Femtosecond phase control of spatial localization of the optical near-field in a metal nanoslit array

Probing the optical near-field of plasmonic nano structure using scanning thermal microscopy

Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) enables to obtain thermal characteristic information such as temperature and thermal conductivity from the signals obtained by scanning a thermometer probe over a sample surface. Particularly, the precise control of the thermometer probe makes it possible to study near-field radiative heat transfer by measuring the near-field thermal energy, which implies that when light is used as a local heat source, photothermal energy can be detected from the optical near-field by approaching the probe in the near-field region. In this study, SThM is applied to generate sub-wavelength near-field optical image in the plasmonic grating coupler. Herein, by controlling the surface plasmon polariton generation, we show that the dominant component of SThM signal is from the optical response rather than the thermal response. The obtained near-field optical images have a spatial resolution of 40 nm and signal to noise ratio of up to 19.8. In addition, field propagation images in theZ-direction can be visualised with the precise control of the distance between the thermometer probe and the sample.

Programmable field localization and enhancement effects on a non-structured planar surface with a permittivity gradient

We demonstrate electromagnetic field localization and enhancement effects on the non-structured planar surface of a two-dimensional gradient permittivity material. Surface plasmons are excited by a normally-incident Gaussian illumination beam and are confined to subwavelength rings on the surface of the gradient permittivity material. The performance of the surface is programmable by adjusting the permittivity distribution of the material and polarization of incident light. We show that field localization and enhancement effects can be realized at mid-infrared frequencies by conventional semiconductor materials with designed doping distributions. This demonstration suggests a compact and readily accessible platform for materials characterizations with spatially controlled illumination, providing a convenient approach to explore nanospectroscopy and light-matter interactions of nanomaterials, such as quantum dots, nanowires, and organic molecules.

Sub-10 nm near-field localization by plasmonic metal nanoaperture arrays with ultrashort light pulses

Near-field localization by ultrashort femtosecond light pulses has been investigated using simple geometrical nanoapertures. The apertures employ circular, rhombic, and triangular shapes to localize the distribution of surface plasmon. To understand the geometrical effect on the localization, aperture length and period of the nanoapertures were varied. Aperture length was shown to affect the performance more than aperture period due mainly to intra-aperture coupling of near-fields. Triangular apertures provided the strongest spatial localization below 10 nm in size as well as the highest enhancement of field intensity by more than 7000 times compared to the incident light pulse. Use of ultrashort pulses was found to allow much stronger light localization than with continuous-wave light. The results can be used for super-localization sensing and imaging applications where spatially localized fields can break through the limits in achieving improved sensitivity and resolution.

Spatiotemporal control of temperature in nanostructures heated by coherent laser fields

We demonstrate theoretically that it is possible to exercise coherent control of the temperature in nanostructures by laser fields. In particular we show that by use of nanosecond laser pulses it is possible to induce a temperature distribution on a collection of nanoparticles which can last for up to thousands of nanoseconds before assuming the temperature of the environment. Although the form of the temperature distribution depends on the spatiotemporal control of the optical near field induced by the laser field, it is far from being proportional to the local radiation field at a particular point due to the cooling mechanisms which take place among the nanoparticles. We also show that it is possible to selectively heat a given target nanoparticle with adaptive control of the illuminating laser field without a nanoscale focus.

Analytic coherent control of plasmon propagation in nanostructures

We present general analytic solutions for optical coherent control of electromagnetic energy propagation in plasmonic nanostructures. Propagating modes are excited with tightly focused ultrashort laser pulses that are shaped in amplitude, phase, and polarization (ellipticity and orientation angle). We decouple the interplay between two main mechanisms which are essential for the control of local near-fields. First, the amplitudes and the phase difference of two laser pulse polarization components are used to guide linear flux to a desired spatial position. Second, temporal compression of the near-field at the target location is achieved using the remaining free laser pulse parameter to flatten the local spectral phase. The resulting enhancement of nonlinear signals from this intuitive analytic two-step process is compared to and confirmed by the results of an iterative adaptive learning loop in which an evolutionary algorithm performs a global optimization. Thus, we gain detailed insight into why a certain complex laser pulse shape leads to a particular control target. This analytic approach may also be useful in a number of other coherent control scenarios.