Spontaneous hot-electron light emission from electron-fed optical antennas
Mickael Buret, Alexander V. Uskov, Jean Dellinger, Nicolas Cazier, Marie-Maxime Mennemanteuil, Johann Berthelot, Igor V. Smetanin, Igor E. Protsenko, Gérard Col… 展开作者
Mickael Buret, Alexander V. Uskov, Jean Dellinger, Nicolas Cazier, Marie-Maxime Mennemanteuil, Johann Berthelot, Igor V. Smetanin, Igor E. Protsenko, Gérard Colas-des-Francs, Alexandre Bouhelier
Nanoscale electronics and photonics are among the most promising research areas providing functional nano-components for data transfer and signal processing. By adopting metal-based optical antennas as a disruptive technological vehicle, we demonstrate that these two device-generating technologies can be interfaced to create an electronically-driven self-emitting unit. This nanoscale plasmonic transmitter operates by injecting electrons in a contacted tunneling antenna feedgap. Under certain operating conditions, we show that the antenna enters a highly nonlinear regime in which the energy of the emitted photons exceeds the quantum limit imposed by the applied bias. We propose a model based upon the spontaneous emission of hot electrons that correctly reproduces the experimental findings. The electron-fed optical antennas described here are critical devices for interfacing electrons and photons, enabling thus the development of optical transceivers for on-chip wireless broadcasting of information at the nanoscale.
The present work deals with a theoretical research on the emission and radiation properties of a dipole emitter source close to a dimer graphene plasmonic antenna. Modification of the radiation and the quantum efficiencies resulting from varying the position of the emitter and the orientation of its dipole moment are calculated by using a rigorous electromagnetic method based on Green's second identity. Large enhancements in the emission and the radiation of the emitter occur due to the coupling with the antenna surface plasmons in the spectral region from 4THz to 15THz. Our results show that …
We demonstrate that in photonic gap antennas composed of an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) layer embedded within a high-index dielectric, hybrid modes emerge from the strong coupling between the ENZ thin film and the photonic modes of the dielectric antenna. These hybrid modes show giant electric field enhancements, large enhancements of the far-field spontaneous emission rate and a unidirectional radiation response. We analyze both parent and hybrid modes using quasinormal mode theory and find that the hybridization can be well understood using a coupled oscillator model. Under plane wave illuminati…
We provide a pedagogical introduction to the concept of the local density of optical states (LDOS), illustrating its application to both the classical and quantum theory of radiation. We show that the LDOS governs the efficiency of a macroscopic classical antenna, determining how the antenna's emission depends on its environment. The LDOS is shown to similarly modify the spontaneous emission rate of a quantum emitter, such as an excited atom, molecule, ion, or quantum dot that is embedded in a nanostructured optical environment. The difference between the number density of optical states, the …
Integration of photon pairs nanosources is a major challenge for quantum technology. In this context, we develop a formalism for the investigation of Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion in hybrid structures that combine plasmonic resonances and intrinsic nonlinearity. Using quantum and numerical approaches together, we quantitatively evaluate photon pair correlation measurements for realistic experimental configurations. Hybrid structures embedding a small nanocystal allow for a $10^{3}$ fold increase in pair production compared to the same nanocrystal alone and a photon pair production eff…
We model the broadband enhancement of single-photon emission from color centres in silicon carbide nanocrystals coupled to a planar hyperbolic metamaterial, HMM resonator. The design is based on positioning the single photon emitters within the HMM resonator, made of a dielectric index-matched with silicon-carbide material. The broadband response results from the successive resonance peaks of the lossy Fabry Perot structure modes arising within the high-index HMM cavity. To capture this broadband enhancement in the single photon emitters spontaneous emission, we placed a simple gold based cyli…
Optical nanoantennas have shown a great capacity for efficient extraction of photons from the near to the far-field, enabling directional emission from nanoscale single-photon sources. However, their potential for the generation and extraction of multi-photon quantum states remains unexplored. Here we demonstrate experimentally the nanoscale generation of two-photon quantum states at telecommunication wavelengths based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion in an optical nanoantenna. The antenna is a crystalline AlGaAs nanocylinder, possessing Mie-type resonances at both the pump and the bi…
A central challenge in quantum technologies based on atom-like defects is the efficient collection of the emitter's fluorescence. Optical antennas are appealing as they offer directional emission together with spontaneous emission rate enhancement across a broad emitter spectrum. In this work, we introduce and optimize metal-dielectric nanoantenna designs recessed into a diamond substrate and aligned with quantum emitters. We analyze trade-offs between external quantum efficiency, collection efficiency, Purcell factor, and overall collected photon rate. This analysis shows that an optimized me…
We develop a theory for spontaneous decay of a quantum emitter (QE) situated near metal-dielectric structure supporting localized surface plasmons. If plasmon resonance is tuned close to the QE emission frequency, the emission is enhanced due to energy transfer from the QE to a localized plasmon mode followed by photon emission by plasmonic antenna. The emission rate is determined by intimate interplay between the plasmon coupling to radiation field and the Ohmic losses in metal. Here we develop plasmon Green's function approach that includes plasmon's interaction with radiation to obtain expl…
Plasmonic antennas are attractive optical structures for many applications in nano and quantum technologies. By providing enhanced interaction between a nanoemitter and light, they efficiently accelerate and direct spontaneous emission. One challenge, however, is the precise nanoscale positioning of the emitter in the structure. Here we present a laser etching protocol that deterministically positions a single colloidal CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dot emitter inside a subwavelength plasmonic patch antenna with three-dimensional nanoscale control. By exploiting the properties of metal-insulator…
Optical antennas made of low-loss dielectrics have several advantages over plasmonic antennas, including high radiative quantum efficiency, negligible heating and excellent photostability. However, due to weak spatial confinement, conventional dielectric antennas fail to offer light-matter interaction strengths on par with those of plasmonic antennas. We propose here an all-dielectric antenna configuration that can support strongly confined modes ($V\sim10^{-4}λ_{0}^3$) while maintaining unity antenna quantum efficiency. This configuration consists of a high-index pillar structure with a trans…
Optical nanoantennas, i.e., elements transforming localized light or waveguide modes into freely propagating fields and vice versa, are vital components for modern nanophotonics. Optical antennas have been demonstrated to cause the Dicke superradiance effect, i.e., collective spontaneous emission of quantum sources. However, the impact of coherent excitation on the antenna performance, such as directivity, efficiency, and Purcell effect, remains mostly unexplored. Herein, using full-wave numerical simulations backed by a quantum model, we unveil that coherent excitation allows controlling ante…
