表面等离激元光热效应研究进展

表面等离激元微纳结构能够将光场束缚在亚波长尺度,实现突破光学衍射极限的光操控,并显著增强光与物质的相互作用.在基于表面等离激元机理的光电器件研究中,微纳结构的自身光吸收通常被认为是损耗,而通过光热效应,光吸收则可有效利用并转换成热能,其中的物理过程研究和应用是当前等离激元学领域的热点方向.本文回顾了近年来表面等离激元微纳结构光热效应的相关工作,聚焦于表面等离激元热效应的物理过程、热产生和热传导调控方式的研究进展.在此基础上,介绍了表面等离激元微纳结构在微纳加工、宽谱光热转换等方面的应用.     

微纳螺旋凹槽结构检测光子自旋角动量

建立螺旋凹槽结构模型,具有不同自旋角动量的光束入射到该结构后激发表面等离激元,螺旋凹槽结构的螺旋性与光子自旋角动量耦合,使得不同自旋偏振光激发的表面等离激元具有不同的强度分布.通过螺旋凹槽激发的表面等离激元的强度分布获得入射光的自旋角动量.利用有限元方法计算了左旋偏振光与右旋偏振光激发的表面等离激元在螺旋凹槽中心的光场强度比,最大消光比达到168,实现对光子的自旋角动量的检测.在数值仿真中,分析了不同入射光波长的消光比,入射光波长在600～740nm范围内消光比高于50,其中入射光波长为670nm时的检测效果最佳;此外,研究螺旋凹槽结构参量对消光比的影响,当凹槽宽度为200nm,凹槽深度为70nm,匝数为2时,消光比最大,螺旋凹槽结构检测光子自旋角动量的能力最强.该研究可为集成光学中光子自旋角动量的检测提供一种新途径.     

表面增强光学力与光操纵研究进展

金属纳米结构在光激发下产生的表面等离激元,可导致亚波长光场局域、近场增强等效应,在表面增强光谱、超灵敏传感、微流控芯片、光学力等方面有重要的应用.对于光学力而言,首先,由于表面等离激元共振及其导致的电场增强对于入射波长、几何结构等具有较强的依赖性,而光学力又与电场分布密切相关,所以可利用光镊(会聚光束)来操纵或筛选金属纳米颗粒;其次,入射光激发金属纳米颗粒聚集体后,在间隙形成的较大的近场增强和梯度,也可看作一种"等离激元镊",用于操纵其他颗粒;最后,当入射光的偏振改变甚至为新型光束的情况下,光学操纵将具有更高的自由度.本文首先简要介绍了表面等离激元增强光学力的计算;之后围绕光镊作用于等离激元金属纳米颗粒,等离激元镊作用于其他颗粒,与偏振、新型光场或手性结构相关的等离激元光学力这三个方面,综述了近年来表面等离激元金属纳米颗粒光学力和光操纵的一些新进展;最后提出了表面增强光学力与光操纵的若干研究趋势.     

矩形纳米狭缝超表面结构的近场增强聚焦调控

为了实现对入射光的近场亚波长增强聚焦,设计了一种由内部矩形纳米狭缝圆环阵列和外部多圆环狭缝构成的超表面结构,得到了该结构激发的表面等离激元电场表达式,并从物理机理上解释了该结构中心聚焦及增强聚焦的原理.利用时域有限差分方法仿真研究了该超表面结构在不同偏振态入射光下的激发场聚焦特性.根据理论推导与仿真结果可得,该结构在波长为980 nm的圆偏振光入射下于近场的金属表面结构中心处生成半高宽为650 nm左右的亚波长聚焦光斑,其场分布为近似的第一类贝塞尔函数.与单一的矩形纳米狭缝圆环阵列结构相比,带有外部多圆环狭缝的复合结构具有更好的增强聚焦效果,使得中心焦斑强度提升了一倍,且更有利于对激发场进行调控.除此之外,还讨论了任意偏振方向的线偏振光入射结构激发的电场,得到了电场的解析表达式,即入射光偏振角的正弦函数包络乘上第一类贝塞尔函数.本文的研究对基于超表面结构的亚波长光调控有一定的指导意义,在光镊、亚波长尺度光信息传输与处理等领域也有一定的应用价值.     

介质填充型二次柱面等离激元透镜的亚波长聚焦

本文提出了一种亚波长聚焦的表面等离激元透镜,该透镜由二氧化硅填充金膜纳米狭缝阵列组成,金膜的出射表面为二次柱面.表面等离激元在狭缝入口处激发并沿狭缝传输,在狭缝出口转变为带有一定相位延迟的自由空间传播的光波.通过对透镜结构参数的控制,可以调节来自各狭缝的光波间的相对相位,使它们在设定的焦点处进行相长干涉,从而实现聚焦效果.本文用时域有限差分法数值计算了二次柱面等离激元透镜的聚焦特性.数值模拟结果表明,所设计的孔径为2μm的透镜,能够实现微米级焦距和焦深、且焦斑半高宽低至0.4倍波长的亚波长聚焦.该表面等离激元透镜结构简单紧凑、尺寸小,有利于光子器件的集成,在集成光学、光学微操纵、超分辩率成像、光存储、生化传感等相关领域有潜在的应用价值.     

金属表面等离激元耦合理论研究进展

金属表面等离激元作为一种微纳米结构中自由电子在光场作用下的集体振荡效应,由于其振荡电场被强烈地束缚在亚波长尺度范围内,可以作为未来微纳米光子回路及器件的信息载体,同时也可以在微纳米尺度上增强光与物质的相互作用.本文首先系统地从理论上总结金属与入射电磁波相互作用时的光学行为及性质,然后简述激发金属中不同等离激元模式的物理本质、金属表面等离激元振荡动力学过程及当前表面等离激元耦合理论的最新进展.     

环形狭缝腔阵列光学特性的研究

设计了一种六角密排的二维环形纳米腔阵列结构, 利用时域有限差分算法对该结构的光学特性进行了探究. 仿真结果表明, 在线性偏振光入射时, 环形腔内可以形成多重圆柱形表面等离激元谐振, 谐振波长的个数和大小与环形腔的结构参数相关. 根据透、反射光谱, 电场矢量的模式分布及截面电荷密度的分布, 谐振波长处形成圆柱形表面等离激元, 谐振波长处入射光能量大部分在环形腔内损耗, 此时反射率为极小值, 环形腔内的电场增强效应为极大值(光强增强可达1065倍). 谐振波长与环形腔的结构参数(狭缝内径、狭缝外径、膜厚、环境介质折射率、金属的材质)相关, 通过调节结构参数, 谐振波长在350–2000 nm范围内可调. 通过对比相同结构参数的单个环形腔和环形腔阵列的仿真结果, 周期排布对环形腔内的圆柱形表面等离激元吸收峰位置影响不明显. 该结构反射光谱对入射光电矢量偏振方向不敏感. 谐振波长的可调控性对于表面拉曼增强和表面等离激元共振传感器的设计与优化具有指导性意义, 且应用于折射率传感器时灵敏度可达1850 nm/RIU.     

手性等离激元纳米晶制备技术的研究进展

生命体中大部分生物分子都具有手性。生物分子的手性构象与等离激元纳米晶的局域表面等离激元共振(LSPR)通过偶极子-偶极子耦合作用,在其LSPR的位置会诱导出一个新的圆二色吸收光谱,具有这种光学活性的等离激元纳米晶称为手性等离激元纳米晶。手性等离激元纳米晶的光学响应信号的稳定性和可重复性都比较高,广泛应用在生物传感、化学传感、圆偏振器、光催化、癌症治疗等领域。手性等离激元纳米晶的制备技术一直是该领域的研究热点。然而,通过将手性分子直接吸附在等离激元纳米晶表面的方式所诱导的手性光学响应信号非常弱,故本综述聚焦于手性等离激元纳米晶的其他制备技术,包括通过手性分子或者软模板组装技术获得手性等离激元超结构;湿化学法将手性分子嵌入到单个纳米晶当中制备出核-壳型手性等离激元纳米晶,或者将手性分子的手性构象传递到无机纳米材料的结构当中制备出单个螺旋型手性等离激元纳米晶等。基于目前对手性等离激元纳米晶的最新研究进展,对其纳米制备技术作了进一步的总结和展望。     

人工微纳结构增强长波及甚长波红外探测器

红外探测器具有把物体辐射的光子信息转换为电信号的能力,拓宽了人们观察自然环境与人类活动的边界.当前,长波及甚长波红外探测器已在大气监测、夜间侦查、深空探测等领域有诸多应用.随着各国对高端红外探测器要求的快速提升,传统红外探测器难以兼顾高响应率、高响应速度以及多维探测等性能指标的瓶颈日益凸显.基于微纳光学理论设计的人工微纳结构,可实现其与红外光子的高效耦合,综合调控红外光场的振幅、偏振、相位及波长等自由度.为拓展红外探测器额外的调控自由度,进而在实现高量子效率的同时,兼顾较高的响应速率与优异的偏振或波长选择性,集成红外探测器与人工微纳结构的研究思路近年来被广泛应用.本文讨论了人工微纳结构在长波及甚长波红外探测领域的应用进展,详述了表面等离激元、局域等离激元、谐振腔结构、陷光结构、超透镜、赝表面等离激元、间隙等离激元和声子极化激元等机制的应用现状及各机制固有的优劣势,进而指出了人工微纳结构在长波及甚长波红外探测应用的发展前景与方向.     

十字结构银纳米线的表面等离极化激元分束特性

金属纳米线波导可以将光局域在亚波长尺度内传播, 在纳米光子集成回路方面有着重要的作用. 本文应用有限元方法, 研究了十字结构银纳米线的表面等离极化激元分束特性. 结果表明, 不同模式的表面等离极化激元在十字结构三个分支的输出依赖于端面的几何结构参数. 此外, 研究还发现由于不同模式表面等离极化激元叠加, 在十字结构的分支上出现了周期性电场分布.     

Observation of the spin-based plasmonic effect in nanoscale structures

Observation of surface-plasmon phenomena that are dependent upon the handedness of the circularly polarized incident light (spin) is presented. The polarization-dependent near-field intensity distribution obtained in our experiment is attributed to the presence of a geometric phase arising from the interaction of light with an anisotropic and inhomogeneous nanoscale structure. A near-field vortex surface mode with a spin-dependent topological charge was obtained in a plasmonic microcavity. The remarkable phenomenon of polarization-sensitive focusing in a plasmonic structure was also demonstrated.     

径向偏振光下的长焦、紧聚焦表面等离子体激元透镜

表面等离子体激元透镜(plasmonic lens, PL)是一种通过激发和操控表面等离子体激元 (SPPs), 突破衍射极限, 实现亚波长紧聚焦的纳米光子器件. 如何实现高效率的紧聚焦及调控, 一直是研究PL的重点. 如果选取电矢量沿径向振动的径向偏振光作为PL的入射光, 可从各个方向激发SPPs, 提高紧聚焦的能量效率. 本文提出了一种在径向偏振光激发下的长焦深、长焦距、亚波长紧聚焦的表面等离子体激元透镜, 该透镜由中心T 形微孔、阶梯形同心环和同心环结构组成. 本文首先利用有限元方法数值分析了中心微孔-同心环结构透镜的聚焦特性, 结果显示径向偏振光由底部入射可高效激发SPPs, 并且中心微孔透射光与散射至自由空间的SPPs由于多光束干涉形成了紧聚焦. 为进一步压缩焦斑、增加焦距、加深焦深、改善透镜聚焦特性, 本文引入中心T形微孔-阶梯形同心环结构, 从而对阶梯表面的SPPs同时提供了相位调制和传播方向的控制. 经过参数优化, 该透镜结构实现了光斑焦深、半高宽、焦距分别是入射光波长的2.5倍、0.388 倍、3.22倍的亚波长紧聚焦; 而且该透镜具有结构紧凑、尺寸小、易于集成的优点, 满足了纳米光子学对于器件微型化和高度集成化的要求. 该研究结果在纳米光子集成、近场光学成像与探测、纳米光刻等相关领域具有潜在的应用价值.     

基于Pancharatnam-Berry相位和动力学相位调控纵向光子自旋霍尔效应

提出了一种基于Pancharatnam-Berry相位和动力学相位操控纵向光子自旋霍尔效应的方法.理论分析表明:当光场通过一个由Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜和动力学相位透镜构成的透镜组时,透镜组会存在两个自旋相关的焦点.首先,当左旋和右旋圆偏振光通过微结构相位延迟为π的Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜时,由于Pancharatnam-Berry相位的自旋相关性,两个圆偏振分量会获得符号相反的Pancharatnam-Berry相位而导致其中一个被聚焦而另一个发散.然后,在Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜后再插入普通透镜引入动力学相位调制,由于动力学相位是自旋无关,使得这一透镜组,可以在合适的条件下使不同自旋态的光子分别聚焦于纵向上不同焦点处.纵向自旋分裂由两透镜焦距及间距共同决定,因此可以通过改变两个透镜的焦距及其间距获得任意的纵向自旋分裂值.最后,搭建了一套实验装置,所得实验结果与理论结果一致.     

Investigation of Near-Field Imaging Characteristics of Radial Polarization for Application to Optical Data Storage

Radially polarized incident light can generate a more confined longitudinal electric field on a focal plane in near-field (NF) optics than focusing circularly polarized light. Using this phenomenon, it is feasible to reduce beam spot size on storage media to increase the areal density of optical data storage. A radially polarized beam generates a beam spot which is 20% more confined on the 1st surface of medium than that of circularly polarized light. However, the peak intensity of total electric field sharply decreases and its transverse component is much more dominant inside the media stack. This confirms that radially polarized optics can be a candidate not for an NF recording system but for an NF read-only memory (ROM) system. Potentially, the results could be useful to understand the effect of radial and circular polarizations inside and outside medium for various applications of NF optics.     

Controllable and switchable chiral near-fields in symmetric graphene metasurfaces

A strong chiral near-field plays significant roles in the detection, separation and sensing of chiral molecules. In this paper, a simple and symmetric metasurface is proposed to generate strong chiral near-fields with both circularly polarized light and linearly polarized light illuminations in the mid-infrared region. Owing to the near-field interaction between plasmonic resonant modes of two nanosheets excited by circularly polarized light, there is a strong single-handed chiral near-field in the gap between the two graphene nanosheets and the maximum enhancement of the optical chirality could reach two orders of magnitude. As expected, the intensity and the response wavelength of the chiral near-fields could be controlled by the Fermi level and geometrical parameters of the graphene nanosheets, as well as the permittivity of the substrate. Meanwhile, based on the interaction between the incident field and scattered field, the one-handed chiral near-field in the gap also could be generated by the linearly polarized light excitation. For the two cases, the handedness of the chiral near-field could be switched by the polarized direction of the incident light. These results have potential opportunities for applications in molecular detection and sensing.     

Circularly polarized localized near-field radiation at the nanoscale

Diffraction-limited circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation has been widely used in the literature for various applications at both optical and microwave frequencies. With advances in nanotechnology, emerging plasmonic nano-optical applications, such as all-optical magnetic recording, require circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation beyond the diffraction limit. In this study, a plasmonic cross-dipole nano-antenna is investigated to obtain a circularly polarized near-field optical spot with a size smaller than the diffraction limit of light. A cross-dipole nano-antenna is composed of four metallic nano-rods placed at a perpendicular orientation with respect to each other. The performance of the nano-antenna is investigated through numerical simulations. In the first part of this study, the nano-antenna is illuminated with a diffraction-limited circularly polarized radiation. An optimal antenna geometry is specified to obtain an intense optical spot that satisfies two necessary conditions for circular polarization: a phase difference of 90° and a unit amplitude ratio between the electric field components in the vicinity of the antenna gap. In the second part of this study, the nano-antenna is illuminated with diffraction-limited linearly polarized radiation. It is shown that the phase difference between the electric field components can be adjusted by selecting either different antenna lengths or different gap distances in the vertical and horizontal directions. Due to the relatively short wavelength of surface plasma waves on the antenna, it is demonstrated that the phase difference can be sufficient to obtain circularly polarized light. An optimal physical configuration for the nano-antenna and the polarization angle of the incident light is identified to obtain a circularly polarized optical spot beyond the diffraction limit from diffraction-limited linearly polarized radiation.     

基于金属表面等离子激元控制光束的新进展

表面等离子激元(Surface plasmon polaritons,SPPs)是一种在金属-介质界面上激发并耦合电荷密度起伏的电磁振荡,具有近场增强、表面受限、短波长等特性,在纳米光子学的研究中扮演着重要角色。近年来表面等离子光学和基于SPPs的纳米光子器件的研究引起了国际上科学家们的广泛关注。讨论了SPPs的基本原理和在亚波长结构下的光学特性,介绍了基于亚波长金属结构的表面等离子激元在空间光束准直与聚焦、平面内光束聚焦与传导和在近场纳米光束的控制等方面的研究情况,以及在纳米光子学器件中的潜在应用。     

线性偏振光激发的错位表面等离子体激元纳米结构聚焦

利用扫描近场光学显微镜观测并分析了两种表面等离子体激元纳米结构对表面等离子体激元(SPP)的激发和聚焦现象.用线偏振光照射有半个周期相位差的环状沟槽结构与有半个周期位相差的环状狭缝结构,得到了单点的SPP聚焦.有限时域差分法的模拟结果验证了实验中观测的现象.这两种相位错位的表面等离子体激元纳米结构,突破了由于干涉导致的线偏振光不能得到单个聚焦点的限制.与采用径向偏振光激发而得到单个聚焦点的方法相比,线偏振光不需要聚焦,也不需要将光束中心对准纳米结构的几何中心即可得到单点聚焦。     

Spin-controlled directional launching of surface plasmons at the subwavelength scale

In this paper, we demonstrate a spin-controlled directional launching of surface plasmons at the subwavelength scale.Based on the principle of optical spin's effect for the geometric phase of light, the nanostructures were designed. The inclination of the structures decides the spin-related geometric phase and their relative positions decide the distance-related phase. Hence, the propagation direction of the generated surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) can be controlled by the spin of photons. Numerical simulations by the finite difference time domain(FDTD) method have verified our theoretical prediction. Our structure is fabricated on the Au film by using a focused ion beam etching technique. The total size of the surface plasmon polariton(SPP) launcher is 320 nm by 180 nm. The observation of the SPP launching by using scanning near-field optical microscopy is in agreement with our theory and simulations. This result may provide a new way of spin-controlled directional launching of SPP.     

Surface-plasmon vortices in nanostructured metallic films

Light scattering by a small protrusion on a metal surface is analyzed within the framework of perturbation theory. Upon normal incidence of a linearly polarized monochromatic wave, slight deviations of the protrusion’s shape from a circularly symmetric one lead to the formation of optical vortices in the near-field region due to resonant excitation of circular surface plasmons. This agrees with the results of scanning near-field optical microscopy experiments revealing distinct spiral patterns in the in-plane near-field intensity distribution for metallized nanostructured polymer substrates.