske, M. R. Foreman, and F. Vollmer, "Single molecule nucleic acid interactions monitored on a label-free microcavity biosensing platform," Nature Nanotechnology, vol. 9, pp. 933-939, 2014. [2] Y. Wu, D. Y. Zhang, P. Yin, and F. Vollmer, "Ultraspecific and Highly Sensitive Nucleic Acid Detection by Integrating a DNA Catalytic Network with a Label-Free Microcavity," Small, vol. 10, pp. 2067-2076, 2014. [3] M. R. Foreman, W.-L. Jin, and F. Vollmer, "Optimizing Detection Limits in Whispering Gallery Mode Biosensing," Optics Express, vol. 22, pp. 5491-5511, 2014. [4] M. A. Santiago-Cordoba, S. V. Boriskina, F. Vollmer, and M. C. Demirel, "Nanoparticle-based protein detection by optical shift of a resonant microcavity," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 99, Aug 2011. [5] M. R. Foreman and F. Vollmer, "Theory of resonance shifts of whispering gallery modes by arbitrary plasmonic nanoparticles," New Journal of Physics, vol. 15, p. 083006, Aug 2013. [6] M. R. Foreman and F. Vollmer "Level repulsion in hybrid photonic-plasmonic microresonators for enhanced biodetection" Phys. Rev. A 88, 023831 (2013).

Planar leaky-wave antennas (LWA) that are capable of full-space scanning have long since been the pursuit for applications including, but not limited to, integration onto vehicles and into cameras for wide-angle of view beam-steering. Such a leaky-wave surface (LWS) was designed for long-wave infrared frequencies with frequency scanning capability. The LWS is based on a microstrip patch array design of a leaky-wave impedance surface and is made up of gold microstrip patches on a grounded zinc sulphide substrate. A 1D composite right/left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial made by periodically stacking a unit cell of the LWS in the longitudinal direction to form a LWA was designed. This paper deals with loading the LWA with a nickel bolometer to collect leaky-wave signals. The LWA radiates a backward leaking wave at 30 degrees at 28.3THz and scans through broadside for frequencies 20THz through 40THz. The paper deals with effectively placing the bolometer in order for the collected signal to exhibit the designed frequency regime. An effective way to maximize the power coupling into the load from the antenna is also explored. The benefit of such a metamaterial/holographic antennacoupled detector is its ability to provide appreciable capture cross-sections while delivering smart signals to subwavelength sized detectors. Due to their high-gain, low-profile, fast response time of the detector and ease of fabrication, this IR LWA-coupled bolometer harbors great potential in the areas of high resolution, uncooled, infrared imaging.

Surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waveguides harbor many potential applications at visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. However, dispersive properties of the metal in the waveguide yields weakly coupled and lossy plasmonic modes in the mid and long wave infrared range. This is one of the major reasons for the rise in popularity of surface phonon polariton (SPhP) waveguides in recent research and micro-fabrication pursuit. Silicon carbide (SiC) is a good candidate in SPhP waveguides since it has negative dielectric permittivity in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral region, indicative that coupling to surface phonon polaritons is realizable. Introducing surface phonon polaritons for waveguiding provides good modal confinement and enhanced propagation length. A hybrid waveguide structure at long-wave infrared (LWIR) is demonstrated in which an eigenmode solver approach in Ansys HFSS was applied. The effect of a three layer configuration i.e., silicon wire on a benzocyclobutene (BCB) dielectric slab on SiC, and the effects of varying their dimensions on the modal field distribution and on the propagation length, is presented.

Toroidal dipole moments, the third kind of fundamental dipole moment, have unusual electromagnetic properties different from the electric and magnetic multipoles. We fabricate a new type of 3D plasmonic toroidal metamaterial by using mutual coupling between dumbbell-shaped gold apertures with vertical split-ring resonators (VSRRs) at optical frequency. The radiated power of multipole moments are calculated and analyzed to improve the meta-system is dominated by the toroidal dipole moment. This result paves a way for practical application on metamaterial based devices, such as biosensor and lasing spaser.

A thermal photovoltaic cell (TPV) is an optical heat engine that can extract energy from an emitter with elevated temperature. In theory, the efficiency of a TPV can reach to 80% by wavelength conversion, yet in practice, only 3.2% efficiency has been achieved. The main physical drawback is to maintain the device operation at very high temperature while managing total solar spectrum absorption and efficient coupling of the narrow-band thermal radiation into the photovoltaic cell. In this vein, utilizing of a nanophotonic structure to undergo the wavelength conversion of solar energy is inevitable. Furthermore, low cost, large area and high throughput realization of such a structure brings TPV beyond the research lab. Simultaneous tailoring of UV/visible and mid-infrared spectrums requires sub-100-nm feature size, which is challenging with conventional photolithography if it is not impossible. We have developed a microsphere deep-UV lithography that can produce minimum feature size of ~ 50 nm at extremely low cost and high throughput. In this work, we demonstrate a metasurface platform fabricated with this lithography technique which has omni-polarization and -angle absorption in visible spectrum and efficient emission at mid-infrared as confirmed both by FDTD simulation and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurement. The developed technique is promising technology to expedite TPV in real-life energy harvesting applications.

We show that unique optical properties of metamaterials open unlimited prospects to “engineer” light itself. For example, we demonstrate a novel way of complex light manipulation in few-mode optical fibers using metamaterials highlighting how unique properties of metamaterials, namely the ability to manipulate both electric and magnetic field components, open new degrees of freedom in engineering complex polarization states of light. We discuss several approaches to ultra-compact structured light generation, including a nanoscale beam converter based on an ultra-compact array of nano-waveguides with a circular graded distribution of channel diameters that coverts a conventional laser beam into a vortex with configurable orbital angular momentum and a novel, miniaturized astigmatic optical element based on a single biaxial hyperbolic metamaterial that enables the conversion of Hermite-Gaussian beams into vortex beams carrying an orbital angular momentum and vice versa. Such beam converters is likely to enable a new generation of on-chip or all-fiber structured light applications. We also present our initial theoretical studies predicting that vortex-based nonlinear optical processes, such as second harmonic generation or parametric amplification that rely on phase matching, will also be strongly modified in negative index materials. These studies may find applications for multidimensional information encoding, secure communications, and quantum cryptography as both spin and orbital angular momentum could be used to encode information; dispersion engineering for spontaneous parametric down-conversion; and on-chip optoelectronic signal processing.

We have developed an all-optical method to control the in- and out-of-plane spatial orientation of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) molecules by leveraging the highly localized electric fields produced in the near-field regime of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) layers. A 1-2 micron thick NLC film is deposited on a close-packed drop-cast AuNP layer, excited with tunable optical sources and the transmission of white light through it analyzed using polarization optics as a function of incident light wavelength, excitation power and sample temperature. Our findings, supported by simulations using discrete-dipole approximations, establish the optical switching effect to be repeatable, reversible, spectrally-selective, operational over a broad temperature range, including room temperature, and requiring very small on-resonance excitation intensity (0.3 W/cm2). For the case of the in-plane switching we have additionally demonstrated that controlling the incident excitation polarization can continuously vary the alignment of the NLC molecules, allowing for grayscale transmission.

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs, such as Sn:In2O3, Al:ZnO, Ga: ZnO et al) have re-drawn people’s attention as alternative candidates of noble metals (particularly Ag or Au) in the field of plasmonic for the reasons of property tunable and low losses et al. However even for Sn:In2O3 (ITO, reported highest conductivity), the metallic property lies in the near infrared (NIR) range exhibiting the real part permittivity ɛ' was around -3 at communication wavelength of 1.55μm. Under this circumstance, surface plasma polaritons (SPPs) was hard to be exited on the interface between ITO and surrounded dielectric materials with large permittivity. Hence, in order to explore the potential use of TCOs in the applications of silicon photonics (for permittivity of silicon and germanium are 11.6 and 16 at 300K, respectively), we design a hybrid structure of ITO/metal or ITO/metal/ITO as surface plasmonic materials in NIR. The electrical and optical property of hybrid structure was manipulated accordingly by changing the portion of the introduced metal while maintaining a lower loss than bare metals. The highest carrier concentration of the hybrid structure reached 3×10^22cm^-3, definitely the same magnitude of noble metals. Magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be used to deposit the hybrid ITO/metal structure, in which metal represents gold (Au), and iridium (Ir). The normalized radiative decay rate of light emitted by germanium quantum dots reaches a maximum enhancement of ~8-fold with the assistance of ITO/metal hybrid structure according to the finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation.

Large scale, dense arrays of plasmonic nanodisks (Au) on low modulus, high elongation elastomeric substrates (PDMS) represent a class of tunable optical system, with reversible ability to shift plasmon resonances, originating from array deformation, over a range of nearly 600nm in the visible region. At the most extreme levels of mechanical deformation (strains <100%), non-linear buckling processes transform initially planar arrays into three dimensional configurations, in which the nanodisks rotate out of the plane, giving rise to an increase of transition rate, to form linear arrays with ‘wavy’ geometries. Analytical and finite element models capture not only the physics of these buckling processes, including all of distinct modes that occur, but also the quantitative effects of these deformations on the plasmonic responses. The results have relevance to mechanically tunable optical systems, with potential relevance to soft optical sensors that integrate on or in the human body.

A novel plasmonic modulator-switch for the long-wave infrared (LWIR) region is presented. The device consists of a thin metal film, an underlying photoconductive substrate, input and output reflection gratings located on top of the film on opposite ends of the device, and a limited aperture detector located over the out-couple grating. LWIR incident at a given angle is in-coupled, generating surface plasmons (SPs). Since the underlying metal film is thinner than the SP penetration depth, the SPs are couple on both the top and the bottom of the thin film and propagate on both sides of the metal film toward the out-coupling grating. When free carriers in the photoconductive substrate are excited by laser illumination, the electrical properties of the substrate are changed. This change in substrate electrical properties is sensed by the propagating SPs and thus changes the wavevector of the SPs. The SP wavevector change will cause the out-coupled radiation magnitude and angle to change. Thus, the radiation incident on the detector is modulated implementing a plasmonic modulator-switch. Full-wave electromagnetic simulations were performed on the device. The reflected power at various angles was calculated for a fixed incident angle at λ = 10 μm using various geometries and substrate materials. The substrate materials modelled include III-V compound semiconductors and Si. The dielectric functions for these materials were computed as functions their free carrier concentration to simulate excited and unexcited states. This paper reports on how device performance was affected by variation of these geometric and material parameters.

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been proposed numerically in the plasmonic waveguides composed of unsymmetrical slots shaped metal–insulator-metal (MIM) structures. By the transmission line theory and Fabry-Perot model, the formation and evolution mechanisms of Plasmon induced transparency are exactly analyzed. The analysis shows that the peak of EIT-like transmission can be changed easily according to certain rules by adjusting the geometrical parameters of the slot structures, including the coupling distances and slot depths. We can find a new method to design nanoscale optical switch, devices in optical storage and optical computing. It is found that the slow light effects are emerged in the unsymmetrical slot structures. A small group velocity(c/80) can be achieved.

We studied the effect of truncation on the plasmonic resonance of triangular nanoprisms. Perfect Ag triangular prisms and Ag truncated triangular prisms have been designed and simulated using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation technique. Simulation results show that the increase of the truncations depth in triangular nanoprisms causes a resonance blue shift. However, for the case of truncation depth of up to 15 nm, the number of truncated corners has no effect on the position of the peak or the strength.

We have proposed a couple of plasmonic devices based on graphene sheets and ring resonators. The highly frequency-tunable multi-mode plasmonically induced transparency (PIT) device based on monolayer graphene and rings for the mid-IR region is presented in theory firstly. The multi-mode transparency windows in the spectral responses and slow light effects can be achieved in plasmonic configuration composed of two graphene resonators coupled with single-layer graphene waveguide. By varying the Fermi energy of the graphene, the multi-mode PIT resonance can be dynamic controlled without reoptimizing the geometric parameters of the structures. Based on the coupled mode theory (CMT) and Fabry-Perot (FP), we numerically investigated direct coupling and indirect coupling in the graphene-integrated PIT systems. In addition, the theoretical plasmonic devices based on graphene sheets and ring resonators are also proposed to perform as 1×2 optical spatial switch or ultra -compact Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The finite element method (FEM) is carried on to verify our designs. Those designs may pave the ways for the further development of the compact high-performance plasmonic communication devices.

The interaction between plasmonic resonances, sharp modes, and light in nanoscale plasmonic systems often leads to Fano interference effects. This occurs because the plasmonic excitations are usually spectrally broad and the characteristic narrow asymmetric Fano line-shape results upon interaction with spectrally sharper modes. We investigate a plasmonic waveguide system using the finite-difference time-domain method, which consists of a metal-insulator-metal waveguide coupled with a circle and a disk cavity. Numerical simulations results show that the sharp and asymmetric Fano-line shapes can be created in the waveguide. Fano resonance strongly depends on the structural parameters. This has important applications in highly sensitive and multiparameter sensing in the complicated environments.

A metal film coupled with a metal nanoparticle is a simple and stable nanoantenna structure with plasmonic characteristics. This film-coupled nanoparticle system also has potential for the signal enhancement due to the highly confined field between the film and the nanoparticle. Recently, this structure has been used to probe the limit of the enhanced field and the interaction with quantum emitters. The well-known mode in this nanoantenna structures is the gap dipole mode. However, the high order modes become significant when the gap between the nanoparticle and the film is reduced. In this work, the high order modes are investigated. The size of the whole nanoantenna structure is around λ/10. In experiments, the far field scattering spectra/images under different excitation and collection conditions indicate the influence and the existence of the high order modes. The calculated far-field scattering spectra and spatial intensity profiles have good agreement with the experimental results. In addition, among these high order modes, the simulated near-field distributions reveal distinguishable features which include the different symmetry of field distributions and the various size of confined field. The investigation of these high order modes may provide the information for designing the interaction between this nanoantenna structure and other plasmonic devices.

In this work is studied the influence of annealing on metal island and compact Au films formed on the substrates with and without Ge seed layer. Samples with different thicknesses of Au were annealed at different temperatures. Optical characterization of the samples was performed based on ellipsometric measurements. The obtained results demonstrate that, even in the conditions of moderately elevated temperature, Ge seed layer promotes the percolation of metal islands.

A novel electrochemical surface plasmon resonance (EC-SPR) sensor has been developed based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) combined with a two-electrode electrochemical configuration. The theory of potential-modulated for EC-SPR was described, and several factors which can induce the change of the SPR resonance angle were revealed. Comparing with the conventional three-electrode electrochemical system, the reference electrode has been eliminated in this design, and the active carbon (AC) electrode employed as the counter electrode. Due to the large specific surface area, AC presents considerable double layer capacitance at the interface of electrode and electrolyte, which can provide a constant potential during the electrochemical reactions. Using an angle modulation SPR sensor and the resolution of that is 5x10^-6 RIU (refractive index units), a real-time data-smoothing algorithm is adopted to reduce the noise of the data, which can guarantee an accurate result of the resonance angle of SPR. The EC-SPR setup was used for investigating the electropolymerization of polyaniline by applying a potential of cyclic voltammetry, both of the electrochemical current and the resonance angle shift of SPR are recorded to monitor the growth process of the polymer. Comparing with the three-electrode configuration, the novel AC two-electrode system can also obtain detailed information about the polymerization process from the resonance angle shift curves, including the change of thickness and dielectric constant, deposition and transitions between different redox states of the polymer film. Experimental results demonstrated that this two-electrode EC-SPR configuration is suitable for analyzing the electropolymerization process of a conducting polymer.

Surface plasmons have been widely investigated in many fields due to the unique property. ATR (attenuated totalreflection) is the common method to excite surface plasmons. We derive the Fano-type analysis to present the reflection spectrum of ATR configuration derived from the three-layer Fresnel reflection equation, which are asymmetric curves resulted from interference between direct reflectance and surface plasmons leaky radiation. In the fitting progress, we obtain the relationship between surface plasmons leaky radiation and metal thickness. When the metal thickness is greater than 25nm, surface plasmons leaky radiation rate is less than 0.07. We also compare the ATR and grating coupler excitement mechanism, which provide a reference to evaluate their application.

The special abilities of plasmonic waveguide including tight field confinement and beyond diffraction limit within nano-scale structure have been exploited in many different fields. In order to overcome the trade-off between tight mode confinement and long propagation length, many kinds of nano-scale structures have been proposed in recent years. In this paper, a novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide consisting of the layer of metal Ag, a spherical cap with low-index dielectric layer placed above the metal Ag and a high-index dielectric layer placed above the spherical cap is proposed and analyzed theoretically. The relations between the characteristics of the bound modes, such as mode confinement, propagation lengths, and parameters of the spherical cap, the curvature and width, are numerically investigated in detail. The simulation results show that the nano-scale confinement can be realized. The simulation result shows that the performance of the proposed spherical cap hybrid plasmonic waveguide is better than the rectangle or cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguide. Such hybrid plasmonic waveguide has a tight mode confinement and long propagation length. This novel structure provides a promising application for high-integration density photonic components.

In order to improve integration density, it is essential to develop a nano-scale optical waveguide which is the key element to build varies of optical components. In this paper, a novel cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguide, which has an air core surrounded by a metal layer and a silicon layer, is proposed to achieve nano-scale confinement of light at the operating wavelength of 1550nm. And there is a low-index material nano-layer between the metal layer and the silicon layer, in which the field enhancement provides a nano-scale confinement of the optical field. The relations between the characteristics of the bound modes, including the effective mode indices, propagation lengths, mode sizes, mode shapes and parameters of the plasmonic waveguide are numerically investigated in detail. The simulation results show that the nano-scale confinement can be realized and the proposed hybrid plasmonic waveguide has a potential application in high density photonic integration. Keywords: Surface Plasmon, Mode confinement, Subwavelength structure

In recent years, optical local heating in the nanoscale has attracted great attention due to its unique features of small hot spot size and high energy density. Plasmonic local heating can provide solutions to several challenges in data storage and cancer treatment. Research conducted in this field to achieve plasmonic local heating has mainly utilized the excitation of localized surface plasmon (LSP) or surface plasmon resonance (SPR). However, achieving plasmonic local heating by the excitation of magnetic polariton (MP) has not been researched extensively yet. We numerically investigate the optical response of a nanostructure composed of a gold nanowire on a gold surface separated by a polymer spacer using the ANSYS High Frequency Structural Simulator (HFSS). The structure exhibits a strong absorption peak at the wavelength of 750 nm, and the underlying physical mechanism is verified by the local electromagnetic field distribution to be the magnetic resonance excitation. By incorporating the volume loss density due to the strong local optical energy confinement as the heat generation, nanoscale temperature distribution within the structure is numerically obtained with a thermal solver after assigning proper boundary conditions. The results show a maximum temperature of 158.5°C confined in a local area on the order of 35 nm within the ultrathin polymer layer, which clearly demonstrates the plasmonic local heating effect beyond diffraction limit by excitation of MP.

A budding topic of interest is that of applications in the field of plasmonics which currently range from chemical and biological sensing to enhanced photovoltaics. At the core of these plasmonic devices are resonances that govern their unique function and the ability to manipulate said resonances is crucial to their design. In order to manipulate resonances, we must be able to observe them quantitatively. We describe an effective Hamiltonian formalism to quantitatively study and tailor plasmonic resonances of coupled plasmonic particles at optical frequencies.

Numerical analysis of three dimensional optical electro-magnetic field in a circular-truncated conical optical fiber covered by asymmetric MIM structure has been performed by a commercial finite element method package, COMSOL Multiphysics coupled with Wave Optics Module. The outermost thick metallic layer has twin nano-hole, and the waveguiding twin-hole could draw surface plasmon polaritions (SPPs) excited in the MIM structure to the surface. Finally the guided two SPPs could unite each other and may create a single bright spot. The systematic simulation is continuing, and the results will give us valuable counsel for control of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) appearing around the MIM structure and twin nano-hole. (1) Optimal design of the 3D FEM model for 8-core Xeon server and rational approach for the FEM analysis, (2) behavior of SPPs affected by wavelength and polarization of light travel through fiber, (3) change in excitation condition of SPPs caused by shape of the MIM structure and twin-hole, (4) effectiveness of additional nanostructures that are aimed at focusing control of two SPPs come out from the corners of twin-hole, (5) scanning ability of the MIM/twin-hole probe at nanostructured sample surface (i.e. amount of forward and backward scattering of SPPs) will be presented and discussed. Several FIBed prototypes and their characteristic of light emission will also reported.

Dark plasmon modes in metal nanoparticle systems are usually excited by non-optical means. We show that strongly focused illumination can lead to excitation of dark modes. We first use rigorous vectorial diffraction theory to compute the distribution of light at the focus and then numerically calculate the response of single particles and particle dimers. Controlling the distribution of light arriving at the focusing lens by pupil filters enables enhancing the excitation of dark modes. Overall, these results present guidelines for the excitation of dark plasmon modes using standard optical instrumentation.

The practical application of optical antennas in detection devices strongly depends on its ability to produce an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio for the given task. It is known that, due to the intrinsic problems arising from its sub-wavelength dimensions, optical antennas produce very small signals. The quality of these signals depends on the involved transduction mechanism. The contribution of different types of noise should be adapted to the transducer and to the signal extraction regime. Once noise is evaluated and measured, the specific detectivity, D*, becomes the parameter of interest when comparing the performance of antenna coupled devices with other detectors. However, this parameter involves some magnitudes that can be defined in several ways for optical antennas. In this contribution we are interested in the evaluation and comparison of D_ values for several bolometric optical antennas working in the infrared and involving two materials. At the same time, some material and geometrical parameters involved in the definition of noise and detectivity will be discussed to analyze the suitability of D_ to properly account for the performance of optical antennas.

Fractal antennas have been proposed to improve the bandwidth of resonant structures and optical antennas. Their multiband characteristics are of interest in radiofrequency and microwave technologies. In this contribution we link the geometry of the current paths built-in the fractal antenna with the spectral response. We have seen that the actual currents owing through the structure are not limited to the portion of the fractal that should be geometrically linked with the signal. This fact strongly depends on the design of the fractal and how the different scales are arranged within the antenna. Some ideas involving materials that could actively respond to the incoming radiation could be of help to spectrally select the response of the multiband design.

The preparation, optical characterization and plasmonic biosensing properties of self-standing nanoporous gold leaves are presented. Respect to the bulk gold, the material shows metallic behaviour at higher wavelengths and a lower imaginary part of the dielectric constants. The plasmonic properties in the near infrared range have been investigated probing the resonance shift after a self-assembling monolayer functionalization. Due to a great increase of the active surface the presence of an organic molecule adsorbed on its surface leads to important optical responses. This demonstrates how nanoporous gold reveals benefits for better reaction efficiency and detection sensitivity and how plasmonic properties in the near-IR range can assure employment in plasmonic devices.

In this paper we present optical properties of thin metal films deposited on the glass substrates by the physical vapor deposition. Localized surface plasmon polaritons of different film thicknesses have been spectrally characterized by optical methods. Evidence of the Au nanoparticles in deposited thin films have been demonstrated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and their dimensions as well as separations have been evaluated. As a first approximation, the simulation model of deposited nanoparticles without assuming their dimension and separation distributions has been created. Simulation model defines relation between the nanoparticle dimensions and their separations. Model of deposited nanoparticles has been simulated by the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulation method. The pulsed excitation has been used and transmission of optical radiation has been calculated from the spectral response by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analyses. Plasmonic extinctions have been calculated from measured spectral characteristics as well as simulated characteristics and compared with each other. The nanoparticle dimensions and separations have been evaluated from the agreement between the simulation and experimental spectral characteristics. Surface morphology of thin metal film has been used as an input for the detail simulation study based on the experimental observation of metal nanoparticle distribution. Hence, this simulation method includes appropriate coupling effects between nanoparticles and provides more reliable results. Obtained results are helpful for further deep understanding of thin metal films plasmonic properties and simulation method is demonstrated as a powerful tool for the deposition technology optimizations.

We theoretically investigate the fluorescence enhancement of a representative set of dye-molecules excited by three classes of nanoantennae, using a fully vectorial three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (3D FDTD) method. Through these 3D FDTD calculations, in conjunction with analytic guidance using temporal coupled-mode (TCM) theory, we develop a design procedure for antennae assemblies that allow achieving fluorescence enhancements of 200-900 over the emission intensity in the bare dye molecule. The enhancement from these commercially available fluorochrome conjugates, namely, CF^TM568, CF^TM660R and CF^TM790 are fully investigated using spherical-dimer, elliptical-dimer, and bowtie nanoantennae. These results demonstrate a method for rationally designing arbitrary metallic nanoparticle/emitter assemblies prior to their synthesis and assembly to achieve optimum fluorescence enhancement.

Conventional plasmonic sensors are based on the intrinsic resonances of metallic nanoparticles. In such sensors wavelength shift of such resonances are used to detect biological molecules. Recently we introduced ultra-sensitive timedomain nanosensors based on the way variations in the environmental conditions influence coherent dynamics of hybrid systems consisting of metallic nanoparticles and quantum dots. Such dynamics are generated via interaction of these systems with a laser field, generating quantum coherence and coherent exciton-plasmon coupling. These sensors are based on impact of variations of the refractive index of the environment on such dynamics, generating time-dependent changes in the emission of the QDs. In this paper we study the impact of material properties of the metallic nanoparticles on this process and demonstrate the key role played by the design of the quantum dots. We show that Ag nanoparticles, even in a simple spherical shape, may allow these sensors to operate at room temperature, owing to the special properties of quantum dot-metallic nanoparticle systems that may allow coherent effects utilized in such sensors happen in the presence of the ultrafast polarization dephasing of quantum dots.

Plasmonic nano antennas like dimers, have been investigated for their capability to provide a strong near-field enhancement when illuminated by external light. Traditionally these nano antennas, isolated or arrayed, are placed on a substrate and used in spectroscopy techniques. Surfaces made of such plasmonic nano antennas have been very useful for applications like surface enhanced Raman scattering in which it provides various orders of magnitude of enhanced sensitivity. These instruments however are not economic and are often not mobile since surfaces require an external beam illumination and the Raman scattering is detected by a large aperture microscope. The goal of this paper is to combine nano antennas made of gold dimers with integrated waveguide to make a spectrometer which has low cost and volume in comparison with the structure mentioned above. A technique in which optical plasmonic nano antennas are located in proximity of silicon nitride waveguide is proposed that is useful both for illumination and detection channels. The waveguide evanescent field, which is decaying outside of the waveguide, excites the dimer and causes it to resonate which results in a very strong electric field enhancement of approximately 25 times in the antenna gap. Also the coupling effect of dimer resonance on waveguide modes is investigated. To show the efficiency of the proposed structure, full wave analysis has been done and its results are compared with the multilayer structure case. The simulation results demonstrate that this structure can be designed and fabricated for the purpose of spectroscopy application.

A promising method for improving light-absorption in thin-film devices is demonstrated via electrode structuring using Anodic Alumina Oxide (AAO) templates. We present nano-scale concave Al structures of controlled dimensions, formed after anodic oxidation of evaporated high purity aluminum (Al) films and alumina etching. We investigate both experimentally and theoretically the field-enhancement supported by these concave nanostructures as a function of their dimensions. For the experimental investigations, a thin layer of organic polymer coating allows the application of a nondestructive laser ablation technique that reveals field-enhancement at the ridges of the Al nanostructures. The experimental results are complemented by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, to support and explain the outcome of the laser ablation experiments. Our method is easily up-scalable and lithography-free and allows one to generate nanostructured electrodes that potentially support field-enhancement in organic thin-film devices, e.g., for the use in future energy harvesting applications.

In recent years, nickel nanoparticles (NPs) have increased scientific interest because of their extensive prospects in catalysts, information storage, large-scale batteries and biomedicine. Several works on Ni NPs generation by laser ablation have appeared in the literature in the last years, using different pulsed laser regimes and different media have been published recently. In this work we analyze the characteristics of species, structure (bare core or core-shell), configuration and size distribution of NPs generated by fs pulse laser ablation over a Ni solid target in n-heptane and water. We explore the presence of NiO-Ni core-shell and hollow Ni (or air-Ni) NPs in the colloids obtained. These were experimentally characterized using AFM and TEM microscopy, as well as Optical Extinction Spectroscopy (OES). Extinction spectra were modeled using Mie theory through an appropriate modification of the complex experimental dielectric function, taking into account a size-dependent corrective term for each free and bound electron contribution. Experimental UVvisible- NIR spectra were reproduced considering a size distribution of bare core, hollow and core-shell structures NPs. In both media, Ni NPs shape and size distribution agrees with that derived from TEM and AFM analysis.

The excitation of surface plasmon polariton at the interface of left-handed metamaterial with cylindrical anisotropy and dielectric medium in THz frequency range was considered. The impact of wave polarization and incidence angle was considered.