Nanophotonic Materials and Devices : Plasmonics
Caltech People:
Prof. Harry Atwater (APh), Dr. Henri Lezec, Dr. Domenico Pacifici, Julie Biteen, Jennifer Dionne, Carrie Ross, Luke Sweatlock
Collaborators:
Prof. Albert Polman, Hans Mertens (AMOLF)
Plasmonics:
Light can be localized and manipulated in appropriately
designed metallic and metallodielectric nanoparticle array
structures. In particular, interesting phenomena occur near
the plasmon frequency where optical extinction is resonantly
enhanced, and at the plasma frequency where the real part
of the dielectric constant changes sign. Due to their high
reflection and absorption coefficients, metal structures
have been generally overlooked as elements to guide, focus
and switch light at visible and infrared wavelengths. However
at the nanoscale the intriguing guiding and refractive properties
of metal structures can be realized since the metal components
become semitransparent due to their small size.
Emerging Research Areas:
1. Plasmonic Waveguides
The scaling of optical devices and components to their
ultimate size limits will require that electromagnetic energy
be guided on a scale below the diffraction limit and that
information be guided around sharp corners with nanometer-scale
radii of curvature. Plasmon waveguides are periodic chain
arrays of metal nanoparticles which can localize light in
guided modes whose size is a few percent of the optical
wavelength. Such waveguides can enable efficient power transfer
around sharp corners and may form the basis for nanoscale
all-optical switches.
Click on images to stream FDTD movies.
Downloading is available below.
Longitudinal Mode Propagation
in Spherical Particles
Download 5.5MB, Quicktime
Format
Transverse Mode Propagation in Spheroidal Particles
Notice the negative phase velocity as the
envelope moves to the right in the transverse propagation
example.
Download 11.5MB, Quicktime
Format
Download
Quicktime Player from Apple.
2. Plasmon Printing
The minimum feature size that can be obtained using conventional
projection optical lithography is determined by the diffraction
limit. Plasmon printing is a new approach to lithographic
printing that takes advantage of the resonantly enhanced
optical intensity in optical near field of metallic nanoparticles,
and which could enable printing of deep subwavelength features
using conventional photoresist and simple visible or ultraviolet
light sources.
Available Presentations:
Plasmon
Waveguides
Plasmon
Printing
Available Publications:
Plasmonic Modes of Annular Nanoresonators Imaged by Spectrally Resolved Cathodoluminescence
Carrie E. Hofmann, Ernst Jan R. Vesseur, Luke A. Sweatlock, Henri J. Lezec, F. Javier Garcia de Abajo, Albert Polman, and Harry A. Atwater
Nano Letters (2007)
Plasmonics: A shifting perspective
Domenico Pacifici
Nature Photonics (2007)
Highly confined photon transport in subwavelength metallic slot waveguides
Jennifer A. Dionne, Henri J. Lezec, and Harry A. Atwater
Nanoletters Vol. 6, Issue 9, pp. 1928-1932 (2006)
Plasmon slot waveguides: towards chip-scale propagation with subwavelength-scale localization
Jennifer A. Dionne, Luke A. Sweatlock, Albert Polman, and Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B 73, 035407 (2006)
Planar metal plasmon waveguides: frequency-dependent dispersion, propagation, localization, and loss beyond the free electron model
Jennifer A. Dionne, Luke A. Sweatlock, Albert Polman, and Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B 72, 075405 (2005)
Plasmonics: Localization and guiding of electromagnetic energy in metal/dielectric structures
Stefan A. Maier and Harry A. Atwater
Journal of Applied Physics (2005)
The New 'p-n Junction': Plasmonics Enables Photonic Access to the Nanoworld
Harry A. Atwater, Stefan Maier, Albert Polman, Jennifer A. Dionne, Luke A. Sweatlock
MRS Bulletin, pp 385-389 (2005)
Image resolution of surface-plasmon-mediated near-field focusing with planar metal films in three dimensions using finite-linewidth dipole sources
Pieter G. Kik, Stefan A. Maier, and Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B (2004)
Local detection of electromagnetic energy transport below the diffraction limit in metal nanoparticle plasmon waveguides
Stefan A. Maier, Pieter G. Kik, Harry A. Atwater, Sheffer Meltzer, Elad Harel, Bruce E. Koel, and Ari A.G. Requicha
Nature Materials (2003)
Microwave Analogue to a Subwavelength Plasmon Switch
Luke A. Sweatlock, Stefan A. Maier, and Harry A. Atwater
Proceedings of Electronic Components and Technology Conference (2003)
Optical pulse propagation in metal nanoparticle chain waveguides
Stefan A. Maier, Pieter G. Kik, and Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B (2003)
Electromagnetic energy transport along Yagi arrays
Stefan A. Maier, Mark L. Brongersma, Harry A. Atwater
Materials Science and Engineering C (2002)
Metal nanoparticle arrays for near field optical lithography
Pieter G. Kik, Andrea L. Martin, Stefan A. Maier, and Harry A. Atwater
Proceedings of SPIE 4810 (2002)
Observation of coupled plasmon-polariton modes in Au nanoparticle chain waveguides of different lengths: Estimation of waveguide loss
Stefan A. Maier, Pieter G. Kik, and Harry A. Atwater
Applied Physics Letters (2002)
Observation of coupled plasmon-polariton modes of plasmon waveguides for electromagnetic energy transport below the diffraction limit
Stefan A. Maier, Pieter G. Kik, Harry A. Atwater, Sheffer Meltzer, Ari A.G. Requicha, and Bruce E. Koel
Proceedings of SPIE 4810 (2002)
Observation of near-field coupling in metal nanoparticle chains using far-field polarization spectroscopy
Stefan A. Maier, Mark L. Brongersma, Pieter G. Kik, and Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B 65, 193408 (2002)
Electromagnetic energy transport along arrays of closely spaced metal rods as an analogue to plasmonic devices
Stefan A. Maier, Mark L. Brongersma, and Harry A. Atwater
Applied Physics Letters (2001)
Plasmonics - A Route to Nanoscale Optical Devices
Stefan A. Maier, Mark L. Brongersma, Pieter G. Kik, Sheffer Meltzer, Ari A. G. Requicha, Bruce E. Koel, and Harry A. Atwater
Advanced Materials (2001)
Electromagnetic energy transfer and switching in nanoparticle chain arrays below the diffraction limit
Mark L. Brongersma, John W. Hartman, Harry A. Atwater
Physical Review B (2000)
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