Optical bistability in nonlinear surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals

Nonlinear optical transmission through periodically nanostructured metal films (surface-plasmon polaritonic crystals) has been studied. The surface polaritonic crystals have been coated with a nonlinear polymer. The optical transmission of such nanostructures has been shown to depend on the control-light illumination conditions. The resonant transmission exhibits bistable behavior with the control-light intensity. The bistability is different at different resonant signal wavelengths and for different wavelengths of the control light. The effect is explained by the strong sensitivity of the surface-plasmon mode resonances at the signal wavelength to the surrounding dielectric environment and the electromagnetic field enhancement due to plasmonic excitations at the controlled light wavelengths.     

Enhanced light transmission through cascaded metal films perforated with periodic hole arrays

We report experimental results on enhanced light transmission through two periodically perforated metal films separated by a layer of dielectric. A perforated metal film (single metallic structure) exhibits extraordinary optical transmission, and when two such perforated metal films are spaced by a dielectric layer (cascaded metallic structure), the transmission is further increased. The maximum transmission of the cascaded metallic structure, which depends on the distance between the two metal films, can be more than 400% greater than that of a corresponding single metallic structure. It is proposed that the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons between the two metal films is involved in the process.     

Simultaneous low extinction and high local field enhancement in Ag nanocubes

We theoretically investigate surface plasmon resonance properties in Au and Ag cubic nanoparticles and find a novel plasmonic mode that exhibits simultaneous low extinction and high local field enhancement properties. We analyse this mode from different aspects by looking at the distribution patterns of local field intensity, energy flux, absorption and charge density. We find that in the mode the polarized charge is highly densified in a very limited volume around the corner of the nanocube and results in very strong local field enhancement. Perturbations of the incident energy flux and light absorption are also strongly localized in this small volume of the corner region, leading to both low absorption and low scattering cross section. As a result, the extinction is low for the mode. Metal nanoparticles involving such peculiar modes may be useful for constructing nonlinear compound materials with low linear absorption and high nonlinearity.     

Plasmon-phonon coupling in graphene-hyperbolic bilayer heterostructures

Polar dielectrics are important optical materials enabling the subwavelength manipulation of light in infrared due to their capability to excite phonon polaritons.In practice,it is highly desired to actively modify these hyperbolic phonon polaritons(HPPs) to optimize or tune the response of the device.In this work,we investigate the plasmonic material,a monolayer graphene,and study its hybrid structure with three kinds of hyperbolic thin films grown on SiO_2 substrate.The inter-mode hybridization and their tunability have been thoroughly clarified from both the band dispersions and the mode patterns numerically calculated through a transfer matrix method.Our results show that these hybrid multilayer structures are of strong potentials for applications in plasmonic waveguides,modulators and detectors in infrared.     

Application of plasmonic silver films in histology for contrast enhancement

We have studied the absorption spectra and micrographs of sections of cells of the epithelium and andenocarcinoma of the large intestine, immobilized between standard glass slides and cover glasses and plasmonic silver films. We have shown that when we use a microtome technique and specially selected plasmonic silver films, we can achieve enhancement of the image contrast in analysis of the cell morphology as a result of the increase in the light absorption and scattering cross sections with the contrasting stains hematoxylin and eosin.     

Plasmonically induced reflection in metal-insulator-metal waveguides with two silver baffles coupled square ring resonator

A plasmonic waveguide coupled system that is composed of a square ring cavity and a metal–insulator–metal(MIM)waveguide with two silver baffles is proposed. The transmission and reflection properties of the proposed plasmonic system are investigated numerically using the finite element method. The normalized H_z field distributions are calculated to analyze the transmission mode in the plasmonic system. The extreme destructive interference between light mode and dark mode causes plasmonically induced reflection(PIR) window in the transmission spectrum. The PIR window is fitted using the coupled mode theory. The analytical result agrees with the simulation result approximately. In addition, the PIR window can be controlled by adjusting structural parameters and filling different dielectric into the MIM waveguide and the square ring cavity. The results provide a new approach to designing plasmonic devices.     

Locally enhanced light–matter interaction of MoS2 monolayers at density-controllable nanogrooves of template-stripped Ag films

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers, such as MoS_2, possess a direct optical bandgap are useful for emerging ultrathin optoelectronics in the visible light range, whereas their thin thickness limits light absorption and emission properties. To address this drawback, one promising approach is to hybridize plasmonic nanostructures with monolayer TMDs to utilize local field enhancement effects owing to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Herein, we propose a strong enhancement of the local light–matter interaction in MoS₂ monolayers on naturally generated nanoscale grooves. The nanogrooves are formed at grain boundaries (GBs) of template-stripped metal film substrates that are fabricated by mechanically stripping Ag films deposited on an ultra-flat Si substrate, wherein the nanogroove densities are systematically modulated by the Ag film thickness. We observe an effective photoluminescence enhancement factor of 758 and a Raman spectroscopy intensity enhancement of approximately 5 times in MoS₂ on the subwavelength-scale nanogrooves, compared with that on grain planes, which is attributed to a strong local field enhancement of the LSPR effect. Moreover, this plasmonic enhancement effect is elucidated by dark-field scattering spectroscopy and optical simulations. Our results can facilitate the utilization of density-controllable plasmonic nanogrooves synthesized without nanopatterning techniques for plasmonic hybrids on 2D semiconductors.     

Super-transmission of light through subwavelength annular aperture arrays in metallic films: Spectral analysis and near-field optical images in the visible range

This paper presents experimental studies of the enhanced light transmission through metallic films pierced by subwavelength annular apertures. Two different methods (e-beam lithography and focused ion beam) have been used to build the nano-structures. We have experimentally recorded their far-field spectral response in the visible range and the optical near-field above the nano-structures when they are excited at 633 nm. The spectral response exhibits a transmission peak at 700 nm with maximum efficiency around 16%. The near-field exhibits a characteristic two-lobe structure just above the aperture. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations reproduce quite well the experimental results.     

Experimental studies of extraordinary light transmission through periodic arrays of subwavelength square and rectangular holes in metal films

We fabricate a series of periodic arrays of subwavelength square and rectangular air holes on gold films, and measure the transmission spectra of these metallic nanostructures. By changing some geometrical and physical parameters, such as array period, air hole size and shape, and the incident light polarization, we verify that both global surface plasmon resonance and localized waveguide mode resonance are influential on enhancing the transmission of light through nanostructured metal films. These two resonances induce different behaviours of transmission peak shift. The transmission through the rectangular air-hole structures exhibits an obvious polarization effect dependent on the morphology. Numerical simulations are also made by a plane-wave transfer-matrix method and in good consistency with the experimental results.     

Extremely-broad band metamaterial absorber for solar energy harvesting based on star shaped resonator

A new metamaterial absorber (MA) is investigated and shown numerically for solar energy harvesting for future solar cell applications. The structure consists of two metals and one dielectric layer having different thicknesses. Owing to this combination, the structure exhibits plasmonic resonance characteristics. In the entire spectrum of visible frequency region, the obtained results show that investigated structure has perfect absorptivity which is above 91.8%. Proposed structure also has 99.87% absorption at 613.94 THz and 99% absorption between 548 and 669 THz. The proposed structure also shows both polarization and angle independency for the entire visible region. The MA based solar cell proposes high absorption with an upper ratio of 90% in the widest range of visible spectrum comparing to the studies in literature. Hence, the proposed metamaterial absorber solar cells can be used for invisibility in entire spectrum of visible light. The absorption characteristics of the solar absorber are also investigated for infrared and ultraviolet region. The enhancement of absorption of the structure will provide new type of sensors in these frequency ranges.     

Plasmonically enhanced optical transmission through a metalized nanostructured photonic crystal fiber taper

A subwavelength holey plasmonic structure was proposed by adiabatically tapering a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and subsequently metalizing the cleaved end facet. By coupling a white light into the PCF side, we experimentally observed an enhanced optical transmission in the spectral domain through the plasmonic structure at the tapered end. We further showed numerically that the proposed device renders a focused directional beam, due to its Fresnel-zone-like configuration and the plasmonic lensing effects.     

介电常数近零模式与表面等离激元模式耦合实现宽带光吸收

介电常数为零或近零模式在微纳结构中提供了一个新的方式调控光与物质的相互作用.本文首先利用金属圆盘阵列结构激发了表面等离激元共振,在共振频率处实现了光的局域效果;然后通过在金属-绝缘体-金属超表面微纳结构中加入掺杂半导体材料,利用上层金属圆盘阵列激发的表面等离激元共振诱导介电常数近零模式的产生,从而使得介电常数近零模式与表面等离激元模式发生耦合,在中红外波段实现了一个470 nm的宽带吸收效果;数值模拟结果显示,在宽带吸收处存在光场的强局域效果.与窄带吸收相比,宽带吸收有更广泛的应用,比如吸收器、传感器、滤波器、微测辐射热计、光电探测器、相干热发射器、太阳能电池、指纹识别和能量收集装置等.     

External-resonance-enhanced transmission of light through sub-wavelength holes

Using plasmonic resonances of metal films, enhanced transmission of light through sub-wavelength holes has been demonstrated. Here we show that external resonances can be employed as well: the transmission of 1.5-μm wavelength light through 600-nm holes is enhanced by a factor of 20 using a Fabry–Pérot arrangement. The maximal enhancement factor is determined by the limited reflectivity of metal surfaces. It seems promising to combine both effects—plasmonic resonances plus tailored photonic-crystal structures on top of the metal film—in order to realize efficient sub-wavelength light sources as they are required for, e.g., advanced spectroscopy and lithography.     

Visible light transmission properties of double metal thin gold films with sub-wavelength hole arrays

The transmission spectrum of linearly polarized visible light through double metal thin films perforated with nano-hole arrays is investigated and simulated by using the three dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the transmission spectra can be controlled by changing the longitudinal interval G between films and, their lateral displacements L_x and L_y, which are parallel and perpendicular to the polarization direction of the incident light, respectively. We have two important peaks (due to guided mode and SP mode) in these spectrums. The variation in longitudinal distance results a wavelength shift in guided mode peak of transmission spectrum while the wavelength of SP mode peak remains fixed. The lateral displacement L_x leads to the higher transmission of the guided mode peak, while the lateral displacement L_y suppresses the transmission of this peak. Here we try to discuss the physical explanations of these spectral behaviours by surface plasmon waves on the metal films and by using the concepts of surface plasma (SP) and guided modes in our double metal structure.     

光解水的原子尺度机理和量子动力学

利用阳光直接将水分解为不含碳的氢气燃料和氧气是面向全球能源危机环保且低成本的解决方案.得益于电子结构理论和量子模拟方法的进步,人们已经能够直接研究在纳米颗粒上等离激元诱导光解水过程在原子尺度上的反应机理和超快动力学.本文简述近年来的相关工作进展.吸附在氧化物薄膜上的金纳米颗粒很有希望成为水分解的高效新型光催化剂.在光激发条件下,水分解反应速率和光强、热电子转移之间有强相关性.水分解速率不仅取决于光吸收强度,还受到等离激元量子振动模式的调控.这对于太阳能光解水器件中纳米颗粒的设计有借鉴意义.我们发现液态水在金团簇等离激元催化下100 fs内就能产生氢气.超快量子动力学模拟表明,该过程中场增强起主导作用,从金属到水反键态的超快电荷转移也扮演着重要角色.综合这些原子尺度上的量子动力学研究,我们提出受激水分子中氢原子高速碰撞(速度远远超出其热速度)合成氢分子的"链式反应"机理.     

Control of plasmonic wave propagating in nanocavity with tooth-shaped configuration

Characteristics of plasmonic wave propagating in nanocavity formed by two silver films are studied numerically. The groove etched inside wall of the top film makes it possible to control the propagation when light goes through the top film along a nanoslit into the cavity. It is found that the transmission wave through the channel of groove etched side can be filtered linearly with the groove of a certain depth; while the other side is still open for this wave and its intensity can be enhanced periodically with the variable groove position in both films, which are explained well based on the interference of plasmonic waves in the system.     

Plasmonic Bragg reflectors based on metal-embedded MIM structure

We propose and investigate a metalembedded metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure plasmonic Bragg reflector (PBR) using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method with PMLs (perfectly matched layers) boundary conditions. It improves the performance of conventional step profile MIM PBRs to some extent. Our numerical study reveals that the metal-embedded PBRs exhibit lower insertion loss, narrower bandgap, and reduced rippling in the transmission spectrum when compared with the step PBRs at the same normalized index contrast and transmission levels. The defect mode of the metal-embedded PBRs also exhibits higher transmission. To suppress the sidelobes in the transmission spectrum, we further smooth the end of the embedded metal, which demonstrates a better performance. Then, we find with respect to the Bragg wavelength, the longer wavelengths have a tendency to spread in the wider regions of the insulator layer; however, the shorter wavelengths have a tendency to spread in the embedded metal regions. The apodized PBRs with the embedded metal length decreasing (increasing) efficaciously suppress the ripples at the right (left) band edges. Then, we use the impedance theoretical model to explain this phenomenon. Finally, we realize a flat-top transmission band filter by connecting two apodized PBRs, and the band and center wavelength can be adjusted.     

Visible transmission through metal-coated colloidal crystals

Large-scale periodically structured metal films with enhanced optical transmission in visible frequencies were fabricated by depositing silver onto colloidal crystals. The obtained transmission properties are similar to those observed through periodical hole arrays in planar metal films. We have experimentally observed two enhanced transmission pass bands in visible frequencies in these metal films due to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. The peak positions of the pass bands depend on the size of the colloidal spheres. The transmission spectra highly depend on the incident angle for p-polarized light but are weak for s-polarized light. Our fabrication method provides a promising approach for the fabrication of large-scale low-cost plasmonic crystals with submicrometer periodicity.     

Direct imaging of localized surface plasmon polaritons

In this Letter, we report on dark field imaging of localized surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in plasmonic waveguiding bands formed by plasmonic coupled cavities. We image the light scattered from SPPs in the plasmonic cavities excited by a tunable light source. Tuning the excitation wavelength, we measure the localization and dispersion of the plasmonic cavity mode. Dark field imaging has been achieved in the Kretschmann configuration using a supercontinuum white-light laser equipped with an acoustooptic tunable filter. Polarization dependent spectroscopic reflection and dark field imaging measurements are correlated and found to be in agreement with finite-difference time-domain calculations.     

Multi-band giant circular dichroism based on conjugated bilayer twisted-semicircle nanostructure at optical frequency

Plasmonic circular dichroism (CD) effect has been drawn great attention increasingly for its wide application in the fields of bio-sensing, biological detection, pharmaceuticals, and analytical chemistry. In this paper, we propose a chiral metasurface (CMS) to achieve strong multi-band CD effect at optical frequency. The designed CMS is composed of a periodic array of conjugated bilayer twisted-semicircle nanostructures. The numerical simulation results show that the CMS can produce strong multi-band CD effect due to the different coupling resonance modes under the excitations of left-handed circular polarization (LCP) light and right-handed circular polarization (RCP) light. It is shown that the chiral-selective absorption peaks can reach 89.4% and 95% for LCP light, 79% and 78.2% for RCP light, and the maximum CD is about 0.69 and −0.61 at 198.75 THz and 352.25 THz, 0.69 and −0.54 at 291.75 THz and 402.25 THz, respectively. The mechanism of the giant CD effect of the CSM has been revealed by analyzing the coupling mode of electric dipoles on the top and bottom layer through surface current distributions. Furthermore, the geometric parameter dependences of CD effect in the proposed CMS have been also studied numerically. The present results will guide the design of plasmonic chiral nanostructures for enhancing the CD effect.