Tuning the polarization states of optical spots at the nanoscale on the Poincaré sphere using a plasmonic nanoantenna

It is shown that the polarization states of optical spots at the nanoscale can be manipulated to various points on the Poincaré sphere using a plasmonic nanoantenna. Linearly, circularly, and elliptically polarized near-field optical spots at the nanoscale are achieved with various polarization states on the Poincaré sphere using a plasmonic nanoantenna. A novel plasmonic nanoantenna is illuminated with diffraction-limited linearly polarized light. It is demonstrated that the plasmonic resonances of perpendicular and longitudinal components of the nanoantenna and the angle of incident polarization can be tuned to obtain optical spots beyond the diffraction limit with a desired polarization and handedness.     

Manipulating near field polarization beyond the diffraction limit

We introduce a new optical nanoantenna structure with three-fold rotational symmetry. The proposed gold nanoantenna can produce a hot spot with circular polarization in the gap. The effect of the shape of the arms and geometrical imperfection on the optical response is examined. We introduce a figure of merit for practical applications that utilize the circular polarization. The figure of merit is more sensitive to changes of the geometry than the maximum near field amplitude or the maximum circular polarization. The relatively equivalent optical response of the proposed nanoantenna compared to its counterparts and its reasonable stability against small changes accompanied with its simpler structure design makes it more appropriate for experimentalists.     

Optical microscopy via spectral modifications of a nanoantenna

The existing optical microscopes form an image by collecting photons emitted from an object. Here we report on the experimental realization of microscopy without the need for direct optical communication with the sample. To achieve this, we have scanned a single gold nanoparticle acting as a nanoantenna in the near field of a sample and have studied the modification of its intrinsic radiative properties by monitoring its plasmon spectrum.     

Investigation of a slot nanoantenna in optical frequency range

Following the analogy of radio frequency slot antenna and its complementary dipole, we propose the implementation of a slot nanoantenna (SNA) in the optical frequency range. Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, we investigate the electromagnetic (EM) properties of a SNA formed in a thin gold film and compare the results with the properties of a gold dipole nanoantenna (DNA) of the same dimension as the slot. It is found that the response of the SNA is very similar to the DNA, like their counterparts in the radio frequency (RF) range. The SNA can enhance the near field intensity of incident field which strongly depends on its feedgap dimension. The resonance of the SNA is influenced by its slot length; for the increasing slot length, resonant frequency decreases whereas the sharpness of resonance increases. Besides, the resonance of the SNA is found sensitive to the thickness of metal film, when the latter is smaller than the skin depth. The effect of polarization of incident field on the EM response of the SNA was examined; the field enhancement is optimum when polarization is parallel to the feedgap. Finally, we calculate the radiation patterns of the DNA and SNA and compare them with those of the RF dipole antenna. The radiation pattern of the SNA is found to be independent of its slot length when excited at resonant frequency. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on a slot antenna in the optical frequency.     

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 abilities of gold and silver spherical nanoantennas in terms of size dependent multipolar resonance frequencies and plasmon damping rates

Absorbing and emitting optical properties of a spherical plasmonic nanoantenna are described in terms of the size dependent resonance frequencies and damping rates of the multipolar surface plasmons (SP). We provide the plasmon size characteristics for gold and silver spherical particles up to the large size retardation regime where the plasmon radiative damping is significant. We underline the role of the radiation damping in comparison with the energy dissipation damping in formation of receiving and transmitting properties of a plasmonic particle. The size dependence of both: the multipolar SP resonance frequencies and corresponding damping rates can be a convenient tool in tailoring the characteristics of plasmonic nanoantennas for given application. Such characteristics enable to control an operation frequency of a plasmonic nanoantenna and to change the operation range from the spectrally broad to spectrally narrow and vice versa. It is also possible to switch between particle receiving (enhanced absorption) and emitting (enhanced scattering) abilities. Changing the polarization geometry of observation it is possible to effectively separate the dipole and the quadrupole plasmon radiation from all the non-plasmonic contributions to the scattered light.     

影响单电子非线性汤姆孙散射因素的研究

应用电子汤姆孙散射的经典理论，通过理论分析和计算机模拟，研究了超短超强激光脉冲作用下电子产生的辐射脉冲的性质.计算表明，在这种情况下，电子的辐射通常以阿秒脉冲列的形式出现.讨论了不同激光场参数（包括激光强度、脉宽、初相位和偏振态）、不同电子初始状态（初始速度和位置）对辐射脉冲的时间和空间特性的影响.通常在相对论光强条件下，激光强度越大，电子辐射越强，脉宽越窄，中心频率越大，并且方向性越好；电子在线偏振激光中产生的辐射效率，比在同样强度下圆偏振激光中产生的效率更高；无论入射光是线偏振光，还是圆偏振光,辐射场呈现较复杂的偏振态, 并且它与辐射方向有关.当电子具有一定的初始能量时，通常辐射场的振幅随电子初始能量的增大而增大.不管电子的初始能量以及运动方向如何，做相对论运动的电子产生的辐射趋向于出现在靠近电子运动方向的角度区域.     

激光遥感偏振成像系统光学元件调整及误差分析

改进了利用双旋转波片方法进行偏振成像的实验装置,提出了通过一次测量获得目标偏振度和强度编码图像的方法.运用光强法对激光遥感偏振成像装置的光学元件进行调整,通过斯托克斯和穆勒矩阵在偏振光学元件中的应用,给出了相应光学元件的调整原理、方法及过程.分析了激光器中心波长变动、偏振片的角度误差和波片的相位延迟及角度误差对整个系统的影响.结果表明,由偏振片角度和波片角度误差造成的出射光斯托克斯误差较小,不超过0.001,可以忽略;由波片相位延迟不精确造成的误差在0.02左右,所以应采用延迟精度较高的波片;激光器中心波长变化的影响最大,不能忽略,必须加滤光片使接收光的中心波长控制在808nm;镀有铝膜望远镜对接收到的散射光偏振度影响较小,适于激光遥感偏振成像系统的应用.     

Chirality Driven by Magnetic Dipole Response for Demultiplexing of Surface Waves

Surface electromagnetic waves are characterized by the intrinsic spin‐orbit interaction which results in the fascinating spin‐momentum locking. Therefore, directional coupling of light to surface waves can be achieved through chiral nanoantennas. Here, we show that dielectric nanoantenna provides chiral response with strong spectral dependence due to the interference of electric and magnetic dipole momenta when placed in the vicinity of the metal‐air interface. Remarkably, chiral behaviour in the proposed scheme does not require elliptical polarization of the pump beam or the geometric chirality of the nanoantenna. We show that the proposed ultracompact and simple dielectric nanoantenna allows for both directional launching of surface plasmon polaritons on a thin gold film and their demultiplexing with a high spectral resolution.     

Observation of the simultaneous emission of roughness-coupled and optical-coupled surface plasmon radiation from silver

The optical excitation and decay of surface plasmons on Ag films is reported. The optical decay is observed as an annular cone of light when the substrate is in the form of a hemisphere. The polarization and angular distribution of this cone radiation is presented and compared to the roughness-coupled surface plasmon radiation simultaneously emitted from the Ag.     

Dual-Vivaldi wideband nanoantenna with high radiation efficiency over the infrared frequency band

A dual-Vivaldi nanoantenna is proposed to demonstrate the possibility of wideband operation at IR frequencies. The antenna geometry design is guided by the material properties of metals at IR frequencies. According to our numerical results, this nanoantenna has both high radiation efficiency and good impedance-matching properties over a wide frequency band (more than 122%) in the IR frequency band. The design is based on the well-known Vivaldi antenna placed on quartz substrate but operating as a pair instead of a single element. Such a pair of Vivaldi antennas oriented in opposite directions produces the main lobe in the broadside direction (normal to the axes of the antennas) rather than the usual peak gain along the axis (end fire) of a single Vivaldi antenna. The dual-Vivaldi nanoantenna is easy to fabricate in a conventional electron-beam lithography process, and it provides a large number of degrees of freedom, facilitating design for ultra-wideband operation.     

Mathematical modeling of random coupling between polarization modes in single-mode optical fibers: XVI. Depolarization and repolarization of polychromatic radiation in single-mode optical fibers with random inhomogeneities

The dependences of the degree of polarization of polychromatic radiation on the length of a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) with random inhomogeneities have been obtained by mathematical modeling. The case is considered where radiation having both polarization modes excited with equal weights of linear polarization is first introduced into a depolarizer of polychromatic radiation (a SMF segment with high linear birefringence) and arrives at an SMF with low linear birefringence. It is shown that the degree of polarization of radiation after transmission through the first segment becomes significantly suppressed and remains almost constant upon propagation through the second segment, after which it begins to sharply increase at some length; i.e., repolarization of radiation occurs. It is shown that repolarization of radiation depends weakly on the angle made by the axes of unperturbed linear birefringence of the first and second segments. The conditions for the length of the first segment (depolarizer) under which the degree of polarization remains minimum throughout the second segment are determined.     

Polarization Properties of Quantum-Dot-Based Single Photon Sources

Polarization properties of single photons emitted by optical pumping from a single quantum dot （ QD） are studied by using a four-level system model. The model is capable of explaining the polarization uncertainty observed in single photon emission experiments. It is found that the dependence of photon emission efficiency and polarization visibility on pump power are opposite in general cases. By employing QDs with small size and strong carrier confinement, the photon polarization visibility under high pump power can be improved. In addition, embedding a QD into a well designed microcavity is also found to be favourable, whereas the trade-off between high polarization visibility and multi-photon emission is noted.     

Optical transitions on a type II semiconductor interface in the empirical tight-binding theory

A tight-binding theory is elaborated for multilayer semiconductor heterostructures of type II in which the states of electrons and holes are dimensionally quantized in adjacent layers and overlap in a narrow region near the interface. The major effort is focused on the calculation of linear photoluminescence polarization induced by the anisotropy of chemical bonds on the ideal interface under the radiation along the axis of growth. An expression for the matrix element of the optical transition on the type-II interface under arbitrary polarization of the emitted photon is obtained. The treatment is based on the sp 3 tight-binding model. The effect of the interface tight-binding parameters considered as free ones on the linear photoluminescence polarization is analyzed. The theory allows for the giant linear photoluminescence polarization discovered in the ZnSe/BeTe heterostructure; it also predicts that the polarization plane usually coincides with the plane containing the chemical bonds at the heterojunction.     

Coherent backscattering under conditions of pulsed radiation trapping

Coherent backscattering of pulsed radiation emitted by optically dense atomic ensembles is considered. The diagrammatic technique is used for deriving analytic expressions for correlation functions of scattered light, which make it possible to take into account all main factors affecting the dynamics of the process, including the hyperfine and Zeeman structure of the ground and first excited states of atoms, polarization of probe radiation, the actual shape and size of an atomic cloud, its spatial inhomogeneity, motion of atoms, and angular-momentum polarization of atoms. On the basis of these relations, the time dependence of the total intensity and the dependence of enhancement factor of backscattered light on the pulse duration, type of polarization of the polarization system of observation, optical thickness of the scattering medium, and the carrier frequency of the pulse are investigated. The calculations are performed for an ensemble of rubidium-85 atoms cooled in magnetooptical traps.     

Interaction of solitons through radiation in optical fibers with randomly varying birefringence

Propagation of solitons in optical fibers is studied taking into account the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) effect. We show that the soliton interaction caused by the radiation emitted by solitons due to the PMD disorder leads to soliton jitter, and we find its statistical properties. The theoretical predictions are justified by direct numerical simulations.     

Effect of radiative transfer of heat released from combustion reaction on temperature distribution: A numerical study for a 2-D system

Both light and heat are produced during a chemical reaction in a combustion process, but traditionally all the energy released is taken as to be transformed into the internal energy of the combustion medium. So the temperature of the medium increases, and then the thermal radiation emitted from it increases too. Chemiluminescence is generated during a chemical reaction and independent of the temperature, and has been used widely for combustion diagnostics. It was assumed in this paper that the total energy released in a combustion reaction is divided into two parts, one part is a self-absorbed heat, and the other is a directly emitted heat. The former is absorbed immediately by the products, becomes the internal energy and then increases the temperature of the products as treated in the traditional way. The latter is emitted directly as radiation into the combustion domain and should be included in the radiation transfer equation (RTE) as a part of radiation source. For a simple, 2-D, gray, emitting-absorbing, rectangular system, the numerical study showed that the temperatures in reaction zones depended on the fraction of the directly emitted energy, and the smaller the gas absorption coefficient was, the more strong the dependence appeared. Because the effect of the fraction of the directly emitted heat on the temperature distribution in the reacting zones for gas combustion is significant, it is required to conduct experimental measurements to determine the fraction of self-absorbed heat for different combustion processes.     

Optical orientation effects in the secondary radiation of excitonic molecules

The spectrum of secondary radiation emitted from excitonic molecules under resonant two-photon excitation is investigated theoretically. Taking into account the optical orientation for the final exciton states of the emission process, we derive polarization and angular features of the radiation, reflecting directly the relaxation stage of the molecules.     

Spatial polarization sensitivity of single Au bowtie nanostructures

Metallic bowtie nanostructures as plasmonic nanoantennas can create highly enhanced local fields when resonating with the incident light. With Au bowtie nanostructures fabricated by lithography method, we experimentally observed that the photoluminescence (PL) spatial profile from a single Au bowtie nanoantenna was strongly dependent on the excitation light polarization. While varying the incident light polarization, the spatial distribution of the PL intensity in the nanogap of an Au bowtie changed as predicted by the simulation results on the electromagnetic field enhancement distribution. The polarization feature of the PL intensity relative to the polarization direction of incident excitation light was also discussed. The study may find application in the design of polarization sensitive plasmonic sensors.     

Input impedance, nanocircuit loading, and radiation tuning of optical nanoantennas

Here we explore the radiation features of optical nanoantennas, analyzing the concepts of optical input impedance, optical radiation resistance, impedance matching, and loading of plasmonic nanodipoles. We discuss how the concept of antenna impedance may be applied to optical frequencies and how its quantity may be properly defined and evaluated. We exploit these concepts in the optimization of nanoantenna loading by optical nanocircuit elements, extending classic concepts of radio-frequency antenna theory to the visible regime for the proper design and matching of plasmonic nanoantennas.