Evidence for confined tamm plasmon modes under metallic microdisks and application to the control of spontaneous optical emission

We demonstrate strong confinement of the optical field by depositing a micron sized metallic disk on a planar distributed Bragg reflector. Confined Tamm plasmon modes are evidenced both experimentally and theoretically, with a lateral confinement limited to the disk area and strong coupling to TE polarized fields. Single quantum dots controllably coupled to these modes are shown to experience acceleration of their spontaneous emission when spectrally resonant with the mode. For quantum dots spectrally detuned from the confined Tamm plasmon mode, an inhibition of spontaneous emission by a factor 40±4 is observed, a record value in the optical domain.     

Nonlinear Tamm states in layered metal–dielectric metamaterials

We study nonlinear surface modes at the edge of metal–dielectric nanostructured metamaterial with a nonlinear surface layer. We demonstrate that such semi‐infinite structures can support transverse electric (TE) polarized surface states with subwavelength localization near the surface, an optical analogue of the Tamm states, even in the cases when the surface modes do not exist in the linear regime. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Optical Tamm mode based refractometer in all-dielectric configuration

Optical Tamm (OT) modes formed at the interface of distributed-Bragg reflector (DBR) and low-index dielectric material, exhibit strong dispersive features at optical frequencies which gives rise to the possibility of designing refractometer with improved sensitivity. Using this idea, we design a TiO₂/SiO₂ based DBR configuration for sensing refractive-index changes around 1.33 using spectral-interrogation as well as angular-interrogation method. Dispersion characteristics of OT modes in the DBR configuration are tailored to obtain spectral sensitivity ∼1200 nm/RIU and angular sensitivity ∼40°/RIU for both transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations. We also show that the sensitivity could be substantially tuned over a wide range by appropriately choosing the thicknesses of DBR constituent layer. An all-dielectric DBR configuration gives rise to the possibility of realizing refractometer in any desired spectral region by linearly translating the dispersive behavior of photonic bandgap (PBG) guided OT modes.     

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.     

Light localization in nonuniformly randomized lattices

We address Anderson localization of light in disordered optical lattices where the disorder strength varies across the transverse direction. Such variation changes the preferred domains where formation of localized eigenmodes is most probable, hence drastically impacting light localization properties. Thus, step-like disorder results in formation of modes with different decay rates at both sides of the interface, while a smoothly varying disorder yields appearance of modes that are extended within weakly disordered domains and rapidly fade away in strongly disordered domains.     

基于塔姆激元-表面等离极化激元混合模式的单缝加凹槽纳米结构的增强透射

金属单缝纳米结构因为结构简单、易于集成,常用在基于表面等离极化激元(surface plasmon polaritons,SPPs)的纳米结构中构建光源.但是,金属亚波长单缝结构一直存在透射率低的问题,如何提高其透射率一直是研究的重点.为了更好地提高金属亚波长单缝的透射率,本文对之前文献提出的分布式布拉格反射镜(distributed bragg reflector,DBR)和金属银薄膜纳米缝结构进行改进,在金属银薄膜两侧设计凹槽.当TM偏振光由DBR侧入射至DBR-银纳米缝结构时,DBR-银膜界面上和银膜入射侧凹槽一起激发的塔姆激元(Tamm plasmon polaritons,TPPs)和SPPs,以及纳米缝和银膜出射侧凹槽对的SPPs同时激发,利用凹槽激发的SPPs和银膜表面处的TPPs-SPPs混合模式的干涉相长耦合作用,通过塔姆激元的局域场增强效应和两侧凹槽与单纳米缝的干涉相长耦合作用进一步提高了表面等离极化激元模式的激发效率,再加上纳米缝中的类法布里-珀罗腔共振效应,使纳米缝的透射率得到增强.本文采用有限元方法研究了DBR-银纳米缝结构上单纳米缝加凹槽的透射特性.经过一系列参数优化,使DBR-银纳米缝凹槽结构的最大透射率增加到0.22,相对于TiO_2-银纳米缝结构的透射率(0.01)提高了22倍,比文献[23]得到的最大透射率0.166有所提高.研究结果在纳米光源设计、光子集成电路和光学信号传输等相关领域具有一定的应用价值.     

Back focal plane imaging of Tamm plasmons and their coupled emission

The unique optical properties of Tamm plasmons (TPs) – such as flexible wavevector matching conditions including inplane wavevector within the light line, and existing both S‐ and P‐polarized TPs − facilitate them for direct optical excitation. The Tamm plasmon‐coupled emission (TPCE) from a combined photonic–plasmonic structure sustaining both surface plasmons (SPs) and TPs is described in this paper. The sensitivity of TPCE to the emission wavelength and polarization is examined with back focal plane imaging and verified with the numerical calculations. The results reveal that the excited probe can couple with both TPs and SPs, resulting in surface plasmon‐coupled emission (SPCE) and TPCE, respectively. The TPCE angle is strongly dependent on the wavelength allowing for spectral resolution using different observation angles. These Tamm structures provide a new tool to control the optical emission from dye molecules and have many potential applications in fluorescence‐based sensing and imaging.     

基于金属狭缝阵列的各向异性偏振分束器

在金属-电介质结构的基础上提出了一种基于金属狭缝阵列的各向异性偏振分束器,并采用有限元法研究了横磁(TM)和横电(TE)偏振光入射后结构所表现出的负反射和镜面反射等特性.计算结果表明,当偏振光的入射角设定在20?—70?时,入射的TM光发生强烈的负反射,而TE光的负反射很弱,并随着波长的增加而急剧下降.分析可得偏振分束光栅的理想负反射点和反射面的完美对称响应效果.通过仿真得到了理想负反射点的取值范围.结合严格耦合波法软件,计算不同偏振光入射时负反射和镜面反射条件下的反射率,其消光比高达10~6.     

Enhancing terahertz photonic spin Hall effect via optical Tamm state and the sensing application

The photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE), characterized by two splitting beams with opposite spins, has great potential applications in nano-photonic devices, optical sensing fields, and precision metrology. We present the significant enhancement of terahertz (THz) PSHE by taking advantage of the optical Tamm state (OTS) in InSb-distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) structure. The spin shift of reflected light can be dynamically tuned by the structural parameters (e.g. the thickness) of the InSb-DBR structure as well as the temperature, and the maximum spin shift for a horizontally polarized incident beam at 1.1 THz can reach up to 11.15 mm. Moreover, we propose a THz gas sensing device based on the enhanced PSHE via the strong excitation of OTS for the InSb-DBR structure with a superior intensity sensitivity of 5.873×10⁴ mm/RIU and good stability. This sensor exhibits two orders of magnitude improvement compared with the similar PSHE sensor based on InSb-supported THz long-range surface plasmon resonance. These findings may provide an alternative way for the enhanced PSHE and offer the opportunity for developing new optical sensing devices.     

Tamm plasmon polaritons in composite structures composed of the metal film and truncated photonic crystals

Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPPs) are studied theoretically and experimentally in heterostructures and sandwiched structures with the metallic film and truncated photonic crystals. Different from conventional surface plasmon polaritons, TPPs can be realized in both the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations, and they can be excited from a free space. Because of nonreciprocal electromagnetic field distributions of TPPs, the structures possess strongly nonreciprocal absorption and reflection. Moreover, two tunneling peaks or a narrow transmission band can be realized in sandwiched structures for both polarizations due to the coupling effect between two TPPs.