Plasmonic nanoantennas have been recently proposed to boost nonlinear optical processes. In a metal dipole nanoantenna with a dielectric nanoparticle placed in the gap, the linear field enhancement can be exploited to enhance third harmonic emission. Since both metals and dielectrics exhibit nonlinearity, the nonlinear far-field contains contributions from each, and the impossibility of measuring these contributions separately has led to seemingly contradictory interpretations about the origin of the nonlinear emission. We determine that the origin of the third harmonic from metal-dielectric dipole nanoantennas depends on nanoantenna design, and in particular, the width. We find that the emission from gold dominates in thin threadlike nanoantennas, whereas the emission from the gap material dominates in wider nanoantennas. We also find that monopole nanoantennas perform better than dipoles having the same width, and due to their simplicity should be preferred in many applications.
The research area of plasmonics promises devices with ultrasmall footprint operating at ultrafast speeds and with lower energy consumption compared to conventional electronics. These devices will operate with light and bridge the gap between microscale dielectric photonic systems and nanoscale electronics. Recent research advancements in nanotechnology and optics have led to the creation of a plethora of new plasmonic designs. Among the most promising are nanoscale antennas operating at optical frequencies, called nanoantennas. Plasmonic nanoantennas can provide enhanced and controllable light…
We propose and theoretically verify an efficient mechanism of broadband coupling between incident light and on-chip dielectric slot waveguide by employing a tapered plasmonic nanoantenna. Nanoantenna receives free space radiation and couples it to a dielectric slot waveguide with the efficiency of up to 20% in a broad spectral range, having a small footprint as compared with the currently used narrowband dielectric grating couplers. We argue that the frequency selective properties of such nanoantennas also allow for using them as ultrasmall on-chip multiplexer/demultiplexer devices.
We introduce a design of Yagi-Uda plasmonic nanoantennas for enhancing the antenna gain and achieving control over the angular emission of light. We demonstrate that tapering of antenna elements allows to decrease spacing between the antenna elements tenfold also enhancing its emission directivity. We find the optimal tapering angle that provides the maximum directivity enhancement and the minimum end-fire beamwidth.
We suggest a novel multifrequency broadband plasmonic Yagi-Uda-type nanoantenna equipped with an array of tapered directors. Each director can be used for the excitation of the antenna by nanoemitters matched spectrally with the director resonant frequency and placed in the director near-field region. Multifrequency op- eration of nanoantennas provides tremendous opportunities for broadband emission enhancement, spectroscopy and sensing. By the principle of reciprocity, the same tapered nanoantenna architecture can be used both as a transmitter and/or as a receiver, thus being useful for creat…
While long-range propagating plasmons have been extensively investigated for implementing on-chip optical sensing platforms, waveguide-excited localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) based sensing systems have not yet received much attention. Waveguide excitation and readout as an alternative to free-space light based single-particle spectroscopy are particularly attractive for high-throughput sensing and on-chip drug discovery platforms. Here we present a numerical investigation of the optical response of a waveguide-excited plasmonic dolmen-shaped compound nanoantenna that exhibits a Fano…
Over the last few years, optical nanoantennas are continuously attracting interest owing to their ability to efficiently confine, localize resonance, and significantly enhanced electromagnetic fields at subwavelength scale. However, such strong confinement can be further enhanced by using an appropriate combination of optical nanoantenna and Slanted Bound states in the continuum cavities. Here, we propose to synergistically bridge the plasmonic nanoantenna and high optical quality-factor cavities to numerically demonstrate three orders of magnitude local intensity enhancement. The proposed hyb…
We demonstrate that the emission of light by fluorescent molecules in the proximity of periodic arrays of nanoantennas or plasmonic crystals can be strongly modified when the arrays are covered by a dielectric film. The coupling between localized surface plasmon resonances and photonic states leads to surface modes which increase the density of optical states and improve light extraction. Excited dye molecules preferentially decay radiatively into these modes, exhibiting an enhanced and directional emission.
In this paper, we study a plasmonic horn nanoantenna on a metal-backed substrate. The horn nanoantenna structure consists of a two-wire transmission line (TWTL) flared at the end. We analyze the effect of the substrate thickness on the nanoantenna's radiation pattern, and demonstrate beam steering in a broad range of elevation angles. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of the ground plane on the impedance matching between the antenna and the TWTL, and observe that the ground plane increases the back reflection into the waveguide. To reduce the reflection, we develop a transmission line model t…
We experimentally demonstrate the coupling of far-field light to highly confined plasmonic gap modes via connected nanoantennas. The excitation of plasmonic gap modes is shown to depend on the polarization, position and wavelength of the incident beam. Far-field measurements performed in crossed polarization allow for the detection of extremely weak signals re-emitted from gap waveguides and can increase the signal-to-noise ratio dramatically.
Theory predicts a distinct spectral shift between the near- and far-field optical responses of plasmonic antennas. Here we combine near-field optical microscopy and far-field spectroscopy of individual infrared-resonant nanoantennas to verify experimentally this spectral shift. Numerical calculations corroborate our experimental results. We furthermore discuss the implications of this effect in surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy (SEIRS).
We use cathodoluminescence to locate droplet epitaxy quantum dots with a precision $\lesssim$ nm before fabricating nanoantennas in their vicinity by electron-beam lithography. Cathodoluminescence is further used to evidence the effect of the antennas as a function of their length on the light emitted by the dot. Experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations of the structures.
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…
Plasmonic nanolasers have ultrahigh lasing thresholds, especially those devices for which all three dimensions are truly subwavelength. Because of a momentum mismatch between the propagating light and localized optical field of the subwavelength nanocavity, poor optical pumping efficiency is another important reason for the ultrahigh threshold but is normally always ignored. Based on a cavity-embedded nanoantenna array design, we demonstrate a room-temperature low-threshold plasmonic nanolaser that is robust, reproducible, and easy-to-fabricate using chemical-template lithography. The mode vol…
We investigate the feasibility of CMOS-compatible optical structures to develop novel integrated spectroscopy systems. We show that local field enhancement is achievable utilizing dimers of plasmonic nanospheres that can be assembled from colloidal solutions on top of a CMOS-compatible optical waveguide. The resonant dimer nanoantennas are excited by modes guided in the integrated silicon nitride waveguide. Simulations show that 100 fold electric field enhancement builds up in the dimer gap as compared to the waveguide evanescent field amplitude at the same location. We investigate how the fie…
Bidirectional nanoantennas are of key relevance for advanced functionalities to be implemented at the nanoscale, and in particular for color routing in an ultracompact flat-optics configuration. Here we demonstrate a novel approach avoiding complex collective geometries and/or restrictive morphological parameters, based on cross-polarized detuned plasmonic nanoantennas in a uniaxial (quasi-1D) bimetallic configuration. The nanofabrication of such a flat-optics system is controlled over a large-area (cm^2) by a novel self-organized technique exploiting ion-induced nanoscale wrinkling instabilit…
Metal nanoantennas enable the manipulation of light emission and detection at the single photon level by confining light into very small volumes. Emitters coupled to these plasmonic structures are thus ideal candidates for usage in quantum information technology. However, controllably and reproducibly placing quantum emitters into nanocavities has been challenging due to the sizes of the systems involved. Here, we investigate the trapping dynamics of single emitters into nanocavities via optical gradient forces by using single-molecule super-resolution imaging and tracking. We show that molecu…
Plasmonic antennas integrated on silicon devices have large and yet unexplored potential for controlling and routing light signals. Here, we present theoretical calculations of a hybrid silicon-metallic system in which a single gold nanoantenna embedded in a single-mode silicon waveguide acts as a resonance-driven filter. As a consequence of scattering and interference, when the resonance condition of the antenna is met, the transmission drops by 85% in the resonant frequency band. Firstly, we study analytically the interaction between the propagating mode and the antenna by including radiativ…
Nanotechnology and the consequent emergence of miniaturized devices are driving the need to improve our understanding of the mechanical properties of a myriad of materials. Here we focus on amorphous polymeric materials and introduce a new way to determine the nanoscale mechanical response of polymeric thin films in the GHz range, using ultrafast optical means. Coupling of the films to plasmonic nanoantennas excited at their vibrational eigenfrequencies allows the extraction of the values of the mechanical moduli as well as the estimation of the glass transition temperature via time-domain mea…
We propose and realize a tunable plasmonic nanoantenna design consisting of two stacked Ag cuboids that are integrated into a rolled-up semiconductor microtube. The antenna's resonance is tuned by varying the cuboid's distance to match the photoluminescence emission of an embedded GaAs quantum well. Spatially, spectrally and temporally resolved photoluminescence measurements reveal a redshift and a reduction in lifetime of the quantum-well emission as signatures for the coupling to the antenna system. By means of finite-element electromagnetic simulations, we assign the coupling to an excitati…
We study theoretically the cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) in broadband tapered plasmonic nanoantennas and demonstrate a 300-fold increase in nonlinear frequency conversion detected in the main lobe of the nanoantenna far-field pattern. This is achieved by tuning the elements of the nanoantenna to resonate frequencies involved into the FWM interaction. Our findings have a potentially broad application in ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, sensing, on-chip optical frequency conversion, nonlinear optical metamaterials and photon sources.
Plasmonic nanoantennas is a hot and rapidly expanding research field. Here we overview basic operating principles and applications of novel magneto-plasmonic nanoantennas, which are made of ferromagnetic metals and driven not only by light, but also by external magnetic fields. We demonstrate that magneto-plasmonic nanoantennas enhance the magneto-optical effects, which introduces additional degrees of freedom in the control of light at the nano-scale. This property is used in conceptually new devices such as magneto-plasmonic rulers, ultra-sensitive biosensors, one-way subwavelength waveguide…
Single photon sources with high brightness and subnanosecond lifetimes are key components for quantum technologies. Optical nanoantennas can enhance the emission properties of single quantum emitters, but this approach requires accurate nanoscale positioning of the source at the plasmonic hotspot. Here, we use plasmonic nanoantennas to simultaneously trap single colloidal quantum dots and enhance their photoluminescence. The nano-optical trapping automatically locates the quantum emitter at the nanoantenna hotspot without further processing. Our dedicated nanoantenna design achieves a high tra…
Remote excitation and emission of two-photon luminescence and second-harmonic generation are observed in micrometer long gold rod optical antennas upon local illumination with a tightly focused near-infrared femtosecond laser beam. We show that the nonlinear radiations can be emitted from the entire antenna and the measured far-field angular patterns bear the information regarding the nature and origins of the respective nonlinear processes. We demonstrate that the nonlinear responses are transported by the propagating surface plasmon at excitation frequency, enabling thereby polariton-mediate…
Hot carriers are energetic photo-excited carriers driving a large range of chemico-physical mechanisms. At the nanoscale, an efficient generation of these carriers is facilitated by illuminating plasmonic antennas. However, the ultrafast relaxation rate severally impedes their deployment in future hot-carrier based devices. In this paper, we report on the picosecond relaxation dynamics of hot carriers in plasmonic monocrystalline gold nanoantennas. The temporal dynamics of the hot carriers is experimentally investigated by interrogating the nonlinear photoluminescence response of the antenna w…
We demonstrate that a periodic array of optical antennas sustains a resonant Near-Field (NF) and an anti-resonant Far-Field (FF) at the same energy and in-plane momentum. This phenomenon arises in the context of coupled plasmonic lattice resonances, whose bright and dark character is interchanged at a critical antenna length. The energies of these modes anti-cross in the FF, but cross in the NF. Hence, we observe an extremely narrow bandwidth emission enhancement from quantum dots in the proximity of the array, while the antennas scatter minimally into the FF. Simulations reveal that a standin…
Nanoantennas offer the ultimate spatial control over light by concentrating optical energy well below the diffraction limit, whereas their quality factor (Q) is constrained by large radiative and dissipative losses. Dielectric microcavities, on the other hand, are capable of generating a high Q-factor through an extended photon storage time but have a diffraction-limited optical mode volume. Here we bridge the two worlds, by studying an exemplary hybrid system integrating plasmonic gold nanorods acting as nanoantennas with an on-resonance dielectric photonic crystal (PC) slab acting as a low-l…
We report that rhomb-shaped metal nanoantenna arrays support multiple plasmonic resonances, making them favorable bio-sensing substrates. Besides the two localized plasmonic dipole modes associated with the two principle axes of the rhombi, the sample supports an additional grating-induced surface plasmon polariton resonance. The plasmonic properties of all modes are carefully studied by far-field measurements together with numerical and analytical calculations. The sample is then applied to surface-enhanced Raman scattering measurements. It is shown to be highly efficient since two plasmonic …
We suggest a novel source of polarization-entangled photon pairs based on a cross-shaped plasmonic nanoantenna driven by a single quantum dot. The integration of the nanoantenna with a metal mirror overcomes the fundamental tradeoff between the spontaneous emission (SE) enhancement and the extraction efficiency typical of microcavity and nanowire-based architectures. With a very-high extraction efficiency of entangled photons (~90%) at 1.55 um and large SE enhancement (~90) over a broad 330 nm spectral range, the proposed design will pave the way toward reliable integrated sources of nonclassi…
A rigorous theory of photon emission accompanied inelastic tunnelling inside the gap of plasmonic nanoantennas has been developed. The disappointingly low efficiency of the electrical excitation of surface plasmon polaritons in these structures can be increased by orders of magnitude when a resonant tunnelling structure is incorporated inside the gap. Resonant tunnelling assisted surface plasmon emitter may become a key element in future electrically-driven nanoplasmonic circuits.
The nanoscale interaction between single emitters and plasmonic structures is traditionally studied by relying on near-perfect, deterministic, nanoscale-control. This approach is ultra-low throughput thus rendering systematic studies difficult to impossible. Here, we show that super resolution microscopy in combination with data-driven statistical analysis allows studying near-field interactions of single molecules with resonant nanoantennas. We systematically tune the antennas' spectral resonances and show that emitters can be separated according to their coupling strength with said structure…
Plasmonic nanoantennas have the ability to confine and enhance incident electromagnetic fields into very sub-wavelength volumes, while at the same time efficiently radiating energy to the far-field. These properties have allowed plasmonic nanoantennas to be extensively used for exciting quantum emitters-such as molecules and quantum dots-and also for the extraction of photons from them for measurements in the far-field. Due to electromagnetic reciprocity, it is expected that plasmonic nanoantennas radiate energy as efficiently as an external source can couple energy to them. In this paper, we …
Cascaded optical field enhancement (CFE) can be realized in some specially designed multiscale plasmonic nanostructures, where the generation of extremely strong field at nanoscale volume is crucial for many applications, for example, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Here, we propose a strategy of realizing a high-quality plasmonic nanoparticle-in-cavity (PIC) nanoantenna array, where strong coupling between a nanoparticle dark mode with a high order nanocavity bright mode can produce Fano resonance at a target wavelength. The Fano resonance can effectively boost the CFE in the PIC,…
We present a new design of plasmonic nanoantenna with a slant gap for optical chirality engineering. At resonance, the slant gap provides highly enhanced electric field parallel to external magnetic field with a phase delay of 90 degree, resulting in enhanced optical chirality. We show by numerical simulations that upon linearly polarized excitation our achiral nanoantenna can generate near field with enhanced optical chirality that can be tuned by the slant angle and resonance condition. Our design can be easily realized and may find applications in circular dichroism enhancement.
A novel scheme is proposed to generate a maximally entangled state between two qubits by means of a dissipation-driven process. To this end, we entangle the quantum states of qubits that are mutually coupled by a plasmonic nanoantenna. Upon enforcing a weak spectral asymmetry in the properties of the qubits, the steady-state probability to obtain a maximally entangled, subradiant state approaches unity. This occurs despite the high losses associated to the plasmonic nanoantenna that are usually considered as being detrimental. The entanglement scheme is shown to be quite robust against variati…
Efficient optical excitation of hybridized plasmon modes in nanoantennas is vital to achieve many promising functionalities, but it can be challenging due to a field-profile mismatch between the incident light and the hybrid mode. We present a general approach for efficient hybrid-mode excitation by focusing the incident light field in the basis of cylindrically polarized vector beams of various higher-order spiral phases. Such basis vector beams are described in the higher-order polarization states and Stokes parameters (both defined locally in polar coordinates), and visualized corresponding…
Second-harmonic (SH) generation is tremendously important for nonlinear sensing, microscopy and communication system. One of the great challenges of current designs is to enhance the SH signal and simultaneously tune its radiation direction with a high directivity. In contrast to the linear plasmonic scattering dominated by a bulk dipolar mode, a complex surface-induced multipolar source at the doubled frequency sets a fundamental limit to control the SH radiation from metallic nanostructures. In this work, we harness plasmonic hybridization mechanism together with a special selection rule gov…
The enhancement of the photoluminescence of quantum dots induced by an optical nanoantenna has been studied considerably, but there is still significant interest in optimizing and miniaturizing such structures, especially when accompanied by an experimental demonstration. Most of the realizations use plasmonic platforms, and some also use all-dielectric nanoantennas, but hybrid dielectric-plasmonic (subwavelength) nanostructures have been very little explored. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate single subwavelength hybrid dielectric-plasmonic optical nanoantennas coupled to localized qu…
We consider plasmonic nanoantennas immersed in active host medium. Specifically shaped metal nanoantennas can exhibit strong magnetic properties in the optical spectral range due to the excitation of Magnetic Plasmon Resonance (MPR). A case when a metamaterial comprising such nanoantennas can demonstrate both "left-handiness" and negative permeability in the optical range is considered. We show that high losses predicted for optical "left- handed" materials can be compensated in the gain medium. Gains required to achieve local generation in such magnetic active metamaterials are calculated for…
Boosting nonlinear frequency conversion in extremely confined volumes remains a key challenge in nano-optics, nanomedicine, photocatalysis, and background-free biosensing. To this aim, field enhancements in plasmonic nanostructures are often exploited to effectively compensate for the lack of phase-matching at the nanoscale. Second harmonic generation (SHG) is, however, strongly quenched by the high degree of symmetry in plasmonic materials at the atomic scale and in nanoantenna designs. Here, we devise a plasmonic nanoantenna lacking axial symmetry, which exhibits spatial and frequency mode o…
Highly integrated single photon sources are key components in future quantum-optical circuits. Whereas the probabilistic generation of single photons can routinely be done by now, their triggered generation is a much greater challenge. Here, we describe the triggered generation of single photons in a hybrid plasmonic device. It consists of a lambda-type quantum emitter coupled to a multimode optical nanoantenna. For moderate interaction strengths between the subsystems, the description of the quantum optical evolution can be simplified by an adiabatic elimination of the electromagnetic fields …
We present a practical new method for fabricating a coupled single quantum emitter-plasmonic nanoantenna system. Emission characteristics of a single defect center embedded in hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) multilayers is modified using plasmonic nanoantennas. By dewetting thin silver films on hBN multilayers, plasmonic nanoantennas are obtained in a size controlled way with no adverse effects on the defects. A very same single defect center is investigated with and without nanoantenna in order to demonstrate the modification of its emission characteristics. Based on the initial silver film thi…
Plasmonic nanostructures that support surface plasmon (SP) resonance potentially provide a route for the development of nanoengineered nonlinear optical devices. In this work, second-order nonlinear light scattering, specifically sum-frequency generation (SFG) and second-harmonic generation (SHG), from plasmonic nanoantennas is modeled by the boundary element method (BEM). Far-field scattering patterns are compared with the results calculated by the Mie theory to validate the accuracy of the developed nonlinear solver. The SFG from a multi-resonant nanoantenna (MR-NA) and the SHG from a partic…
We report on the investigation of an advanced circular plasmonic nanoantenna under ultrafast excitation using nonlinear photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) under near-normal incidence. The circular nanoantenna is enhanced in its performance by a supporting grating and milled out from a gold film. The considered antenna shows a sophisticated physical resonance behavior that is ideal to demonstrate the possibilities of PEEM for the experimental investigations of plasmonic effects on the nanoscale. Field profiles of the antenna resonance for both possible linear polarizations of the incident…
We present a novel procedure for manipulating the near-field of plasmonic nanoantennas using neural network-controlled laser pulse-shaping. As model systems we numerically studied the spatial distribution of the second harmonic response of L-shaped nanoantennas illuminated by broadband laser pulses. We first show that a trained neural network can be used to predict the relative intensity of the second-harmonic hotspots of the nanoantenna for a given spectral phase and that it can be employed to deterministically switch individual hotspots on and off on sub-diffraction length scale by shaping t…
An important source of innovation in nanophotonics is the idea to scale down known radio wave technologies to the optical regime. One thoroughly investigated example of this approach are metallic nanoantennas which employ plasmonic resonances to couple localized emitters to selected far-field modes. While metals can be treated as perfect conductors in the microwave regime, their response becomes Drude-like at optical frequencies. Thus, plasmonic nanoantennas are inherently lossy. Moreover, their resonant nature requires precise control of the antenna geometry. A promising way to circumvent the…
We report on the deterministic coupling between single semiconducting nanowire quantum dots emitting in the visible and plasmonic Au nanoantennas. Both systems are separately carefully characterized through microphotoluminescence and cathodoluminescence. A two-step realignment process using cathodoluminescence allows for electron beam lithography of Au antennas near individual nanowire quantum dots with a precision of 50 nm. A complete set of optical properties are measured before and after antenna fabrication. They evidence both an increase of the NW absorption, and an improvement of the quan…
We study the local field enhancement properties of self-similar nanolenses and compare the obtained results with the performance of standard dimer nanoantennas. We report that, despite the additional structural complexity, self-similar nanolenses are unable to provide significant improvements over the field enhancement performance of standard plasmonic dimers.
We study in detail a novel type of optical nanoantennas made of high-permittivity low-loss dielectric particles. In addition to the electric resonances, the dielectric particles exhibit very strong magnetic resonances at the nanoscale, that can be employed in the Yagi-Uda geometry for creating highly efficient optical nanoantennas. By comparing plasmonic and dielectric nanoantennas, we demonstrate that all-dielectric nanoantennas may exhibit better radiation efficiency also allowing more compact design.
We investigate the far-field optical resonances of individual dimer nanoantennas using confocal scattering spectroscopy. Experiments on a single-antenna array with varying arm lengths and interparticle gap sizes show large spectral shifts of the plasmon modes due to a combination of geometrical resonances and plasmon hybridization. All resonances are considerably broadened compared to those of small nanorods in the quasistatic limit, which we attribute to a greatly enhanced radiative damping of the antenna modes. The scattering spectra are compared with rigorous model calculations that demonst…
A plasmonic nanoantenna probed by a plane-polarized optical field in a medium with no gain materials can show zero absorption or even amplification, while exhibiting maximal polarizability. This occurs through coupling to an adjacent nanoantenna in a specially designed metamolecule, which is pumped by an orthogonal optical field with phase shift. The introduced scheme is a classical counterpart of an effect known in quantum optics as enhancement of the index of refraction (EIR). In contrary to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), where the medium is rendered highly dispersive at the…
The performance of plasmonic nanoantenna structures on top of SOI wire waveguides as coherent perfect absorbers for modulators and all-optical switches is explored. The absorption, scattering, reflection and transmission spectra of gold and aluminum nanoantenna-loaded waveguides were calculated by means of 3D finite-difference time-domain simulations for single waves propagating along the waveguide, as well as for standing wave scenarios composed from two counterpropagating waves. The investigated configurations showed losses of roughly 1% and extinction ratios greater than 25 dB for modulator…
We report here chiroptical amplification effect occurring in the hybrid systems consisting of chiral molecules and Si nanostructures. Under resonant excitation of circularly polarized light, the hybrid systems show strong CD induction signals at optical frequency, which arise from both the electric and magnetic responses of the Si nanostructures. More interestingly, the induced CD signals from Si-based dielectric nanoantennas are always larger than that from Au-based plasmonic counterparts. The related physical origin was disclosed. Furthermore, compared to the Au-based high-loss plasmonic nan…
The interaction of light with subwavelength metallic nano-structures is at the heart of different current scientific hot topics, namely plasmonics, metamaterials and nanoantennas. Research in these disciplines during the last decade has given rise to new, powerful concepts providing an unprecedented degree of control over light manipulation at the nanoscale. However, only recently have these concepts been used to increase the capabilities of light processing in current photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which traditionally rely only on dielectric materials with element sizes larger than the …
Single-molecule fluorescence techniques are essential for investigating the molecular mechanisms in biological processes. However, achieving sub-millisecond temporal resolution to monitor fast molecular dynamics remains a significant challenge. The fluorescence brightness is the key parameter that generally defines the temporal resolution for these techniques. Conventional microscopes and standard fluorescent emitters fall short in achieving the high brightness required for sub-millisecond monitoring. Plasmonic nanoantennas have been proposed as a solution, but despite huge fluorescence enhanc…
Plasmonic nanostructures attract tremendous attention as they confine electromagnetic fields well below the diffraction limit while simultaneously sustaining extreme local field enhancements. To fully exploit these properties, the identification and classification of resonances in such nanostructures is crucial. Recently, a novel figure of merit for resonance classification has been proposed 1 and its applicability was demonstrated mostly to toy model systems. This novel measure, the energy-based plasmonicity index (EPI), characterizes the nature of resonances in molecular nanostructures. The …
