A theoretical study of a plasmonic sensor comprising a gold nano-disk array on gold film with a SiO_2 spacer

A plasmonic refractive index(RI) sensor with high RI sensitivity based on a gold composite structure is proposed.This composite structure is constructed from a perfect gold nano-disk square array on a gold film, with a SiO_2 spacer. The reflection spectra of the composite structure, with analyte RI in the range of 1.30 to 1.40, are theoretically studied using the finite-difference time-domain method. The incident light beam is partly coupled to the localized surface plasmons(LSP) of the single nano-disks and partly transferred to the propagating surface plasmons(PSP) by grating coupling. The reflectivity is nearly zero at the valley of the reflection spectrum because of the strong coupling between LSP and PSP. Also, the full width at half maximum(FWHM) of one of the surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) modes is very narrow, which is helpful for RI sensing. An RI sensitivity as high as 853 nm/RIU is obtained. The influence of the structure parameters on the RI sensitivity and the sensor figure of merit(FOM) are investigated in detail. We find that the sensor maintains high RI sensitivity over a large range of periods and nano-disk diameters. Results of the theoretical simulation of the composite structure as a plasmonic sensor are promising. Thus, this composite structure could be extensively applied in the fields of biology and chemistry.     

Double Vivaldi antenna for wireless optical networks on chip

In this paper we present a double plasmonic Vivaldi antenna for on-chip optical wireless communication. The proposed antenna is a two-element broadside array fed by a silicon waveguide. The designs of the power splitter and of the hybrid Si-plasmonic coupler used for antenna excitation are described in detail. The array radiation characteristics are optimized through Finite Difference Time Domain simulations and the performance of a point-to-point link is evaluated. The proposed double Vivaldi array increases the gain of 3 dB with respect to a single antenna, improving the received power on a link of 6 dB when the double antenna is used for both transmitting and receiving sections.     

Polarization-controlled spatial localization of near-field energy in planar symmetric coupled oligomers

Arrays of planar symmetric coupled oligomers support higher sensitivity optical response than uncoupled plasmonic systems. In this work, the transition from isolated to collective optical modes in plasmonic oligomers, such as pentamers and quadrumers, is investigated via experimental characterization and simulation with good agreement. The designed and fabricated metallic oligomers consist of a single central disk and outer ring-like disks in nanoscales. It is shown that while the far-field spectral responses of oligomers are polarization-independent, due to the structure symmetry, the spatial localization of near-field energy in nanogaps can be polarization-controlled. This localization is established at a normal-incident light of a single source rather than co-illumination by two light sources accompanied by different incident angles or phase shift. It can overcome the spatial restrictions of conventional optics. The influence of the nano-disk sizes and gaps among them on the intensity and shape of the localized near-field energy in pentamers and quadrumers is also studied.     

Plasmonic nanoloop array antenna

In this Letter, we create an optical nanoantenna array composed of parasitic plasmonic loops that can enhance radiation characteristics and direct the optical energy successfully. Three metallic loops inspired by the concept of the Yagi-Uda antenna are optimized around the region where they feature high scattering performance to control the radiation beam. The loop geometry, when compared to the dipole configuration, has the benefit of using the available aperture in an effective way to provide higher directivity. The angular emission of the nanoloop array antenna is highly directive, and a directivity of 8.2 dB for upward radiation is established.     

Plasmonic refractive index sensor based on the combination of rectangular and circular resonators including baffles

We numerically designed a plasmonic refractive index sensor with high sensitivity and tunable optical feature based on two metal-insulator-metal bus waveguides connecting with the central-coupled rectangular and circular ring resonators, including silver (Ag) baffles. In the design process, Ag baffles' influence on transmittance spectrum, magnetic and electric field distributions, surface power flow intensity, energy streamlines, and sensor performance are investigated using the finite element method. The proposed structure can use as a high precision plasmonic refractive index sensor for refractive index in the increment range of 0.01. The maximum sensitivity can reach 3400 nm/RIU (RIU is a refractive index unit), which remarkably increases the sensitivity of 1.36 times compared to the case without Ag baffles. Besides, the figure of merit and quality factor can achieve 36.00 and 42.28, respectively. The sensitivity and figure of merit can be increased by adding the Ag baffles in the proposed plasmonic sensor system, generating an additional gap plasmon resonance mode that cannot find in a typical case.     

Near-field plasmonic coupling for enhanced nonlinear absorption by femtosecond pulses in bowtie nanoantenna arrays

Plasmonic bowtie nanoantennas (BNAs) can exhibit a strong enhancement of optical field, leading to large nonlinear effects. We investigated the nonlinear optical absorption of an array of BNA by femtosecond pulses, using the open-aperture Z-scan technique. The BNA array composed of paired gold nanotriangles was fabricated by nanosphere lithography. We experimentally demonstrated that upon decreasing the gap width, nonlinear absorption is enhanced due to both the enhancement of near-field coupling of nanoantennas and the minimum of the spectral detuning between the center wavelength of the laser for excitation and the localized surface plasmon resonances. The role of near-field resonant plasmonic coupling in BNA is analyzed theoretically and confirmed by our simulations.     

基于石墨烯加载的不对称纳米天线对的表面等离激元单向耦合器

本文设计并数值研究了一种石墨烯加载的不对称金属纳米天线对结构.利用石墨烯费米能级的动态调控特性,实现了电控表面等离激元的单向传输.类似于传统的三明治型纳米天线结构,设计的不对称金属纳米天线对结构可以等效为两个共振的磁偶极子,由于磁偶极子辐射电磁波的干涉,将导致单向传输效应.通过计算腔中的电场分布,发现石墨烯的调谐能力与石墨烯区域的电场强度成正比关系.以上现象都可以通过等效电路模型进行理论解释.此外,该结构具有小尺寸、高效率、宽带宽和易于光电集成等优点,在未来的光子集成与光电子学领域将具有重要的应用.     

Cascaded plasmonic nanorod antenna for large broadband local electric field enhancement

We propose a cascaded plasmonic nanorod antenna for large broadband electric near-field enhancement. The structure has one big gold nanorod on each side of a small two-wire antenna which consists of two small gold nanorods. For each small nanorod, the enhanced and broadened optical response can be obtained due to the efficient energy transfer from its adjacent big nanorod through strong plasmonic near-field coupling. Thus, the electric field intensity of the cascaded antenna is significantly larger and broader than that of the individual small two-wire antenna. The resonant position, field intensity enhancement, and spectral width of the cascaded antenna are highly tunable by varying the geometry of the system. The quantum efficiency of the cascaded antenna is also greatly enhanced compared with that of the small antenna. Our results are important for the applications in field-enhanced spectroscopy.     

光纤相控阵稀疏排布优化算法对比

光纤相控阵在激光合束、激光雷达等领域具有应用前景.光纤阵列配置方式不同于微波相控阵,光纤天线间距大于波长时存在周期旁瓣问题,影响主瓣能量分布.本文从物理模型出发,建立了基于同心圆环形点阵集合的光学相控阵天线布阵理论模型,提出了利用解析延拓的傅里叶变换方法实现干涉场强度的快速合成理论,讨论了在离散采样时数值仿真需关注的采样带宽和采样数目问题,解决了快速实现多光束干涉场数值仿真的问题.对比研究了两种优化光学相控阵天线配置的优化算法:遗传算法和粒子群算法,分别实现了不同种群数量遗传算法和粒子群算法迭代优化,分析了二者在优化过程中的收敛速度和优化效果,得到了峰值旁瓣比PSR=0.270的配置阵列.所提出的方法有望用于实际的光学相控阵天线配置中,指导天线主瓣能量最大化的优化设计;研究模型对不可微分目标函数优化问题的研究有一定参考价值.     

Highly sensitive multiple fano resonances excitation on all-dielectric metastructure

Optical Review - A multi-Fano resonances optical refractive sensor with high sensitivity and sharp Fano resonances is proposed in this paper. The unit cell of the designed structure consists of two...     

从光子晶体效应到表面等离子波的实时演变

文章报道了激光诱导太赫兹表面等离子谐振效应。采用激光抽运-太赫兹波探测技术，实时改变单晶硅中的载流子浓度，使其介电特性从类绝缘体演变为类金属导体，以支持表面等离子谐振效应，进而实现太赫兹波在周期性亚波长单晶硅孔阵列中的实时可控制谐振增强传输。同时还通过实验观测到太赫兹波从光子晶体效应到表面等离子波的实时演变。文章作者采用Fano模型对实验结果进行模拟分析，获得了与实验数据一致的理论拟合。     

一种新型介质结构的超传输电磁特性研究

光入射到不同折射率材料的分界面时会很自然地产生反射现象. 在很多的工业应用中, 例如太阳能电池, 衬底的引入会在其表面产生反射损耗. 至今为止, 人们提出很多方法用来克服这一问题, 比较常见的有介质涂层、表面纹理、绝热折射率匹配和散射等离激元纳米粒子. 本文利用二维周期排布的亚波长级硅纳米圆柱阵列来降低衬底表面的反射. 结合辅助微分方程和时域有限差分法对该结构的散射特性进行系统研究, 结果发现, 纳米圆柱粒子能够产生类似于在金属表面发生的超传输现象, 这种现象的发生基于介质衬底耦合Mie共振机理, 该机理能在整个紫外到近红外光谱范围内将能量耦合到衬底中, 从而降低衬底表面的反射; 同时当散射结构被放置在具有高光学态密度的高折射率衬底附近时, 会产生较强的前向散射, 也能有效的减少后向散射即反射的发生. 基于降低衬底表面反射这一目的而言, 我们设计的结构可为实际太阳能电池及光学天线的设计提供参考.     

Characterization of core–shell nanostructure consisting Si–Au–SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> based on manipulation of optical properties

In this article, we investigated some physical characteristics of core–shell nanostructure in optical regime and perturbation has been also introduced as an effective method in shaping of optical properties. The proposed nanostructures are composed of the selected materials as: Silicon, Silicon Dioxide and Gold. At first, the extinction cross section spectra are calculated for multilayer core–shell nanostructures in optical range and the configuration effect of the constructed materials in a multilayer nanostructure are investigated for determination of Plasmon range. Then, the new structures of core–shell nanoparticles (gold–silicon) are presented, which have an amount of impurity particle in their shells as perturbation and also their extinction cross section spectra are calculated. The obtained results in this article give a proper approach about perturbation effect in broadening, sharpening and shifting of optical response which are decisive factors especially nano-network systems. Indeed, it has been proposed that the impurity particles in the shells can be a mechanism for tuning of optical characteristics of the presented nanoparticles in practical fields and also creation of local oscillations as plasmonic resonances in a considered optical range. Besides, redshift in extinction cross section can be also created by particle perturbation. At the end, the effective permittivity of the perturbed core-shells are extracted. The optional frequency range is selected between 300 and 900 (THz).     

Influence of cavity geometry towards plasmonic gap tolerance and respective near-field in nanoparticle-on-mirror

In this work, we emphasize the importance of cavity geometry along with nanoparticle shape and plasmonic nanogap (based on a nanoparticle on a metallic film (NPOM) design) which plays significant role in understanding the complex plasmonic mode characteristics involving nanoparticle and gap mode resonances. The cross-section imprint of planar cavity on metallic film plays decisive role in near field enhancement properties at similar NP size and plasmonic nanogap conditions for spherical and cubical NPOM systems. By mimicking the NPOM structure to metal-insulator-metal design, we understand the resonant emission differences for the respective plasmonic modes. Influence of dominant and weaker gap mode resonances resulted in an interesting optical behavior (fluctuations in near field enhancement strength) in NP mode in case of cubical nanostructures. By such extensive investigation and interpretation of sub-wavelength complex plasmonic mode characteristics, various practical applications in plasmonics field can be accomplished.     

Fano resonances in planar silver nanosphere clusters

The plasmonic properties of silver nanosphere clusters are investigated using the finite element and the plasmon hybridization methods. The nanoparticle clusters are found to exhibit multiple plasmon resonances with large induced electromagnetic field enhancements. For symmetric clusters, we show how group theory can be used to identify the microscopic nature of the plasmon resonances. For larger clusters, we show that narrow Fano resonances are frequently present in their optical spectra.     

Gain-assisted optical switching in plasmonic nanocavities

A plasmonic cavity filled with active material is proposed to explain optical switching. Optical properties, including transmission, response time, and field distribution of on/off state, are numerically investigated. We demonstrate that such a gain-assisted plasmonic structure can achieve optical switching in the nan- odomain and shorten the switching time to the subpicosecond level. Our results indicate the potential application of the proposed structure in optical communication and photonic integrated circuits.     

Plasmonic optical trap having very large active volume realized with nano-ring structure

The feasibility of using gold nano-rings as plasmonic nano-optical tweezers is investigated. We found that at a resonant wavelength of λ=785 nm, the nano-ring produces a maximum trapping potential of ~32k(B)T on gold nanoparticles. The existence of multiple potential wells results in a very large active volume of ~10(6) nm(3) for trapping the target particles. The report nano-ring design provides an effective approach for manipulating nano-objects in very low concentration into the high-field region and is well suited for integration with microfluidics for lab-on-a-chip applications.     

Broadband light harvesting nanostructures robust to edge bluntness

Metallic structures with sharp corners harvest the energy of incident light through plasmonic resonances, concentrating it in the corners and greatly increasing the local energy density. Despite its wide array of applications, this effect is normally strongly dependent on how sharp the corners are, presenting problems for fabrication. In this Letter, an analytical approach is proposed, based on transformation optics, to investigate a general class of plasmonic nanostructures with blunt edges or corners. Comprehensive discussions are provided on how the geometry affects the local field enhancement as well as the frequency and energy of each plasmonic resonance. Remarkably, our results evidence the possibility of designing broadband light harvesting devices with an absorption property insensitive to the geometry bluntness.     

Circularly polarized unidirectional emission via a coupled plasmonic spiral antenna

In this Letter, we study the emission properties of an electric dipole emitter coupled to a plasmonic spiral structure. The plasmonic spiral structure functions as an optical antenna, coupling the electric dipole emission into circularly polarized unidirectional emission in the far field. Increasing number of turns of the spiral leads to narrower angular width of the emission pattern in the far field. For a spiral antenna with six turns, antenna directivity of 23.5 dB with a directional emission into a narrow angular cone of 4.3° can be achieved. The emitted photons carry spin that is essentially determined by the handedness of the spiral antenna. By reversing the spiral, one can switch the polarization of the emission field between left-hand and right-hand circular polarizations. The spiral antenna may be used as a nanoscale circular polarization source in single molecule sensing, single-photo sources, and integrated photonic circuits.     

Tunability and linewidth sharpening of plasmon resonances on a periodic gold nanowire array coupled to a thin textured silver film

We theoretically study the plasmon mode spectrum of a multilayer structure consisting of a periodic gold nanowire array and a spatially separated thin silver film with periodic slits. Results show that the plasmon mode spectrum of the multilayer structure depends sensitively on the relative lateral displacement of the Au nanowire array with respect to the textured silver film. This is due to the interaction between the localized surface plasmon (LSP) of the nanowire array and the plasmon modes, including the horizontal LSP and the antisymmetric short-range surface plasmon polariton (SPP), of the textured thin silver film. The strong coupling between the LSP and the antisymmetric short-range SPP results in a redshifted plasmon resonance with a significantly narrow linewidth and a large electromagnetic field enhancement. Moreover, the lateral displacement also has a great influence on the spacer layer controlled dipole-surface interaction. Therefore, this relative lateral displacement provides an efficient way to tune the optical properties of the multilayer structure, and this kind of highly tunable nanostructure can be used as a tunable plasmonic filter or a substrate for LSPs sensor.