Surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM) with single-direction illumination is a powerful platform for biomedical imaging because of its wide-field, label-free, and high-surface-sensitivity imaging capabilities. However, two disadvantages prevent wider use of SPRM. The first is its poor spatial resolution that can be as large as several micrometers. The second is that SPRM requires use of metal films as sample substrates; this introduces working wavelength limitations. In addition, cell culture growth on metal films is not as universally available as growth on dielectric substrates. Here we show that use of azimuthal rotation illumination allows SPRM spatial resolution to be enhanced by up to an order of magnitude. The metal film can also be replaced by a dielectric multilayer and then a different label-free surface-sensitive photonic microscopy is developed, which has more choices in terms of the working wavelength, polarization, and imaging section, and will bring opportunities for applications in biology.
We theoretically studied a nonlinear optical process in a hybrid plasmonic waveguide composed of a nonlinear dielectric waveguide and a metal film with a separation of a thin air gap. Owing to the hybridization effect of guided mode and surface plasmon polariton mode, this particular waveguide is able to confine the optical-field in a deep subwavelength scale together with low propagation loss. Based on this, efficient second-harmonic generations (SHG) were revealed at the fundamental wavelength of λ=1.55 μm with good field confinement. The SHG efficiency, as well as the coupling coefficient and mode area, were analyzed and discussed in detail with respect to the structural parameters.
We theoretically studied nonlinear interactions between surface plasmon polariton (SPP) and conventional waveguide mode in nonlinear hybrid waveguide and proposed a possible method to enhance SPP wave via optical parametric amplification (OPA). The phase matching condition of this OPA process is fulfilled by carefully tailoring the dispersions of SPP and guided mode. The influences of incident intensity and phase of guided wave on the OPA process are comprehensively analyzed. It is found that not only a strong enhancement of SPP but also modulations on this enhancement can be achieved. This result indicates potential applications in nonlinear optical integration and modulations.
Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides possess considerable second-order nonlinear coefficients but a limited efficiency of frequency conversion due to the short interaction length with light under the typical direct illumination. Here, we demonstrate an efficient frequency mixing of the guided surface waves on a monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS 2 ) by simultaneously lifting the temporal and spatial overlap of the guided wave and the nonlinear crystal. Three orders-of-magnitude enhancement of the conversion efficiency was achieved in the counter-propagating excitation configuration. Also, the frequency-mixing signals are highly collimated, with the emission direction and polarization controlled, respectively, by the pump frequencies and the rotation angle of WS 2 relative to the propagation direction of the guided waves. These results indicate that the rules of nonlinear frequency conversion are applicable even when the crystal is scaled down to the ultimate single-layer limit. This study provides a versatile platform to enhance the nonlinear optical response of 2D materials and favor the scalable generation of a coherent light source and entangled photon pairs.
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