Far-field disentanglement of modes in hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals by fluorescence nano-reporters

Abstract

Abstract:In this paper, the resonance modes exhibited by a hybrid nanostructure have been disentangled in the far-field owing to narrow-band fluorescence nano-reporters. Hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals were fabricated using large (457 nm) monodisperse polystyrene spheres self-assembled into 2D photonic crystals and subsequently coated by a 30 nm thick silver layer. Such structures exhibit a complex resonance pattern, which has been elucidated owing to numerical simulations and electric near-field patterns obtained with a scattering type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM). For the sake of disentangling the resonance modes of the hybrid structure in the far-field, different types of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), acting as nanoreporters of the local interactions, were dispersed on top of distinct structures. Depending on the relative overlap of the emission spectrum of a particular type of QDs with the resonance features of the hybrid structure, we affect their emission rate in a unique way, as a consequence of the complex interaction occurring between the plasmo-photonic modes and the excitons. Such plasmonic structures appear to be particularly relevant for fluorescence-based sensing devices.

Propagation and survival of frequency-bin entangled photons in metallic nanostructures

“…It exhibits well-defined maxima and minima, with an asymmetric peak that resembles very much the one previously reported for extraordinary transmission of metallic subwavelength hole arrays [22]. The major asymmetric peak is observed around 1300 nm and is attributed to a Bragg-plasmon mode [29], resulting from the periodicity of the structure and the commensurability of the lattices at the metal-dielectric interface. On the longwavelength side of this peak, a significantly reduced transmission is observed, which also corresponds to a maximum of absorption.…”

“…The optical transmission spectrum of the HPPS is significantly structured. On the contrary, a flat gold film would exhibit the well-known featureless spectrum of a semi-transparent film, being rather opaque in the visible range [29]. Accordingly, the overall transmission of the HPPS is strongly increased compared to the transmission of a flat continuous metallic film of the same nominal thickness.…”

“…The HPPS was fabricated by the nanosphere lithography technique previously reported in [29,30] in mass) dispersed in a solution containing water and the polystyrene micro-spheres were then deposited on the glass surface and dried under a tilt angle of approximately 10 degrees under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity (T = 293 K, H = 65%). These conditions led to the formation of large areas of latex micro-spheres mono-layers well-ordered in a closely packed hexagonal array [29,30].…”

“…These conditions led to the formation of large areas of latex micro-spheres mono-layers well-ordered in a closely packed hexagonal array [29,30]. The structure was then covered with 50 nm of gold by using a Boc-Edwards Auto306 evaporator.…”

“…This HPPS was designed by combining a continuous metal film and a dielectric photonic crystal. It presents a rich resonance pattern [29,30] and supports both SPPs and LSPPs, allowing to control the interplay between them and their eventual mixing. The second structure consists of a gold nano-pillar arrays (NPAs) fabricated by nanocoating lithography [31][32][33].…”