Plasmonic interference modulation for broadband nanofocusing

Metallic plasmonic probes have been successfully applied in near-field imaging, nanolithography, and Raman enhanced spectroscopy because of their ability to squeeze light into nanoscale and provide significant electric field enhancement. Most of these probes rely on nanometric alignment of incident beam and resonant structures with limited spectral bandwidth. This paper proposes and experimentally demonstrates an asymmetric fiber tip for broadband interference nanofocusing within its full optical wavelengths (500–800 nm) at the nanotip with 10 nm apex. The asymmetric geometry consisting of two semicircular slits rotates plasmonic polarization and converts the linearly polarized plasmonic mode to the radially polarized plasmonic mode when the linearly polarized beam couples to the optical fiber. The three-dimensional plasmonic modulation induces circumference interference and nanofocus of surface plasmons, which is significantly different from the nanofocusing through plasmon propagation and plasmon evolution. The plasmonic interference modulation provides fundamental insights into the plasmon engineering and has important applications in plasmon nanophotonic technologies.

Plasmonic mode coupling and thin film sensing in metal–insulator–metal structures

Optical sensors based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in the attenuated total reflection (ATR) configuration in layered media have attracted considerable attention over the past decades owing to their ability of label free sensing in biomolecular interaction analysis, and highly sensitive detection of changes in refractive index and thickness, i.e. the optical thickness, of thin film adsorbates (thin film sensing). Furthermore, SPR is highly sensitive to the refractive index of the medium adjacent to the bare metal, and it allows for bulk sensing as well. When deposited at the metal/air interface, an adsorbed layer disturbs the highly localized, i.e. bound, wave at this interface and changes the plasmon resonance to allow for sensing in angular or wavelength interrogation and intensity measurement modes. A high degree of sensitivity is required for precise and efficient sensing, especially for biomolecular interaction analysis for early stage diagnostics; and besides conventional SPR (CSPR), several other configurations have been developed in recent years targeting sensitivity, including long-range SPR (LRSPR) and waveguide-coupled SPR (WGSPR) observed in MIM structures, referred here to by MIM modes, resulting from the coupling of SPRs at I/M interfaces, and Fano-type resonances occurring from broad and sharp modes coupling in layered structures. In our previous research, we demonstrated that MIM is better than CSPR for bulk sensing, and in this paper, we show that CSPR is better than MIM for thin film sensing for thicknesses of the sensing layer (SL) larger than 10 nm. We discuss and compare the sensitivity of CSPR and MIM for thin film sensing by using both experiments and theoretical calculations based on rigorous electromagnetic (EM) theory. We discuss in detail MIM modes coupling and anti-crossing, and we show that when a thin film adsorbate, i.e. a SL), is deposited on top of the outermost-layer of an optimized MIM structure, it modifies the characteristics of the coupled modes of the structure, and it reduces the electric field, both inside the SL and at the SL/air interface, and as a result, it decreases the sensitivity of the MIM versus the CSPR sensor. Our work is of critical importance to plasmonic mode coupling using MIM configurations, as well as to optical bio- and chemical-sensing.

Efficient Tunable Plasmonic Mode Converters Infiltrated with Nematic Liquid Crystal Layers

This paper presents two efficient tunable plasmonic mode converters in the infrared regime. The proposed configurations consist of silver layer with etched rectangular holes as metal insulator metal (MIM) waveguides with central cavities. The holes are infiltrated by nematic liquid crystal (NLC) material to increase the transmission through the suggested designs. Additionally, the NLC is used to have tunable operation where the modes at the output port can be controlled. The simulations are carried out using full vectorial finite element (FEM) method. The first design has a single output port which converts the TM mode into the TEM mode with high transmission conversion efficiency of 70%. Further, the second structure allows the generation of the two plasmonic modes simultaneously in two output waveguides. During the biased state, the s- mode transmission conversion efficiency reaches 50% while the transmission of a- mode at the unbiased state is equal to 49%. It is expected that the proposed tunable mode converters will play an important role in the development of the plasmonic-photonic circuits.

Modelling 1-D Copper Grating for Extraordinary Optical Transmission

The excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and its association with extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) has been presented in this report.. The 1-dimensional periodic grating structure of copper (Cu) has been designed over the glass substrate in rf-module of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a. The geometry was illuminated from glass side with visible-near infrared (400-900nm) electromagnetic spectrum. The 0th order transmission spectra have been investigated to study the maximum value of EOT at different slit widths by taking the period (700nm) and thickness of Cu grating (50nm) constant. Moreover, the near field analysis has been used to investigate the field behavior at desired interface and to verify the results of transmission spectra. It is worth mentioning that the highest value of EOT corresponds to the slit width of 250nm which is affiliated with the strongest plasmonic mode i.e., fundamental plasmonic mode. Such devices are increasingly applicable in sensing, chemical and solar cell industries.

Active Switching of Toroidal Resonances by Using a Dirac Semimetal for Terahertz Communication

The dynamical switching of a toroidal dipole resonance channel is demonstrated by tuning the Fermi level of a Dirac semimetal film sandwiched between the back substrates. As the Fermi level is increased from 30 to 150 meV, the resonance frequency is switched from 0.283 to 0.201 THz because of the transition from toroidal mode to hybrid mode. The hybrid mode is formed by the interaction between the toroidal mode and the plasmonic mode (induced by a Dirac semimetal film with metallic properties). The influence of the sandwiched dielectric layer (between the toroidal metasurface pattern and the Dirac semimetal film) on the switching effect was also investigated. This active dual-channel terahertz switching may have potential applications in advanced terahertz communication.

Deposited ultra-thin titanium nitride nanorod array as a plasmonic near-perfect light absorber

The transmittance, reflectance, and extinctance that correspond to the localized plasmonic resonance within TiN nanorods were investigated. The obliquely deposited TiN nanorod array shows polarization-independent admittance matching to air. Unlike noble metal nanorods, the near-field localized longitudinal and transverse plasmonic resonance of TiN nanorod arrays present polarization-dependent light extinction in the far field. The longitudinal plasmonic mode presents stronger extinction than transverse plasmonic mode. In order to have high efficient light absorption, an ultra-thin two-layered TiN nanorod array was fabricated with orthogonal deposition planes for upper layer and bottom layer to absorb different polarized light energy. The measured spectrum shows broadband and wide-angle light extinction.