Controlling Light Localization and Light–Matter Interactions with Nanoplasmonics

Abstract

Nanoplasmonics is the emerging research field that studies light-matter interactions mediated by resonant excitations of surface plasmons in metallic nanostructures. It allows the manipulation of the flow of light and its interaction with matter at the nanoscale (10(-9) m). One of the most promising characteristics of plasmonic resonances is that they occur at frequencies corresponding to typical electronic excitations in matter. This leads to the appearance of strong interactions between localized surface plasmons and light emitters (such as molecules, dyes, or quantum dots) placed in the vicinity of metals. Recent advances in nanofabrication and the development of novel concepts in theoretical nanophotonics have opened the way to the design of structures aimed to reduce the lifetime and enhance the decay rate and quantum efficiency of available emitters. In this article, some of the most relevant experimental and theoretical achievements accomplished over the last several years are presented and analyzed.

Exciton-plasmon coupling interactions: from principle to applications

“…From Equation (39), the magnitude of the enhancement factor depends on the local EM field enhancement. The left image shows local surface plasmas caused by collective oscillations of charge on the surface of metal nanoparticles [47].…”

“…The frequency of LSPR (ω L ), also the frequency of free electrons on the surface of metallic (such as silver and gold) nanoparticles, can be well controlled by tuning the sharp size of nanoparticles and changing the surrounding dielectric medium [38][39][40]. At the resonance condition, incident photon energy can be efficiently confined into small area by LSP mode, which can also enhance the local EM fields [41].…”

Plasmonic beaming and active control over fluorescent emission

“…They hold great promise for many emerging applications requiring tight confinement of optical fields, including sensors, photovoltaics, highspeed photodetectors and non-linear optics. Nanometallic antennas have also been used to tailor the excitation and emission processes of nearby fluorescent molecules or quantum dots (QDs) [3][4][5][6] . Strong local field concentration near illuminated metallic nanostructures is known to result in large excitation enhancements of quantum emitters 7 .…”

Robust Cylindrical Plasmonic Nano-Antennas for Light-Matter Interaction

“…Assuming cylindrical symmetry as in [15] the fundamental mode corresponds to a so called transverse magnetic mode (TM 0 ) with the H field having only a component in φ, H φ , and the wave propagating along z with propagation constant β Z , which is a function of radius r. The antenna resonates whenever β Z × L ≈ νπ, where ν is an integer denoting the mode number (see, e.g., [1]). The approximation is due to the fact that the additional phase picked up on reflection from the ends of the cylinder (see [17]) is neglected.…”

“…Optical antennas have received considerable attention recently due to their ability to confine electromagnetic energy and influence light matter interactions on the nano-scale [1,2]. They are typically fabricated by serial processes such as electron beam lithography (EBL) and focussed ion beam (FIB) machining [3] but patterning techniques that trade precision for speed and parallelism remain popular.…”