Plasmonic nanoparticle monomers and dimers: from nanoantennas to chiral metamaterials

We review the basic physics behind light interaction with plasmonic nanoparticles. The theoretical foundations of light scattering on one metallic particle (a plasmonic monomer) and two interacting particles (a plasmonic dimer) are systematically investigated. Expressions for the effective particle susceptibility (polarizability) are derived, and applications of these results to plasmonic nanoantennas are outlined. In the long-wavelength limit, the effective macroscopic parameters of an array of plasmonic dimers are calculated. These parameters are attributable to an effective medium corresponding to a dilute arrangement of nanoparticles, i.e., a metamaterial where plasmonic monomers or dimers have the function of “meta-atoms”. It is shown that planar dimers consisting of rod-like particles generally possess elliptical dichroism and function as atoms for planar chiral metamaterials. The fabricational simplicity of the proposed rod-dimer geometry can be used in the design of more cost-effective chiral metamaterials in the optical domain.     

Fano resonances in dipole-quadrupole plasmon coupling nanorod dimers

We theoretically investigate the plasmon coupling in metallic nanorod dimers. A pronounced dip is found in the extinction spectrum due to plasmonic Fano resonance, which is induced by destructive interference between the bright dipole plasmon of a short nanorod and the dark quadrupole plasmon of a long nanorod. This Fano interference can also be explained as the coupling between the bright and dark modes both supported by the whole dimer. The Fano resonance can be tuned by adjusting the spatial or spectral separation between two nanorods in the dimer.     

金纳米棒复合体的消光特性

金属纳米颗粒局域表面等离激元共振时能够产生消光和近场增强效应已经成为国内外研究的热点. 应用时域有限差分法对L形纳米棒与普通纳米棒构成的金纳米棒复合体的消光光谱及其近场增强和电流矢量密度分布进行了研究. 计算结果表明, 普通纳米棒和L形纳米棒二聚体的光谱响应与纳米棒间的间距有关, 而金纳米棒复合体的消光光谱可通过调整L形纳米棒与普通纳米棒间的间距、L形纳米棒的臂长度以及普通纳米棒的长度进行调谐. 此外金纳米棒复合体可以分解成L形纳米棒二聚体和普通纳米棒二聚体两个部分, 通过分别改变L形纳米棒的臂长和普通纳米棒的长度, 对比L形纳米棒二聚体和普通纳米棒二聚体间的共振峰位置变化, 可以更直观地了解金纳米棒复合体消光光谱线型的变化. 这些结果可用于指导金纳米棒复合体纳米光子器件的设计, 以满足其在表面增强拉曼散射和生物传感等方面应用.     

Brillouin scattering of light by spin waves in ferromagnetic nanorods

We report the investigations of spin wave modes of arrays of Ni and Co nanorods using Brillouin light scattering. We have revealed the significant influence of spin wave modes along the nanorod axis in contrast to infinite magnetic nanowires. Unusual optical properties featuring an inverted Stokes/anti-Stokes asymmetry of the Brillouin scattering spectra have been observed. The spectrum of spin wave modes in the nanorod array has been calculated and compared with the experiment. Experimental observations are explained in terms of a combined numerical–analytical approach taking into account both the low aspect ratio of individual magnetic nanorods and dipolar magnetic coupling between the nanorods in the array. The optical studies of spin-wave modes in nanorod metamaterials with low aspect ratio nanorods have revealed new magnetic and magneto-optical properties compared to continuous magnetic films or infinite magnetic nanowires. Such magnetic artificial materials are important class of active metamaterials needed for prospective data storage and signal processing applications.     

Tunable Fano resonances in heterogenous Al–Ag nanorod dimers

We theoretically investigate the plasmonic coupling in heterogenous Al–Ag nanorod dimers. A pronounced Fano dip is found in the extinction spectrum produced by the destructive interference between the bright dipole mode from a short Al nanorod and the dark quadrupole mode from a long Ag nanorod nearby. This Fano resonance can be widely tuned in both wavelength and amplitude by varying the rod dimensions and end geometry, the separation distance and the local dielectric environment. The Al–Ag heterogeneous nanorod dimer shows a high sensitivity to the surrounding environment with a local surface plasmon resonance figure of merit of 7.0, which enables its promising applications in plasmonic sensing and detection.     

Tunable Fano resonances and plasmonic hybridization of gold triangle–rod dimer nanostructure

A gold dimer structure consisting of a notched triangle nanoslice and a rectangle nanorod is proposed to produce distinct Fano resonance. Owing to the coupling between the dipole plasmon mode of the nanorod and the dipole or quadrupole plasmon mode of the nanoslice, the extinction spectrum with a deep Fano dip is formed and can be well fitted by the Fano interference model for different geometry parameters. In addition, Fano resonance of the gold dimer nanostructure also intensely depends on the polarization direction of incident light. Moreover, Fano resonance of the triangle–rod trimer is also analyzed by adding another nanorod into the former dimer and exhibits the splitting of plasmonic resonant peak in high order coupling modes. The plasmonic hybridizations in these nanostructures have been analyzed for revealing the physical origin of the Fano resonance.     

Plasmonic rainbow trapping structures for light localization and spectrum splitting

"Rainbow trapping" has been proposed as a scheme for localized storage of broadband electromagnetic radiation in metamaterials and plasmonic heterostructures. Here, we articulate the dispersion and power flow characteristics of rainbow trapping structures, and show that tapered waveguide structures composed of dielectric core and metal cladding are best suited for light trapping. A metal-insulator-metal taper acts as a cascade of optical cavities with different resonant frequencies, exhibiting a large quality factor and small effective volume comparable to conventional plasmonic resonators.     

Controlling light with plasmonic multilayers

Recent years have seen a new wave of interest in layered media – namely, plasmonic multilayers – in several emerging applications ranging from transparent metals to hyperbolic metamaterials. In this paper, we review the optical properties of such subwavelength metal–dielectric multilayered metamaterials and describe their use for light manipulation at the nanoscale. While demonstrating the recently emphasized hallmark effect of hyperbolic dispersion, we put special emphasis to the comparison between multilayered hyperbolic metamaterials and more broadly defined plasmonic-multilayer metamaterials A number of fundamental electromagnetic effects unique to the latter are identified and demonstrated. Examples include the evolution of isofrequency contour shape from elliptical to hyperbolic, all-angle negative refraction, and nonlocality-induced optical birefringence. Analysis of the underlying physical causes, which are spatial dispersion and optical nonlocality, is also reviewed. These recent results are extremely promising for a number of applications ranging from nanolithography to optical cloaking.     

Fabrication methods of 3D periodic metallic nano/microstructures for photonics applications

Periodic metallic nano/microstructures have received a great a deal of attention in the photonics research community over the last few decades due to their intriguing optical properties. Three‐dimensional metallic nano/microstructures such as metallic photonic crystals, metamaterials, and plasmonic devices possess unique characteristics of tailored thermal radiation, negative refraction and deep subwavelength confinement of light. In this article, the recent progress on the experimental methods for the realisation of three‐dimensional periodic metallic and thin metal film coated dielectric nano/microstructures operating from optical to mid‐infrared frequencies has been reviewed. Advancement of the state‐of‐the‐art nanofabrication methods over the last few decades have led to the development of metallic nano/microstructures of diverse geometries, high resolution features and large scale production. The recent progress in the novel fabrication methods have inspired the development of functional and exciting photonic devices based on periodic metallic nano/microstructures with various applications in photonics including communications, photovoltaics, and biophotonics.     

Plasmonic rod dimers as elementary planar chiral meta-atoms

We theoretically calculate the electromagnetic response of metallic rod dimers for the arbitrary planar arrangement of rods in the dimer. It is shown that dimers without an in-plane symmetry axis exhibit elliptical dichroism and act as "atoms" in planar chiral metamaterials. Because of a very simple geometry of the rod dimer, such planar metamaterials are much easier to fabricate than conventional split-ring or gammadion-type structures and lend themselves to a simple analytical treatment based on a coupled dipole model. Dependencies of the metamaterial's directional asymmetry on the dimer's geometry are established analytically and confirmed in numerical simulations.     

Stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons in a microcylinder cavity

We have observed stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in dye-doped polymeric microcylinder cavities deposited onto gold and silver wires. The stimulated emission spectra featured a characteristic series of laser modes, with modal spacing corresponding to SPPs propagating at the interface between the metal and dielectric. A plasmonic microlaser adds to the toolbox of plasmonic devices and plasmonic metamaterials and enables on-chip plasmonic generation and loss compensation.     

Room-temperature strong coupling between dipolar plasmon resonance in single gold nanorod and two-dimensional excitons in monolayer WSe_2

All-solid-state strong coupling systems with large vacuum Rabi splitting energy have great potential applications in future quantum information technologies, such as quantum manipulations, quantum information storage and processing,and ultrafast optical switches. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs) have recently been explored as excellent candidates for the observation of solid-state strong coupling phenomena. In this work, from both experimental and theoretical aspects, we explored the strong coupling effect by integrating an individual plasmonic gold nanorod into the monolayer tungsten diselenide(WSe_2). Evident anti-crossing behavior was observed from the coupled energy diagram at room temperature; a Rabi splitting energy of 98 meV was extracted.     

平面金属等离激元美特材料对光学Tamm态及相关激射行为的增强作用

本文对具有类EIR色散特性的平面金属等离激元美特材料(planar plasmonic metamaterials, PPM)对光学Tamm态及相关激射行为的增强作用进行了研究. 我们首先运用传输矩阵方法分析了利用PPM结构的色散来增强光学Tamm态对应模式电磁局域密度的可能性. 其次, 我们将具有类EIR特性的PPM与一维光子晶体(photonic crystal, PC)合在一起设计了一种平面等离激元美特材料-光子晶体(PPM-PC)异质结构. 研究发现, 通过在电磁局域密度最高的PPM结构中(或附近)加入增益介质, 可观察到比通常光学Tamm态更强的激射增强效应及更明显的单色性响应. 这些特性使得这种PPM-PC结构有望被应用于低阈值激光器、荧光增强等方面.     

Enhancing coherent nonlinear-optical processes in nonmagnetic backward-wave materials

Novel concepts of nonlinear-optical (NLO) photonic metamaterials (MMs) are proposed. They concern with greatly enhanced coherent NLO energy exchange between ordinary and backward waves (BWs) through the frequency-conversion processes. Two different classes of materials which support BWs are considered: crystals that support optical phonons with negative group velocity and MMs with specially engineered spatial dispersion. The possibility to replace plasmonic NLO MMs enabling magnetic response at optical frequencies, which are very challenging to engineer, by the ordinary readily available crystals, are discussed. The possibility to mimic extraordinary NLO frequency-conversion propagation processes attributed to negative-index MMs (NIMs) is shown in some of such crystals, if optical phonons with negative group velocity and a proper phase-matching geometry are implemented. Here, optical phonons are used as one of the coupled counterparts instead of backward electromagnetic waves (BEMWs). The appearance of BEMWs in metaslabs made of carbon nanotubes, the possibilities and extraordinary properties of BW second harmonic generation in such MMs is another option of nonmagnetic NIMs, which is described too. Among the applications of the proposed photonic materials is the possibility of creation of a family of unique BW photonic devices such as frequency doubling metamirror and Raman amplifiers with greatly improved efficiency.     

Deviating from the nanorod shape: Shape-dependent plasmonic properties of silver nanorice and nanocarrot structures

Noble metallic nanostructures exhibit special optical properties resulting from excitation of surface plasmons. Among the various metallic nanostructures, nanorods have attracted particular attention because of their unique and intriguing shape-dependent plasmonic properties. Nanorods can support transverse and longitudinal plasmon modes, the latter ones depending strongly on the aspect ratio of the nanorod. These modes can be routinely tuned from the visible to the near-infrared spectral regions. Although nanorods have been investigated extensively, there are few studies devoted to nanostructures deviating from the nanorod shape. This review provides an overview of recent progress in the development of two kinds of novel quasi-one-dimensional silver nanostructures, nanorice and nanocarrot, including their syntheses, crystalline characterizations, plasmonic property analyses, and performance in plasmonic sensing applications.     

Effect of dimensionality on the spectra of hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals

Based on colloidal crystals of various dimensionality, hybrid metal-dielectric plasmonic-photonic heterocrystals have been prepared. It has been shown that the spectra of optical transmission of heterocrystals are mostly controlled by the sum of contributions of composing plasmonic and photonic crystals. At the same time, there are a number of phenomena caused by the mutual effect of heterostructure components, which lead to a deviation of observed optical properties from the linear superposition of responses of these crystals. In particular, it has been found that the anomalous transmission controlled by the plasmonic crystal decreases with increasing the dimensionality of the photonic crystal attached to it. At the same time, light reflection on a metallized surface changes light diffraction in photonic crystals and leads to Fabry-Perot oscillation amplification. It has been assumed that an intermediate layer is formed, in which Bloch modes of the photonic crystal and surface plasmon-polaritons of the plasmonic crystal are hybridized.     

Coupling-induced excitation of a forbidden surface plasmon mode of a gold nanorod

Using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, we simulate the coupling between a gold nanorod and gold nanoparticles with different plasmonic resonant frequencies/volumes as well as that between the nanorod and a dielectric nanosphere. The influences of coupling with different nanoparticles on the excitation of a forbidden longitudinal surface plasmon mode of the nanorod under normal incidence are investigated. It is found that the cause of this excitation is the broken symmetry of the local electric field experienced by the nanorod resulting from the charge pileup on the other nanoparticle. This result is valuable for understanding the near-field optical characterization of plasmonic metal nanoparticles. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10821062 and 10804004), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB307001), and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 200800011023) Contributed by GONG QiHuang     

Blue light emission and amplification in left-handed isotropic Metallo-Semiconductor Photonic Crystal

A new left-handed isotropic design of semiconductor Photonic Crystal with plasmonic (Aluminum) nanorod inclusion is analyzed and proposed to demonstrate All-Angle Negative Refraction (AANR) with blue light amplification. It is shown that the proposed structure provides negative real values of both permeability (μ) and permittivity (?) with extremely low imaginary values for visible light. Phase slope and phase velocity is shown to be negative for blue light for proposed left-handed structure. Index matched to the incident medium and compensated losses due the gain assistance lead the light amplification in the designed structure. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method is applied to study left-handed transmission and reflection properties. Extremely high Left-Handed Transmission Efficiency is calculated which is found to be more than 99% for the proposed structure. Fabrication tolerance with effect of change in plasmonic nanorod radius by ±10% is also analyzed. Further, left-handed transmission for blue light is confirmed by analyzing the far-field spectrums of the proposed structure obtained by employing 3D FDTD method. Demonstration and study of near-field and far-field resonance reveals the nano-photonic application potential of the proposed structure as directional optical nano-antenna, polarizer and filter.