All-Optical Modulation of Localized Surface Plasmon Coupling in a Hybrid System Composed of Photoswitchable Gratings and Au Nanodisk Arrays

Abstract

We conduct a real-time study of all-optical modulation of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) coupling in a hybrid system that integrates a photo-switchable optical grating with a gold nanodisk array. This hybrid system enables us to investigate two important interactions: 1) LSPR-enhanced grating diffraction, and 2) diffraction-mediated LSPR in the Au nanodisk array. The physical mechanism underlying these interactions was analyzed and experimentally confirmed. With its advantages in cost-effective fabrication, easy integration, and all-optical control, the hybrid system described in this work could be valuable in many nanophotonic applications.

Active molecular plasmonics: tuning surface plasmon resonances by exploiting molecular dimensions

“…The capability of tailoring LCs to be responsive to other stimuli such as light [84][85][86][87], acoustic wave [88], and heat [89] has offered great flexibility on the selection of activation methods for AMP. For example, LCs doped with azobenzene that undergoes trans-cis photoisomerization become photoswitchable [84].…”

Plasmon resonance optical tuning based on photosensitive composite structures

“…The variation of the surrounding's dielectric properties is a much more effective method [15], because it allows a real time, continuous, and reversible tuning of the plasmonic resonance. Liquid crystals (LC) have proven to be effective in tuning optical properties of plasmonic devices [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. A structure based on gold nanodisk plasmonic crystal controlled by dual frequency liquid crystal was presented in [18,19].…”

“…A structure based on gold nanodisk plasmonic crystal controlled by dual frequency liquid crystal was presented in [18,19]. By adding an azo dye to the LC, the concept was extended to all-optical control of a hybrid system composed of photoswitchable gratings and Au identical nanodisk arrays [22], to a plasmonic absorber using a liquid-crystal-coated asymmetric nanodisk array by mixing the liquid crystal with and to an asymmetric nanodisk array [23].…”

Holographically Formed, Acoustically Switchable Gratings Based on Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals

“…The optical properties of the entire H-PDLC structure can be effectively altered when one externally changes the orientation of LC molecules inside the droplets. 8,9 In this regard, electrical and optical [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] approaches have been extensively exploited to reorient the LC molecules. However, these two manipulation methods have their respective limitations.…”