NBC News Scripts
WBAP-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.)
1954-12-31
Search results
17 records were found.
Active control over light nanofocusing in a nanorod plasmonic antenna coupled to a photonic crystal cavity is proposed and demonstrated by means of full-vectorial 3D simulations. By varying the excitation of the cavity with laser beam spot size allows us to achieve a gradual control over light nanofocusing at the tip of the nanoantenna. The demonstrated control mechanism eliminates the need for nonlinear effects or mechanical reconfiguration and represents a step towards the implementation of reliable tunable subwavelength light sources.
We study theoretically the cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) in broadband tapered plasmonic nanoantennas and demonstrate a 300-fold increase in nonlinear frequency conversion detected in the main lobe of the nanoantenna far-field pattern. This is achieved by tuning the elements of the nanoantenna to resonate frequencies involved into the FWM interaction. Our findings have a potentially broad application in ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, sensing, on-chip optical frequency conversion, nonlinear optical metamaterials and photon sources.
We propose and theoretically demonstrate a novel type of optical Yagi-Uda nanoantennas tunable via variation of the free-carrier density of a semiconductor disk placed in a gap of a metallic dipole feeding element. Unlike its narrowband all-metal counterparts, this nanoantenna exhibits a broadband unidirectional emission and demonstrates a bistable response in a preferential direction of the far-field zone, which opens up unique possibilities for ultrafast control of subwavelength light not attainable with dipole or bowtie architectures.
We suggest a source of polarization-entangled photon pairs based on a cross-shaped plasmonic nanoantenna driven by a single quantum dot. The integration of the nanoantenna with a metal mirror overcomes the fundamental tradeoff between the spontaneous emission (SE) enhancement and the extraction efficiency typical of microcavity- and nanowire-based architectures. With a very high extraction efficiency of entangled photons (≈90%) at 1.55 μm and large SE enhancement (≈90) over a broad 330-nm spectral range, the proposed design will pave the way toward reliable integrated sources of nonclassical light.
Conventional antennas, which are widely employed to transmit radio and TV signals, can be used at optical frequencies as long as they are shrunk to nanometer-size dimensions. Optical nanoantennas made of metallic or high-permittivity dielectric nanoparticles allow for enhancing and manipulating light on the scale much smaller than wavelength of light. Based on this ability, optical nanoantennas offer unique opportunities regarding key applications such as optical communications, photovoltaics, nonclassical light emission, and sensing. From a multitude of suggested nanoantenna concepts the Yagi-Uda nanoantenna, an optical analogue of the well-established radio-frequency Yagi-Uda antenna, stands out by its effi cient unidirectional light emission and enhancement. Following a brief introduction to the emerging fi eld of optical nanoantenn...
We suggest a multifrequency Yagi-Uda-type nanoantenna loaded with an array of tapered plasmonic nanorods. The arrays of director nanorods can be used for the excitation of the nanoantenna by emitters matched spectrally with their resonant frequency and placed in their near-field region. An overlap of multifrequency operating bands of the nanoantenna provides novel opportunities for broadband operation, and the same nanoantenna architecture can be employed both as a transmitter and/or as a receiver, thus being useful for broadband wireless communication.
We suggest a broadband optical unidirectional arrayed nanoantenna consisting of equally spaced nanorods of gradually varying length. Each nanorod can be driven by near-field quantum emitters radiating at different frequencies or, according to the reciprocity principle, by an incident light at the same frequency. Broadband unidirectional emission and reception characteristics of the nanoantenna open up novel opportunities for subwavelength light manipulation and quantum communication, as well as for enhancing the performance of photoactive devices such as photovoltaic detectors, light-emitting diodes, and solar cells.
We realize a new design of tapered Yagi-Uda nanoantennas and experimentally study their far-field light scattering. We show that in comparison with untapered structures the tapered nanoantennas exhibit broadband resonances featuring a distinct line shape. Our observations are supported by numerical calculations, which further reveal the tapered nanoantenna's wavelength-dependent optical near-field confinement.
The field of optical nanoantennas, a rapidly developing area of optics, is reviewed. The basic concept of an optical antenna is formulated and major characteristics relevant to this structure are identified. A classification of nanoantennas into metallic and dielectric (the latter including semiconductor nanoantennas) is made. For either category, the literature is reviewed and strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. The basics of nonlinear optical antennas are outlined. Future avenues of research and application areas for the field are highlighted, and its prospects are examined.
