MRSEC Seminar

Nanophotonics with Surface Plasmons

Dr. Anatoly V. Zayats

Centre for Nanostructures Media, IRCEP
The Queen's University of Belfast, United Kingdom

Tuesday, November 13, 11:00 a.m.

Cook Hall 2058

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), the electromagnetic excitations coupled to collective motion of conduction electrons near a metal surface, are emerging as a new optical information carrier that enables signal manipulation and processing on the subwavelength scale. SPPs play a crucial role in determining optical properties of randomly rough and artificially structured metal surfaces and films, such as reflection, transmission, scattering, second-harmonic generation, surface enhanced Raman scattering, etc . Two-dimensional optics of surface polaritons has been developed that provides tools to manipulate and direct SPP waves on a metal surface. Various elements of SPP optics, such as mirrors, lenses, resonators, plasmonic lasers, planar waveguides have been implemented.

Periodically nanostructured metal films act as plasmonic crystals for surface plasmon polaritons, in analogy to photonic crystals for light waves. They have remarkable linear and nonlinear optical properties that can be tailored over a wide spectral range by tuning the geometry of the nanostructure as well as its material properties. Band-gap effects, enhanced optical transmission through plasmonic crystals, SPP waveguiding along straight and bent line defects in such crystals have also been demonstrated. Hybridization of plasmonic nanostructures with molecular species exhibiting nonlinear optical response allows the development of photonic components with the enhanced nonlinear response due to the electromagnetic field confinement related to surface plasmons.

In this talk the applications of plasmonic nanostructures to light guiding and manipulation in subwavelength photonic elements, the enhanced nonlinear functionalities and dispersion management using metallic nanostructures will be discussed. Surface-plasmon optics provides a basis for the implementation of novel photonic functionalities and development of a new class of active photonic devices for optical signal processing and all-optical integrated circuits. Numerous possible applications of surface plasmon polaritons can be envisaged in nanophotonics, classical and quantum optical information processing and optical communications as well as optical and magneto-optical data storage.

http://www.nano-optics.org.uk

Host: Professor Teri Odom, Chemistry