Metallic nanowires for subwavelength waveguiding and nanophotonic devices

Plasmonics is a rapidly developing field concerning light manipulation at the nanoscale with many potential applications, of which plasmonic circuits are promising for future information technology. Plasmonic waveguides are fundamental elements for constructing plasmonic integrated circuits. Among the proposed different plasmonic waveguides, metallic nanowires have drawn much attention due to the highly confined electromagnetic waves and relatively low propagation loss. Here we review the recent research progress in the waveguiding characteristics of metallic nanowires and nanowire-based nanophotonic devices. Plasmon modes of both cylindrical and pentagonal metallic nanowires with and without substrate are discussed. Typical methods for exciting and detecting the plasmons in metallic nanowires are briefly summarized. Because of the multimode characteristic, the plasmon propagation and emission in the nanowire have many unique properties, benefiting the design of plasmonic devices. A few nanowire-based devices are highlighted, including quarter-wave plate, Fabry-Prot resonator, router and logic gates.     

Plasmon-assisted transparency in metal-dielectric microspheres

We present a theoretical analysis of light scattering from a layered metal-dielectric microsphere. The system consists of two spherical resonators coupled through concentric embedding. Solving for the modes of this system, we find that near an avoided crossing the scattering cross section is dramatically suppressed, exhibiting a tunable optical transparency. Similar to electromagnetically induced transparency, this phenomenon is associated with a large group delay, which in our system is manifest as flat azimuthal dispersion.     

Phase-controlled gain-assisted slow light propagation in three-coupled quantum wells

The low-intensity light pulse propagation through three-coupled semiconductor quantum wells is studied with the Schrödinger equations. Phase-controlled slow light propagation with little gain is observed in this system. For its flexible design and its wide adjustable parameters, such a semiconductor system is better than its atomic counterpart. Such investigation of properties may provide a new way for realizing slow light and lead to important applications in high-fidelity optical delay lines and optical buffers.     

Magnetooptical effects in metal-dielectric plasmonic systems

Enhancement of magneto-optical effects in two-layer systems composed of perforated metal and magnetized dielectric films is theoretically predicted. The transmission and magneto-optical effect spectra of such systems are calculated and the conditions are determined that make it possible to enhance the Faraday effect by an order of magnitude in comparison with homogeneous magnetized films.     

平面金属介质复合体的负磁化率

We report a new type of planar metamaterial consisting of a pair of homogeneous parallel plates sep arated by a thin medium. Strong magnetic response and negative effective permeability are observed in the materials at wavelengths from 6. 9 um to 5.8 um. The resonant wavelength and the value of the negative permeability can be tuned by varying the structure dimensions. Such planar metamaterials can be easily fabricated with mature thin film technology and are of great potential for device applications.     

平面金属介质复合体的负磁化率(英文)

We report a new type of planar metamaterial consisting of a pair of homogeneous parallel plates separated by a thin medium. Strong magnetic response and negative effective permeability are observed in the materials at wavelengths from 6.9 μm to 5.8 μm. The resonant wavelength and the value of the negative permeability can be tuned by varying the structure dimensions. Such planar metamaterials can be easily fabricated with mature thin film technology and are of great potential for device applications.     

Spontaneous emission enhancement in metal-dielectric metamaterials

We study the spontaneous emission of a dipole emitter imbedded into a layered metal-dielectric metamaterial. We demonstrate ultra-high values of the Purcell factor in such structures due to a high density of states with hyperbolic isofrequency surfaces. We reveal that the traditional effective-medium approach greatly underestimates the value of the Purcell factor due to the presence of an effective nonlocality, and we present an analytical model which agrees well with numerical calculations.     

Magnetooptical effects in the metal-dielectric gratings

A significant enhancement of the magnetooptical Faraday effect in the bilayer heterostructure of a thin metallic layer pierced by an array of parallel subwavelength slits and a uniform dielectric layer magnetized perpendicular to its plane, is reported. Calculations, based on the rigorous coupled-wave analysis of Maxwell’s equations, demonstrate that in such structures the Faraday effect spectrum has several resonance peaks in the near-infrared range, some of them coinciding with transmittance peaks, providing simultaneous large Faraday rotation enhanced by an order and high transmittance of about 35%. It is shown that the excitation of the quasi-guided TM- and TE-modes in the dielectric layer mostly governs the enhancement of the Faraday rotation.     

The giant enhancement of Fano-type resonance in a gain-assisted silicon slab array

Giant resonance enhancement is demonstrated to be due to the Fano interference in a grating waveguide composed of gain-assisted silicon slabs. The Fano mode is characterized by its ultra-narrow asymmetric spectrum, different from that of a pure electric or magnetic dipole. The simulation indicates that a sharp Fano-interfered lineshape is responsible for the giant resonance enhancement featuring the small-gain requirements.     

Effective optical constants in stratified metal-dielectric metameterial

Effective optical constants of stratified metal-dielectric metameterial are presented. The effective constants are determined by the two-complex reflectivity method (TCRM). The TCRM reveals the full components of the effective permittivity and permeability tensors and indicates the remarkable anisotropy of metallic and dielectric components below the effective plasma frequency. On the other hand, above the plasma frequency, one of the effective refractive indices takes a positive value less than unity and is associated with small loss. The photonic states are confirmed by the distribution of electromagnetic fields.     

Near-field intensity correlations in semicontinuous metal-dielectric films

Spatial intensity correlation functions are obtained from near-field scanning optical microscope measurements of semicontinuous metal-dielectric films. The concentration of metal particles on a dielectric surface is varied over a wide range to control the scattering strength. At low and high metal coverages where scattering is weak, the intensity correlation functions exhibit oscillations in the direction of incident light due to excitation of propagating surface waves. In the intermediate regime of metal concentration, the oscillatory behavior is replaced by a monotonic decay as a result of strong scattering and anomalous absorption. Significant differences in the near-field intensity correlations between metallic and dielectric random systems are demonstrated.     

Resonant mode oscillations in modulated waveguiding structures

We put forward the concept of resonant, Rabi-like oscillatons and adiabatic transitions between confined light modes in properly modulated multimode waveguides. The phenomenon is shown to take place in both the linear and the nonlinear regimes. In addition, we find that the mode transitions occur not only in simple geometries, but also in complex confining multimode structures. The phenomenon is analogous to the familiar stimulated state transitions that occur in multilevel quantum systems.     

Plasmonic Zener tunneling in metal-dielectric waveguide arrays

We elucidate in this Letter plasmonic Zener tunneling (PZT) in metal-dielectric waveguide arrays (MDWAs) by using numerical simulations and theoretical analyses. PZT in MDWAs occurs at the waveguide entrance and wherever the beam completes Bloch oscillations, because the bandgap between the first and second bands is minimal at the center of the first Brillouin zone. This feature significantly differs from that of optical Zener tunneling in dielectric waveguide arrays. The dependence of the simulated tunneling rate on the gradient of the relative permittivity of the dielectric layers correlates with the tunneling theory, thus confirming the occurrence of PZT in MDWAs.     

Plasmonic Bloch oscillations in cylindrical metal-dielectric waveguide arrays

This study investigates plasmonic Bloch oscillations (PBOs) in cylindrical metal-dielectric waveguide arrays (MDWAs) by performing numerical simulations and theoretical analyses. Optical conformal mapping is used to transform cylindrical MDWAs into equivalent chirped structures with permittivity and permeability gradients across the waveguide arrays, which is caused by the curvature of the cylindrical waveguide. The PBOs are attributed to the transformed structure. The period of oscillation increases with the wavelength of the incident Gaussian beam. However, the amplitude of oscillation is almost independent of wavelength.     

Strong field localization in subwavelength metal-dielectric optical waveguides

Detailed calculations of eigenmodes of waveguiding structures made of silver and glass and containing coaxial cables with a nanoscale cross section of different configurations are conducted. In particular, the study focuses on optical coaxial waveguides with the core made in the form of a thin metallic cylinder filled with a dielectric. We show that these waveguides support relatively low-loss propagation of radiation that is strongly localized in the central region, has phase velocity approaching the speed of light and predominant electric-field orientation (dipole type). Optical characteristics of such waveguides are compared with those of coaxial-type waveguides containing a continuous central filament made of metal and with a multilayer structure. Using numeric modeling, we established that the proposed type of the waveguide enables the transmission of an optical image with relatively low losses with a submicron resolution over a distance considerably longer than its cross section. A typical propagation length in the waveguides based on silver and glass with the refractive index of about 1.5 at a wavelength of 500 nm is about 1700 nm.     

Effective electromagnetic response of nanostructured metal-dielectric metamaterials

The optical properties of metamaterial layers have been analyzed by the scattering matrix method. The properties of effective ɛ and μ, reconstructed from the transmittance and reflectance of metamaterial layers of finite thickness using the inverse Fresnel formulas, are discussed. It is shown that the optical response of nanostructured metal-dielectric metamaterials is strongly nonlocal and dissipative. Original Russian Text ? S.G. Tikhodeev, 2009, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Fizicheskaya, 2009, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 95–97.     

Plasmon mode transformation in modulated-index metal-dielectric slot waveguides

The concept of adiabatic mode transformation between silicon waveguide and surface plasmon-polariton modes in subwavelength metal-dielectric slots is investigated. The mode transformer consists of a modulated-index slot region, which is bound by two metal slabs. Using the design scheme, we will show that the optical dispersion of a modulated-index metal slot waveguide can be engineered well above the silicon light-line on a large wavelength region, allowing direct phase-matching between surface plasmon polaritons and traditional waveguide modes. Based on full-field, finite difference simulations, we demonstrate that reversible mode conversion can be achieved within submicrometer length scales.     

Excitonic waveguiding and lasing in wide bandgap semiconductor

New type of structures for optoelectronics, we refer to as excitonic waveguides, are proposed and realized. Oppositely to conventional waveguides and double-heterostructure lasers, no significant difference in the average refractive index between the cladding and the active layers is necessary, and these regions can be fabricated from the same matrix material (homojunction laser). In this approach: (i) the waveguiding effect has a resonant nature and appears on the low-energy side of the strong exciton absorption peak in agreement with the Kramers-Kronig transformation; (ii) the absorption peak is induced by nanoscale island-like insertions of narrow-gap material in a wide bandgap matrix (quantum dots), preventing free-carrier screening of excitons and, simultaneously, allowing lasing resonant to the spectral range of the enhanced refractive index. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 843–845 (May 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Reproduced here with stylistic changes by the Translation Editor.     

One-dimensional polariton solitons and soliton waveguiding in microcavities

We extend our recent results [O.A. Egorov et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 153904 (2009)] on half-light–half-matter polariton solitons in planar semiconductor microcavities operating in the strong coupling regime. We initiate discussion on the structure of the solitons in the momentum space and its link to the instability of the upper branch of the polariton bistability loop. Numerical results showing the soliton excitation by a seed pulse are presented.