Integration of optical pulses by resonant diffraction gratings

The possibility of integrating optical pulses by resonant diffraction gratings has been considered. It has been shown that a diffraction grating provides integration of the pulse envelope in the vicinity of quasiguided-mode resonances. The integration is performed with an exponential weight function, whose decay rate is deter-mined by the quality factor of the resonance. Metallic diffraction gratings for integration of picosecond pulses have been computed. The calculation of the grating eigenmodes with the use of the scattering-matrix method has shown that the integration is performed in the vicinity of the resonances corresponding to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons at the grating boundary. According to the results of numerical simulation, the integration quality is quite high.     

Apodization‐Assisted Subdiffraction Near‐Field Localization in 2D Phase Diffraction Grating

Conventional phase diffraction gratings can be used to localize the incoming optical radiation in the near‐field region. A new design of the binary phase diffraction grating is proposed with embedded pupil opaque mask inside each stripe. By means of numerical simulations, it is shown that with this masked phase grating the spatial resolution of the near‐field localization can be substantially improved and brought even beyond the solid immersion limit (λ/2n). Moreover, due to anomalous apodization effect, the subdiffraction field localization is accompanied by intensity enhancement as compared to the non‐masked design. The pupil mask rearranges the optical fluxes within the stripes and promotes the Fano resonances excitation in the periodic step lattice. This can be important for advancing the phase grating‐based super‐resolution technologies, including subdiffraction imaging, interferometry, and surface fabrication.     

Dependence of surface enhanced Raman scattering on the plasmonic template periodicity

Surface enhanced Raman scattering has been investigated from rhodamine 6G molecules embedded in polymethyl methacrylate (R6G+PMMA) and coated on one-dimensional and two-dimensional gold-dielectric gratings fabricated by laser interference lithographically. The Raman signals from these plasmonic templates are 200 to 400 times larger than the signal from R6G+PMMA coated on plain gold films. The enhancement of the Raman signal varies almost periodically with the period of the grating. Finite-difference time-domain simulations show that large electromagnetic near fields occur at the metallic edges due to the resonant excitation of localized surface plasmon of the gold patches by the pump laser. These give rise to large enhancements of the Raman signal. The dependence on period is due to the combined effects of the localized surface plasmon and the periodic grating that couples the pump laser to the surface plasmon polariton.     

Observation of frequency-locked coherent terahertz Smith-Purcell radiation

We report the observation of enhanced coherent Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR) at terahertz (THz) frequencies from a train of picosecond bunches of 15 MeV electrons passing above a grating. SPR is more intense than other sources, such as transition radiation, by a factor of Ng, the number of grating periods. For electron bunches that are short compared with the radiation wavelength, coherent emission occurs, enhanced by a factor of Ne, the number of electrons in the bunch. The electron beam consists of a train of Nb bunches, giving an energy density spectrum restricted to harmonics of the 17 GHz bunch train frequency, with an increased energy density at these frequencies by a factor of Nb. We report the first observation of SPR displaying all three of these enhancements, NgNeNb. This powerful SPR THz radiation can be detected with a high signal to noise ratio by a heterodyne receiver.     

Plasmon resonances in deep nanogrooves of reflective metal gratings

Metallic gratings with very deep and narrow grooves are fabricated and their reflection spectra are characterized, which explicitly show high-order standing-wave-like resonances of surface plasmons in the cavity of nanogrooves. The effect of in-plane surface plasmon resonance is also observed, which is shown to have only a minor role on the reflection of such gratings, unlike that for shallow gratings. Using numerical simulations, the cavity resonances and their effects on the reflection of the gratings are identified and further analyzed. As field is more enhanced in the nanogrooves under cavity resonance conditions, the enhancement is also found to be dependent on the grating period, i.e. the strongest enhancement takes place for higher-order resonance modes for smaller grating period. For gratings with shallower grooves, comparable enhancement of field is also achievable by proper design of the grating period. The study suggests that field enhancement can be realized at selective wavelengths in a wide spectrum range using cavity resonances in the deep nanogrooves of metal gratings, and the position for field-enhancement can be tuned by the depth and period of the gratings.     

Laser-induced forces in metallic nanosystems: the role of plasmon resonances

We present calculations of the laser-induced force between metallic nanospheres, similar and dissimilar in character, and that between a metallic nanosphere and a planar surface. When the separation between these objects is in the 0.5-2 nm range, we find very strong resonances in the laser-induced force associated with excitation of plasmon resonances. Measurement of such forces will provide direct access to the plasmon enhancements of laser fields so critical to optical spectroscopy in the nanoenvironment.     

Enhanced second-harmonic generation from resonant GaAs gratings

We theoretically study second harmonic generation in nonlinear, GaAs gratings. We find large enhancement of conversion efficiency when the pump field excites the guided mode resonances of the grating. Under these circumstances the spectrum near the pump wavelength displays sharp resonances characterized by dramatic enhancements of local fields and favorable conditions for second-harmonic generation, even in regimes of strong linear absorption at the harmonic wavelength. In particular, in a GaAs grating pumped at 1064?nm, we predict second-harmonic conversion efficiencies approximately 5 orders of magnitude larger than conversion rates achievable in either bulk or etalon structures of the same material.     

Superradiant optical emitters coupled to an array of nanosize metallic antennas

We study the properties of an array of Au ring nanoantennas fed by an ensemble of coherent emitters. The luminescence of the emitters is strongly enhanced at certain wavelengths due to the excitation of two types of resonances-the diffractive Rayleigh anomalies associated with the opening of new diffraction orders and the localized surface plasmons of the nanoantennas. We show that the two families of resonances can spectrally overlap and lead to anticrossings or cumulative enhancements depending on the symmetries of the modes. This rich optical behavior induces marked changes in the linewidth, shape, and amplitude of the peaks and could be potentially used to tune the luminescence of superradiant sources with new flexibility.     

Understanding fractional-order surface plasmons

We show experimentally that diffraction-induced surface plasmon excitation can mimic enhanced transmission and cause a highly sensitive modulation by the coherent interference between zero-order and reflected first-order diffraction in select regions of the terahertz spectrum. Based on the study of a one-dimensional metallic grating, we obtain the physical mechanisms of the fractional-order surface plasmon resonances observed with the two-dimensional grating of the metallic hole array.     

Anomalous transmission of terahertz wave through one-dimensional lamellar metallic grating

The anomalous transmission through one-dimensional lamellar metallic gratings was investigated in terahertz (THz) regime. The extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) is identified to originate from two possible ways: coupling of incident light with waveguide resonances and coupling of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the upper and lower interfaces of metal grating. The dual effects of SPPs have been clarified in this study: (i) the excitation of SPP modes at each individual interface results in the weakness of the THz wave transmission; and (ii) the coupling of SPP modes at two interfaces of metal grating is attributed to enhancement of THz wave transmission. The enhanced transmission is dominated by the coupling of incident light with transverse waveguide resonances. Numerical simulation based on finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) agrees well with experimental results.     

Hybrid waveguide-surface plasmon polariton modes in a guided-mode resonance grating

We analyze the coupling between surface plasmon polaritons in a metal grating and the guided modes of a dielectric waveguide. Our model structure is a gold wire grating on a slab waveguide made of silicon nitride on silica wafer. The excitation of guided-mode resonances, surface plasmon polariton modes and hybrid waveguide-plasmon modes are observed in numerical simulations. Our experiments verify the existence of the predicted modes. These hybrid modes add significant degrees of freedom in designing structures for plasmonic applications.     

Nonlinear regime of the excitation of a surface electromagnetic wave on the silicon surface by an intense femtosecond laser pulse

A surface electromagnetic wave has been excited on an atomically smooth silicon surface by an intense infrared femtosecond laser pulse as a result of its self-diffraction on a microscale short-lived optical inhomogeneity of the excitation region rather than on the roughness of its surface relief. This wave has been visualized in the form of the pattern of its interference with the same incident infrared ultrashort pulse, which corresponds to the instantaneous surface dielectric constant grating (reflection), as well as the resulting surface relief grating, using time-resolved far-field optical reflection microscopy.     

Resonance phenomena of π-mode forming in multi-element gratings

An analysis of resonances of scattering from multi-element grating formed by a finite number of resonant elements is presented. It has been shown that gratings with three and more elements on its period can support the π-mode. The π-mode of a grating is characterized by the existence of the regions in the vicinity of the grating and along its period where the electromagnetic field has opposite phases. The existence and excitation of the π-mode in finite gratings with resonant cells formed by several scatterers having open cavities have been studied. The particular case of the grating with cells formed by three identical slotted cylinders has been considered in detail. An application of gratings which support the π-mode in electron-vacuum oscillators of millimeter waves for efficient deceleration of electrons and extracting energy from electron beam is discussed.     

Charge transfer effects in surface enhanced Raman scattering

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) due to charge transfer interactions between the adsorbed molecule and the metal surface is analyzed using the semiempirical Wolfsberg-Helmholz method¹ to relate the molecule-surface interactions and the resulting charge transfer states to the overlap integrals between the metal conduction-band orbitals and an acceptor or donor molecular orbital of the molecule. Calculations for the model system of ethylene adsorbed on silver (approximated as a simple cubic metal with tight binding wave functions constructed from Ag 5s valence orbitals), with charge-transfer excitation of an electron from the metal to the antibonding ethylene π orbital, show that charge-transfer Raman enhancements of the order of 10 to 1000 are possible if the charge-transfer band is partially resonant with the exciting radiation. The net enhancement is the product of the charge-transfer gain and the electrodynamic enhancement due to plasmon resonances at surface roughness elements. Symmetric vibrations usually will be enhanced substantially more than nonsymmetric ones by charge-transfer because, in contrast to non-resonant Raman scattering, the vibrational coupling is primarily Franck- Condon (due to differences in the equilibrium nuclear configurations of the ground and excited charge transfer states and the resulting nonorthogonality of different vibrational sublevels of these states) rather than Herzberg-Teller (due to vibrationally induced changes in the electronic wave functions). The charge-transfer mechanism is selective with the most enhanced vibrations involving those atoms which experience the greatest change in electron density between the ground and excited charge-transfer state. A recent report of SERS for benzene on platinum,² strongly suggests charge-transfer enhancement because the electromagnetic-field-enhancing plasmon resonances are strongly damped in this metal.The complete paper will be published in the December 1, 1982 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics.     

1H and 129Xe NMR absorption line shapes in the presence of highly polarized and concentrated xenon solutions in high magnetic field

The presence of highly concentrated dissolved laser-polarized xenon (approximately 1mol/L, polarization up to 0.2) induces numerous effects on proton and xenon NMR spectra. We show that the proton signal enhancements due to (129)Xe-(1)H cross-relaxation (SPINOE) and overall shifts of the proton resonances due to the average dipolar shift created by the intense xenon magnetization are correlated. Protons behave as very useful sensors of the xenon magnetization. Indeed the xenon resonances exhibit many features such as superimposition of narrow lines on the main resonance due to clustering effects, or such as a polarization-dependent line broadening that is tentatively assigned to the effects of temperature fluctuations that decorrelate some distant dipolar field effects from local interactions, transforming xenon spins from "like" to "unlike" spins. These spectral features make difficult the determination of the average dipolar field by means of the xenon resonance but have interesting consequences on the heteronuclear polarization transfer experiment in Hartmann-Hahn conditions (SPIDER).     

Ferromagnetic resonance in interacting magnetic microstrips

The results of the micromagnetic simulation of forced oscillations of the magnetization in a system of two interacting microstrips located at an angle to each other have been presented. The ferromagnetic resonance spectra and the mode composition of resonant oscillations of the system have been investigated under the conditions of magnetostatic and exchange interactions between the microstrips. It has been shown that the magnetostatic interaction leads to the possibility of the excitation of in-phase and out-of-phase coupled oscillations of the magnetization of the microstrips. In the systems of exchange-coupled microstrips, there are intense resonances due to oscillations of the domain walls. The transformation of the ferromagnetic resonance spectrum and the change in the mode composition of resonant oscillations in different equilibrium configurations of the magnetization of the system have been discussed, as well as the conditions for the excitation of oscillations of different types depending on the direction of the microwave magnetic field.     

Proton-Electron Double-Resonance Imaging of pH Using Phosphonated Trityl Probe

Variable radio frequency proton-electron double-resonance imaging (VRF PEDRI) enables extracting a functional map from a limited number of images acquired at pre-selected EPR frequencies using specifically designed paramagnetic probes with high-quality spatial resolution and short acquisition times. In this work we explored the potential of VRF PEDRI for pH mapping of aqueous samples using recently synthesized pH-sensitive phosphonated trityl radical, pTR. The ratio of Overhauser enhancements measured at each pixel at two different excitation frequencies corresponding to the resonances of protonated and deprotonated forms of pTR probe allows for a pH map extraction. Long relaxation times of pTR allow for pH mapping at EPR irradiation power as low as 1.25 W during 130 s acquisition time with spatial resolution of about 1 mm. This is particularly important for in vivo applications enabling one to avoid sample overheating by reducing RF power deposition.     

Reply to “comment on ‘resonant electric field enhancement in the vicinity of a bare metallic grating exposed to s-polarized light’ by E. Popov and L. Tsonev”

Popov and Tsonev's comments deal with an aluminum grating whereas our predictions of resonant field enhancements applied to a silver grating. They show that an aluminum grating absorbs, on the average, all the more incident visible light the deeper are the grooves. This results has already been obtained by other authors and is much less pronounced at longer wavelenghts so as to leave the possibility of resonant field enhancements for s-polarized infrared radiation striking aluminum gratings.     

Silver nanoparticle coverage dependence of surface-enhanced Raman scattering

We report surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from 4-mercaptopyridine adsorbed on nanotextured silver surfaces as the coverage of silver is varied. The degree of surface enhancement is strongly dependent on silver coverage and correlated to the extinction of the surface at the Raman excitation wavelength, that extinction being determined by multiparticle surface plasmon resonances. The coverage dependence of the Raman intensity is consistent with signals being dominated by molecules at junctions inside nanoparticle aggregates where electromagnetic energy is localized into “hot spots” by interactions of the incident and scattered fields with the surface plasmons. The Raman intensity drops precipitously near the conductivity percolation threshold because these hot spots are destroyed when conducting paths allow plasmons to propagate. Our approach to substrate preparation provides clean surfaces with average enhancements ≥10⁷, an order of magnitude larger than typical for SERS. PACS 78.67.-n; 78.68.+m; 33.20.Fb     

Resonances on metallic compound transmission gratings with subwavelength wires and slits

We investigate the response of gratings formed by subwavelength wires in a dielectric medium. For gratings with a single wire per period, most of the incident power is transmitted through the structure. If the distance between adjacent wires is small enough, the excitation of waveguide modes can lead to reflection resonances. However, only when the period is formed by several wires (compound grating), new degrees of freedom are introduced for the phase distribution of the field inside the slits, allowing a new class of resonances analyzed in this letter. We give numerical examples illustrating the combined effect produced by both types of resonances in the grating response.